Not encouraging, but worth debating between optimists, pessimists, and people who have been there

Submitted by GK (United States), Jan 16, 2006 at 22:12

The professor's comments make me think of something written by Lawrence of Arabia. Sure the idea is to get all the elders in a tent and try to reach a consensus, but if there is a popular strongman, then outliers are likely to get their heads cut off. Whether or not the religion is checked at the door.

Islam, for all its beauty at Eid and in almsgiving to the needy has a very primitive and uncivilized edge of intolerance built-in. If Mr. Singh mentions the attampts to liberalize Islam in India, he hits a good point. I have Muslim and Hindu friends from India, and I have to say that my Muslim Indian friends have been unique in distancing themselves from extreme points of view, although if given a Hindu v. Muslim debate they'd gravitate toward the Muslim view all the time. My Hindu friends are condidioned by the lack of willingness of Muslims to give any ground or compromise. Their willingness to compromise is tempered by their expectation that the other will never budge.

We can be either pessimists or optimists. But like Shivkumar Singh, we all ought to be better observers of the facts exctly as they present themselves.

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