Comments on: Comments on 10944

Post number 10944

y2karl — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 00:03:34 -0800

From the essay by Ziauddin Sardar: Scroll 2/3 of the way down--it's from I.S.I.S. The Institute For Islamic Secularization A Call for Caution and Prudence * We need free inquiry of the religious premises of the growing conflagration. * We need rational debate of the questionable premises of a "holy war" or jihad. * We need a rational debate of the biblical call for retribution. * We call upon the United States not to act unilaterally and to petition the United Nations to establish a peace-keeping force. * All terrorists when apprehended should be brought to the World Court at the Hague and put on trial. * The basic constitutional civil liberties of America should not be abrogated. --Perhaps we're all best off with the godless making the rules?

By: Katy Action

Katy Action — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 00:13:16 -0800

Didn't we have a "holy war" when the other Bush was in office?

By: MAYORBOB

MAYORBOB — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 06:18:41 -0800

Katy, On our part, that was a multinational effort to get Iraq to disengage from Kuwait and make the Emirate safe for democracy. On Iraq's part, that was the "mother of all battles" to keep us from disengaging them from their southern provinces. It's really all a matter of how much you wish to rely upon either Washington spin or Saddam's hyperbole.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 09:23:01 -0800

We made Kuwait safe for monarchy, BOB, not democracy.

By: MAYORBOB

MAYORBOB — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 09:24:40 -0800

nic, I know that. Ergo the allusion to Washington spin.

By: Wet Wednesday

Wet Wednesday — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 09:31:12 -0800

Put this in the hands of the UN and it will become a bureaucratic inaction.

By: scottfree

scottfree — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 14:06:37 -0800

Read the piece by Ibn Warraq on this same site. Though it is evident he has an axe to grind, he makes some very valid points about the foundations of Islam and the ideology that moderate Muslims AND the West need to combat. If what he writes is true, this is not a live and let live ideology.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Sun, 30 Sep 2001 15:16:05 -0800

Have any of you read Greg Bear's The Strength Of Stones? Underlying premise: all monotheists, Jews, Muslims & Xtians kicked off terra firma for troublemaking & general threat to humanity and exiled to planet where all are installed in automated cybercities that promptly kick all humans out on grounds of unworthiness...And people talk about Nostradamus...

By: yesster

yesster — Mon, 01 Oct 2001 07:46:09 -0800

The separation of religion and politics is essential for the following reasons: 1. Individuals must not only have the freedom of religion, but also the freedom from religion (by choice). 2. If a religious dogma is taken to be the foundation of all public policy decisions, then the legislative process becomes an exegetical debate. We get religious scholars debating interpretation of the dogma, rather than legislators debating the effectiveness of policy options. As a matter of general principle, I would prefer that US foreign policy support governments that are secular, regardless of political system (communist, socialist, etc.), rather than support democratic governments that are theocratic.