Dear Is Mise,

Muslims are very prominent in the media.
Debates rage about various Islamic topics
or topics that invariably involve Muslims.
Most people have an opinion. Many base their
opinions on the actions or words of people
who call themselves Muslims but actually
have very little knowledge about their
religion. I believe in sound knowledge and
research.

If you feel you have that then I trust you
will use it towards the greater good.

Hi Joe, you make a very good point. The Christian God has not been static in nature, but dynamic. Over the past few hundred years main stream Christianities interpretation of the nature of God has undergone change. God has been transformed from a hateful, vengeful being, ever ready to punish, to a more benign merciful loving deity, full of forgiveness. Possibly the Islamic God is yet to undergo that level of change, and is still intent on the punishment of mankind for his perceived sins.
Of course we could say God is not real, and this is the figment of mans imagination., figment or not, what is real is the consequences of what takes place in gods name. I believe Islam lacks the enlightenment that has taken place within Christianity over time. It may eventually progress to a position where it to is more inclusive than now, but that appears to be a long way off for some adherents. Thes godly changes do not come about so much from within the religion itself, but from progressive secular pressure from outside, enlightenment is through education and self improvement. No accident the better adjusted devotees are also the better educated.

Hi Paul,

Yes, but some ideologies have what you might say faster dynamics than others, that Enlightemnment-oriented ideologies - with all their inevitable imperfections - are - somewhat helter-skelter - developing, evolving, progressing at a much faster rates than others which might still be embedded in pre-industrial economies, in pre-Enlightenment ideologies and religious beliefs. Those different rates of change portend growing disparities, not some sort of coming together, so a hell of a lot of future conflict.

I hope that, in all religious thought-systems, dissidents develop enough influence to break them down and allow their erstwhile adherents, slowly and probably painfully, to move away from magic and religion, towards rationality and more reliance on evidence and reality. It's not fool-proof: our politicians don't seem to live in a world of rationality and evidence, or even reality. But we can hope.

Cheers,

Joe

Foxy,

"If you feel you have that then I trust you
will use it towards the greater good."

That's why I would ban the political movement that is Islam.

Not all Muslims are fundamentalists and many, many Muslims just want a peaceful life but moderate Muslims will be told what to do and to follow the Qur'an literally by the fundamentalists and they, the moderates, are going to do what they are told, even if only through fear for their lives.

I have, as I have mentioned previously, a very good Muslim friend in India (we soldiered together) and he is firmly of the opinion, in private, that Australia is damned stupid to allow a Muslim community within its borders and he is a devout moderate follower of the Prophet; he is however politically astute.

Dear Paul,

Well said.

Here is what Prof. Tor Hundloe has to say:

" Let us not forget the Islamic scholars who
preserved much of the works of the great Greeks.
These were saved in Baghdad, translated, re-
translated and transmitted to Muslim Spain. These
texts started to become available to the west with
the defeat and expulsion of the Moors (Muslims) in
what was then known as Andalusia".

"What would society be like today if we had lost that
once-in-millennium era of Greek philosophy?
Would the Enlightenment have occurred? Or would we only
today be in the initial phase in inventing democracy,
law, science, and ethics? The answer must be "probably
yes". New ideas - better ideas - build on old ideas".

"Ideas can be lost and can be destroyed. Dark Ages resurface.
Dictators burn books because it is possible to destroy
the building blocks of civilisation. All these things
happened in the Dark Ages. Yet classical science and
philosophy was saved to be built upon. We did not have
to start from scratch".

"Today we might have very serious concerns with the
fundamentalist fringe of Islam - - but we
should never forget the role of the Muslim scholars of
1000 or so years ago. These people discovered (just as some
of their Christian counterparts did) that scholarship was
possible in an ostensibly religious environment. In that
particular era religious scholars were literate and they
lived off society's economic surplus".

"As long as scholarship is not destroyed, and scholars are
fed, clothed, and housed, progress is possible. That the
progress was going to occur in what had been the backwater as
far as Muslims were concerned, the West - rather than the
Muslim lands- set the scene for the "so-called" clashes of
civilisation of the early 21st century".

"The two cultures were set to diverge dramatically, one
pursuing progress based on Greek philosophy, science and
politics, the other regressed from its high point of
scholarship, art and invention and stagnated in a mire of
Old Testament beliefs and AD 700 desert culture".

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

We can only hope.

You're right.

Dear Is Mise,

Thanks for that.

I am optimistic that our government will do the right
thing by all of its citizens. Some people can try to
upset things in this country but as long as we insist
on the rule of law for all - hopefully we shall not
have too many problems.