I am not really very knowledgeable about local religions, philosophies of The Middle East BUT they seem to have been in constant turmoil interspersed with bloody massacres and conflicts since Roman times.
It might help if they ranted on about peaceful pursuits for a change. or is violence so embedded into their culture they are unable to stop fighting ?
You're on very thin ice there Pat:
Firstly, Christianity originates right in the middle or yer Middle East and wot wiv himself being a Jew = Semite = the same ethnic group as yer Ayrab. The modern connotations of Jews being Semites and Arabs
not came about thanks to some creative reworking of the term into what then became Judaism and later still the foundation of our charming Aryan friends' foray into anthropological fiction and genocide.
...so, enough (already) of the origins of the Christian cretins - amusingly (to me anyway) the root of the word "cretin" is Franco-Provençal and meant simply "christian". In more modern times, if you're on a quest for Holy violence and massacre, you don't have look further than the long drawn out inter-Christian slaughter that took place in the Europe of the 100 years war and which continued right up to the end of the 18th century in various regions. And we mustn't forget those brave Christian souls in the USA, who (dressed or not in their jaunty pointed hats and bearing their ironic flaming crosses) thought it a Moral and Right Thing to do in stringing up defenceless black people right up to the 1960s. Violence schmiolence.
Auto-Rant is now partly disengaged so I can address yr point directly. Astounding as you may find it, the vast majority of Moslems want to live a peaceful life doing exactly the same things as the vast majority or Christians or Jews. There is undeniable friction where the clash of cultures results in flash-points - Bush senior's observation that he couldn't understand what US oil was doing under Arab sand and which then resulted in a war that is still going on in one form or another....and then there's the brilliant idea that some liberal Frenchman had of importing wholesale a culture that simply does not accept the values of the French République - never did, doesn't now and possibly never will ...and then tempting providence and extremists by permitting and sanctioning acts of graphical satire that anyone with a spare neurone would understand as being deeply offensive and provocative. The claim that this
offence belongs in the Middle ages is a hollow as it is spurious as trials for blasphemy took place within living memory - certainly in mine and I'd hazard in yours as well.
I feel a lot better now. T2W is so therapeutic - I find some rubbish posting and a bottle of red really sets me up for trading. Currently long CAC and regretting it already.
