I am not defending anyone in particiular... I am merely attempting to help you overcome your anti-Arab sentiments, which is obviously an impediment (via an introduction of bias) to your deeper understanding of global geopolictics... I used to be like you... I used to allow my anti-Islam and anti-Arab views to color my world view... gradually, as I became less and less narrow-minded, the blinkers were removed from my eyes, and the reality of what was really happening in the world became more and more apparent...
i'm not anti-arab... i'm not anti-any racial group... (and i'm not pro-any racial group either..) and although i'm certainly anti-islam, because the vast majority of muslims don't follow it to the letter, i certainly don't let the fact that someone might be a muslim affect my judgement to any great extent. having said that, i still prefer to call a spade a spade... so i think it's quite fair to say that muslim fundies are far more dangerous than your typical religious fundie (no shit!), they are probably more numerous (not sure of that) and that arabs, generally, have a greater propensity to bullshit (and are known for it).
Sentence of The Year Award- Richard Reid (I heard he couldn't lose, he was a shoe-in), he got the book thrown at him, life in prison without the possibility of early release, for a failed terrorism attempt. Hats off to the Judge that nailed him.
Hey Fairplay! Shouldn't you be posting your indignation about all these racist comments?!? Or are you stunned your Jedi Master Candle could possibly be joking about something like this?
Perhaps you should be condemning Daniel_M for his anti-Islam sentiments... My comments were made to bring a sense of perspective to narrow-minded xenophobic idiots and are not racist in the least... I used to be just like you guys... thank God I have broken free of my anti-Islam and anti-Arab blinkers... things are so much clearer... The world has become resigned to the fact that the USA will go into Iraq and implement her oil war... global fury will be justified, but perhaps good can come out of this... the pressure on America from the civilized world to stop stalling the birth of a Palestinian State will be relentless... So let's hope a Free Palestine emerges out of this mess, living side by side with Israel, each country respecting the other's territorial integrity... and this Palestine should consist of the entire West Bank, Gaza Strip and at least East Jerusalem... and the West Bank should be clear of Jewish settlements and Israeli military interference... Then, perhaps, there can be peace between the two great civilizations of the Jews and the Palestinians (which consist of both Christians - the original variety! - and of Muslims)... in due course, by the grace of God, there could be more than mere peace... perhaps there could be genuine harmony, which is what it should have been all along... God Bless humanity...
This post is only losely connected to this thread. I don't know whether your cable tv contains a BBC World channel. If it does, and if you haven't really seen this program, I must recommend 'Hard Talk' which has an interviewer called Tim Sebastion. I would think that this guy is the best, sharpest, most hardhitting, deepest probing interviewer you can possibly imagine. it is an absolute pleasure seeing how he goes about demolishing some of the prominent statesmen he interviews, exposing their deviousness, their lying through the teeth attitudes. Freealways
Here's a quote from Bush himself, "...the idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of the US vision in the Middle East, as long as the right of Israel to exist is respected." Of course, the Palestinian's in their lying, er...uh... negotiation-over-fixed-price-items-like-hamburgers culture, responded with: "Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis reacted with enthusiasm to Bush's statement. Most Palestinian factions questioned his motives. According to Moussa Abul-Marzouq, a Hamas leader, Bush's statement is just a 'manoeuvre aimed at deceiving the Palestinian National Authority and driving it to end the Intifada.' " Even prior to today, according to an article by Mohamed Sid-Ahmed (from whom the above quotes were also taken): "Although there was no mention of Clinton, knowledgeable sources say many of Bush's ideas are similar to those proposed by the former president at Camp David, while avoiding the pitfalls that provoked the breakdown of the talks at that time." I think that at some level the world does not want to give in to terrorist demands, therefore making those terrorist acts going back to 1948, deemed as successful. Unfortunately, had there been no terrorist acts whatsoever, talk of a Palestinian state would have been akin to the ludicrous suggestion that southern Florida Cubans were desirous of carving their own international boundaries out of that region. As far as your "blinders" comment in regard to Americans current distrust of middle easterners, every single terrorist act on commercial airliners in the last twenty years has been committed by Muslim fundamentalists.
it should be pointed out that arabs are only a very small minority in the vast muslim world. i wonder how daniel_m comes to the conclusion that ´the vast majority of muslims don´t follow it [islam/quran] to the letter´. there are at least as many muslim ´sects´as their are ´christian´ones who are all trying to find the truth in their respective holy books.
I think those people who utter that racist stuff are soilng themselves. I am just surprised that the majority of members here, who are Americans, do not stand up and tell these types to just shut up. Ignorance is usually the root of arrogance. If you want to destroy that little belief that I still have in America, go just ahead