sadly its not only the religious that hold old hate and fear
( a good friend of mine is third generation Australian lebaneese and declares he is not religious_his father is a Drew ) but, my good friend spits as he mentions the word 'Israel' or 'Jewish' not one minute after he declares decorum a necessary and therefore permanent factor in ALL social interaction between civilized man.(Hmmmm?)

Let's get something straight here.

In 2007 most Muslim children are taught to hate Jews just as most Christian children were taught to hate Jews until a few decades ago. In that sense most Muslim children are taught the same drivel that Basmallah was coached into reciting on IQRAA TV. IQRAA TV, BTW, calls itself a specifically Muslim TV station.

What most people don't do is make a spectacle of their children on TV.

Apologists for Islam say that hatred for Jews is not part of Islam. They call it a "cultural practice" or blame it on Israel or say only a minority of Muslims hate Jews. My answer is that as a matter of plain fact hatred for Jews is rife throughout the Muslim world. Even non-religious people who grow up in a Muslim culture tend to hate Jews.

The only factor that distinguishes Basmallah from most other Muslim children is her appearance on TV.

Spare me the myth of a golden age in which Jews and Muslims lived side by side in harmony. There were times and places when Jews in Dar-ul-Islam were able to flourish. The same is true of Jews in Europe. But, by and large, Muslims treated kafirs as badly as Christians treated non-Christians.

What finally tipped the scales in favour of Europe was not that Christians got kinder but the emergence of a secular society in which the functions of religion and state were separated.

All that being said I do want to know what became of Basmallah. I have been writing to journalists in various parts of the world but have yet to receive a reply.

Pericles. I understand your point, no problem. But there are a few holes in it.

[And the other side of the coin is that only other categories of religious fanatic believe that it is the normal procedure, and that therefore EVERY Muslim is to be feared and hated.]

"EVERY"? have never said it nor will I.

I'm not interested in drumming up hate toward all Muslims, if I was, I'd not have Muslims friends or acquaintances, nor would I treat them warmly on a personal level.

Where I struggle with your analogies, is -they fail to recognize the core of the problem. I've often quoted 'National Socialism' as an ideology, where, by your reasoning, my criticism of their anti semitic ideas would be "engendering hate of ALL peaceful everyday National Socialists" (or 'Germans' to tighten the analogy)

Now..follow the finger.. the f i n g e r ... don't you see the problem here ?

I think you are saying "Islam is a much better idea_set than National Socialism", but I say its worse.

You are basically saying "Don't criticize an idea, if lots of people follow it, because you might make others hate them"

Now that is rather weak and illogical.

RED MOSQUE by allowing the 'ideas' of Islam to run free in Pakistan, and after just ONE act of reigning in of fanatics at one mosque, we have people popping out of the woodwork (as promised) and blowing themselves and others up all over the country.

So, unfortunately, one cannot condemn the radicals without condemning the ideas which drive them.

STEVEN... I'm nearly 60 and have never in my life been 'taught' to hate Jews, now that goes back quite a few 'decades'. If you make statements like that, please substantiate them for Australia, but without reference to the KKK or Aryan Brotherhood.
I also suggest that in the whole of evangelical Christianity the only emotion taught about Jews is one of affection.
Luther was a long time ago, and on his later life anti semitism, he was clearly misguided.

FH... how about Wednesday for our meeting ?

I suspect that whereever Basmallah is, and may her acting career prosper, she will do less harm that Erik Prince of Blackwater?

"And what’s really frightening is that you have a man in Erik Prince, who is a neo-crusader, a Christian supremacist, who has been given over a half a billion dollars in federal contracts, and that's not to mention his black contracts, his secret contracts, his contracts with foreign friendly governments like Jordan. This is a man who espouses Christian supremacy, and he has been given, essentially, allowed to create a private army to defend Christendom around the world against secularists and Muslims and others, and has really been brought into the fold. He refers to Blackwater as the sort of FedEx of the Pentagon. He says if you really want a package to get somewhere, do you go with the postal service or do you go with FedEx? This is how these people view themselves. And it embodies everything that President Eisenhower prophesied would happen with the rise of an unchecked military-industrial complex. You have it all in Blackwater."

achenne1

And your point is?

That is exactly the problem, Boaz.

>>I'm not interested in drumming up hate toward all Muslims<<

But that is precisely what you are doing, whether you are "interested" in it or not. At every opportunity, you harangue, lecture, berate, rant, preach and sermonize on the theme that Islam is evil.

This determination of yours can have only two results. In Muslims, it will generate concerns that they are being persecuted by Christians. In a certain class of non-Muslims, it will provide the stimulus to hate that they otherwise do not possess, encouraging them to see Muslims as being different, and therefore dangerous.

>>I've often quoted 'National Socialism' as an ideology, where, by your reasoning, my criticism of their anti semitic ideas would be "engendering hate of ALL peaceful everyday National Socialists"<<

You see? Even now, you are equating Islam with Hitler and the Nazis. And yet you still insist that you are "not interested in drumming up hate toward all Muslims".

>>I think you are saying "Islam is a much better idea_set than National Socialism", but I say its worse.<<

You just can't resist it, can you? Not content with equating them, you just have to go one step further. Islam, according to Boaz, is worse than Hitler's Nazis.

Even so, you still say that you cannot see that this is likely to upset people? Does it not occur to you that people might resent being described in this way? Does it not occur to you that you are providing racist thugs with the intellectual excuse they need to justify violence?

>>You are basically saying "Don't criticize an idea, if lots of people follow it, because you might make others hate them"<<

No, Boaz. I am saying that you are inciting hatred in others not by "criticism", but by a constant stream of vilification and denunciation.

It simply isn't on. You should take a good hard look at your actions, and try to be a little more honest with yourself about what you are doing.