To Ianus - Caught in the cross fire

Submitted by Michel (United States), Mar 1, 2007 at 18:30

Sorry Ianus - you were certainly not meant, when I responded to Plato.

I do not know, to what extent you have followed the "debate" with Dhimmi, Susan or Noah, but it got rather nasty.

I only saw one ( very well written) response of yours to Plato about the Ottoman Empire. Nothing I could possibly disagree with, as you certainly know your history.

As far as I am concerned, I am not Muslim, but a Swiss/US Citizen of Jewish origin. I am neither a Muslim lover nor Christian hater. I am quite actually a republican adopting democratic stands on several issues.

I tried to have a pragmatic discussion, but ended up attaked on a personal level. Supporting evidence for my admittedly moderate stands was dismissed or not even reacted to.

Exactly because I have experienced my own father waking up with nightmares 40 years after the concentration camps, do I sttrongly oppose similar approaches to Muslims (with specific focus on US domestic Muslims). Their language, depicting all Muslims wihtout exceptions as depraved, evil, fanatic and subversive goes way too far for my taste.

Dhimmi himself confirmed that he would never honor any Muslim so ever with a constructive dialogue.

Noah intends to round them up, ban their religion and deport them. Nukes for the middle east.

Susan? - That lady is completely consumed by hatred....gone.

Plato and I on the other side do believe in the existence of moderate muslims, even though they may well be a minority at present. We both try to assume an objective viewpoint, acknowledging our own culture;s shortcomings and history and then try to approach Islam with a bit of consideration for our own flaws.

Why is this so bad? Why labelling us as escapists? Just because we try to analyze the issue a bit deeper and call for more restraint and tailored approaches, so history may not be repeated?

Putting 1.5B Muslims globally into one single cliche drawer, then call for ban, deportation, eradication does sound like Goebbels, does it not?

Is there really no difference between a Turkish Muslim and a Pakistani, a domestic converted black Muslim or an Algerian? The same radical approaches for all of them?

I really do not care what the ancient book (Quran) says. I sure do care about the interpretation by the various shades and groups of Muslims. The ones who see Djihaad as free pass for terrorism - hell yes - lets oppose them by all means necessary . The others who understand it as internal struggle towards bettering themselves - good for them. These are the ones we should embrace.

I myself found much evidence for the existence of these latter Muslims. The reality here in the USA clearly shows that it is these people who make the majority. To call for ban and deportation is not only ridiculous, repeats the mistakes of our own past, it is also simply not feasible, current political, economic, ethical and moral frame conditions considered.

Having established that - so why not look for a more pragmatic, structured way to alleviate the wide-spread paranoia?

If that makes me an escapist, so be it.

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