Dancing in the streets

Submitted by Sword of Islam (United Kingdom), Mar 3, 2006 at 17:23

Hi JustMe,

The celebrations actually took place in Pakistan, Iran, Palestine amongst many others, so it's reasonably clear that this was a spontaneous expression of genuine joy. If it were orchestrated I wouldn't have batted an eyelid as we're used to seeing such gatherings in Tehran, etc where it is compulsory for state employees to participate in such gatherings. It was the transparent sincerity of these celebrations that any Muslims who may feel 'persecuted' should look to when asking 'why do these people hate/fear us?'

As for the religious aspects of things the fundamental problem is that the madrassas around the world where this hardcore fundamentalism takes root is populated by the children of the poor and consequently the only education that many hardliners receive. The terrible irony being that these institutions are generally funded by the Saudi Arabia - birthplace of Wahhabism, the chosen brand of Islam followed by hardliners such as Bin Laden - and funded with money that the Saudi's receive from the West for their oil! We won't even bother to go into the legions of disaffected, unemployed youth in Europe who would rather blame their poor record of integration on prejudice from the Infidel community rather than their inability to integrate as a cause.

Suffice it to say that discussion of religion serves little purpose. What can it achieve? Unless it serves to 'convert' somebody all it does is reinforce the commonly held belief that any secular action that is perceived as prejudicial to a minority religion is motivated by a religious rather than social motivation. If people 'take the bait' and get drawn into religious discussions then it only goes to support the commonly held belief that the actions in the Middle East by the West are part of a religious Crusade rather than a geopolitically motivated action. People are rarely rational where religion is involved so anybody looking for real answers to the questions that we have will find the tiny chance of actually getting a straight answer diminished even further if they get bogged down in the particular part of the equation!

Keep up the good work.

Sword

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