I think

Submitted by George peterson (Egypt), Oct 13, 2008 at 13:11

Again, what you have just done jim is questioned the honesty of someone who has simply stated his opinion. You postulated, sans evidence, that since he is a muslim and his opinions are 'somewhat' more moderate, then he must be lying because what he really wants is to spread Islam by the sword. Hmm, you also stated that muslims are under the notion that any land that they had once ruled over will forever be muslim land -that statement is highly debatable since obviously muslims are not making a claim over spain- but that's besides the point, jews and some christians believe that the holy land is their birth right, something the muslims equally share.

Now, here lies the sticking point, sadly, both can't lay claim to it without the other side objecting, and since we know who is superior militarily we know who is closer to achieving that unilaterally. But, again, the issue of Israel and palestine is highly complex and I believe the right people should be discussing this matter i.e the Israelis and the palestines without freedom loving foreigner's blindly weighing in on what should and shouldn't be. ( that includes it's arab neighbors, who have no say in the matter).

Apart from that, I blame both sides for not debating the issues in a more civilized way, hearing each other's points of view, without the loud discussions and finger pointing that most of these arguments seem to entail. In most cases the anti-islam advocate blasts it as being backward, barbaric and inciteful to violence and the Islamic cleric goes into a rampage about how it was the western governments foreign policies are to blame and miscommunicates his arguments because he is forced into a corner lashing out. Then again, maybe its a human thing, since animals don't allegedly worship God under different names and then pick fights over him.

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