Dear King Hazza,

Oil will continue to affect the US and
European relations with countries where
Islamic fundamentalist movements exist.

However, the US is increasingly looking
to Nigeria and other countries in West
Africa as a source for oil imports to
offset reliance on the Middle East,
a relationship that the current administration
fears will be threatened by increasing Islamic
fundamentalism in the region.

Dear Examinator,

The vast majority of modern mainstream Christians,
Jews, and Muslims seek a better life on earth, rather
than seeking it in heaven. Modern people are not
waiting for Armageddon, or a future coming of a
saviour. Nor are they waiting for anything else that
exercises the theological minds of fundamentalists.

We must keep in mind that the religiously minded modern
person is not a 'card-carrying' fundamentalist.
The latter are a tiny minority.

Today's fundamentalists were taught to be bad people,
yet they believe they are good people - God's chosen
ones, whether Jew, Christian, or Muslim.

However humanity cannot afford to have fundamentalists
with their fingers on the nuclear-war button. It's for
that reason that the Western response to Islamic
fundamentalism is so crucial. The challenge as I've
stated previously for the US and other Western countries
will be to deal with the complexities within fundamentalist
Islam and within Islam itself. Whether to choose to use
military strength to stop fundamentalist movements or to
exercise diplomacy to encourage more open political
processes and economic development in Muslim countries.

The task is not an easy one.

Religious fundamentalists usually can't be stopped by reasoned
discussion. But, they may be influenced by a change in
Western actions as King Hazza suggests in his posts.

Anyway, so much for this sad state of affairs in our
world today.

cont'd ...

Dear Examinator,

I forgot to Thank You for the compliment.

The explanation may be due to the fact
that Librarians are Happy Bookers and infomaniacs! :-)
(And they don't shrill. They shush).

My other car is a bookmobile!

Pynchme
In truth you are right and incomplete, yes the Muslim scholars did borrow from others but in the same way all knowledge is from others and *added* to.

Objective question for you to consider "*why* was it so important for the 'Christians' to regain land that they took in the first case?"

Foxy,
re your argument that the majority aren't waiting for Armageddon or the heavenly reunion.
I think you're confusing the symptom with the cause.

I ask the question *why* do the fundies *want to* believe in this?
One could objectively ask the same about a country, a culture et sec.

What is the payoff to believe in a God at all? The answer this and the above is that it fulfills an emotional need. The problem is when either side of this belief structure tries to proselytize. force their views onto another.

To do so means that you are subverting their identity and that *is* a threat to a people, religion, culture and so on. The greater the threat the higher the resentment and aggressive/dogmatic (fundamental) the response.

We Aussies don't take our selves that seriously, except when the criticisms come from someone outside the faith/belief that we are the greatest nation on earth. We'll defend our embarrassing yobbos *because they are ours*. One can extrapolate that across most conflicts.

The yanks continue with their superiority based hegemony via proxies and other less subtle means. Justifying the hegemony on the grounds that it is essential to their culture.

In the final analysis reasoning is not the answer on its own but as a vector to become aware of what is important to others. Then ACT ACCORDINGLY. Clearly this is a long way off but a good start is both diplomacy and educating both and being less narcissistic as a nation.

Hi Zam,

The point is that innovation has been antithesis to the cultural grain for several centuries. Instead of romanticizing we should be honest and realistic about history and current events.

As for the Crusades, I have read a range of reasons for reclaiming conquered territories, including to alleviate the persecution of Christians in the occupied lands. They were persecuted terribly. However, for many centuries everyone endured terrible turbulence and conflict. I think most wars boil down to economics; however, power struggle between religious and political ideologies could also have been factors; as could prevention of Muslim expansion.

Anyway, I think this speaker expresses some of the issues that concern me, esp from approx 3.20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ough-e6ThWE

Brave woman.

Dear Pynchme,

Have you read any of the works of -
Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

"The Caged Virgin,"
(A Muslim Woman's Cry for Reason).

Or -

"Infidel,"
(A profoundly affecting memoir
which tells her astonishing life story
from her traditional Muslim childhood
in Somalia to her intellectual awakening
in the Netherlands, to her life under
armed guard in the West).

Both are a "must" reads!

"It's for that reason that the Western response to Islamic fundamentalism is so crucial." foxy.

foxy started this thread on Islamic fundamentalism but failed to see beyond 9/11.

Islam is not only a big problem faced by the West but by each and every non-Muslim country in the world today.

How do you account for the recent 2008 Mumbai Massacre?

How do you account for the burning of churches in Malaysia because the pre-Islamic Arab word 'allah' is used to mean 'god'? Since the early 1900's the word 'allah' has been used by the Malay-speaking Christians in Malaya and Borneo.

That frequent church burning by Muslims in Islamic countries is caused by the West?

The common denominator for all these acts of killing and vandalism is the ideology of Islam. The script for Islamic terrorism is contained in the Qu'ran.

Get rid of the mosques, Islamic schools and imams in the West and a large proportion of threat posed by Islam terrorism would dissappear