resonse to Kurtlane

Submitted by K.H. Ahmed (United States), Apr 9, 2008 at 09:30

First, I would suggest you read my response to Infidel. Second, I understand what you are saying - but you need to understand depending upon the culture not all of your questions have clear good-bad answers. Is Democracy good or bad in a country like Iraq which really isn't a country but a mixed polygot of ethnic groups who had borders imposed upon them by Europeans a good place for Democracy - probably not.

Seperation of church and state, hell we struggle with it with our own fanatics trying to impose their morality on everyone else. Demonizing the Jewish people good or bad as far as I'm concerned it's just stupid an excuse leaders use to cover up their own failures. The rest read your old scripture most of these punishments are found in the old testament, they are old Jewish law as much of the sharia in Islam is related to the old law.

It's not which religion is better - it is a question of recognizing the other culture and basing your policy on knowing what motivates the people you are dealing with - too often on these pages I see nothing but tirades against Islam and how wonderful Christianity is - frankly I am not interested in anyone's religion outside of how it effects this countries relationship with the other culture.

Is it in any of our self interests to insult the Prophet, is it in anyones self interest to insult Jesus Christ, is it in anyones self interest to insult the monkey worshiping Hindi? The fact is most people don't know what they are insulting and most don't even know what they are worshipping. All I am saying is that people such as Mr. Pipes and the current administration paternalize the struggle that we are involved in. And as long as we take the position that we are superior we are feeding into the very thing that extremists are so damn fired up about.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".