Doug Taylor <
[email protected]> wrote:
>Mark Hickey <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Doug Taylor <
[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>The whole thing boils down to the 21st century version of the Crusades: a holy war between
>>>Christian and Muslim fundamentalists.
>>
>>Huh? If someone wants to mount a war against Islam, why would they attack freakin' Iraq? Hell,
>>Saddam is considered a heinous infidel to "the faithful".
>
>Well, Mark, the Bush Administration - which is fundamentalist Christian - has repeatedly connected
>or tried to connect Saddam and Iraq (unfaithful or not) to al Qaeda - which is fundamentalist
>Muslim. You can't have it both ways.
That makes it a "crusade"? I will respect your opinion, but have to say that this has NOTHING to do
with religion (at least not on the US side). As I've said many times, the reason we're in Iraq now
is that Iraq has WMD, terrorists want WMD, and Saddam has a history of supporting terrorists. The
fact those terrorists happen to be Muslim doesn't make this a war against Islam any more than our
action against Christian Serbia in defense of Croat Muslims made that a war against Christianity (or
had you forgotten that one?).
Or are you suggesting we don't go after terrorists and those who support them if they happen to be
Muslim, for the fear of someone using the "crusade card"?
The US government is hardly "fundamentalist Christian", regardless of GWB's personal faith. We're a
country governed by rule of law, and that's still in effect last time I looked.
<snipped a bunch>
>In my view, there is nothing more dangerous and frightening than true believers of ANY religion or
>political philosophy convinced that they have the "one right answer" trying to shove that down
>everyone else's throats. That's what terrorist do. That's what the Spanish Inquisition did. That
>what both Nazis as well as Communists tried to
>do. That's what the fundamentalist Christians want to do. Etc.
Hmmmm. When's the last time you heard about the US forcefully converting someone to Christianity?
I've read through the entire bible many times, and don't recall any call to kill non-Christians or
forcefully convert anyone. Do "fundamentalist Christians" have a belief they feel is right? Of
course. But so do Muslims and atheists.
>Well, that's not democracy. It's fascism. Whatever happened to separation between Church and State?
>I fear for this country and the world when foreign and domestic policy is dictated by religion and
>true believers
The separation between Church and State is narrowing as the State tries to control the Church (the
concept was put in place to prevent the opposite). To try to lay the current conflict at the feet of
Christianity is absurd. It's about self-protection in a world with enemies who would use terrible
weapons if they can. They could be from Mars from all 99% of the US citizens care.
Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame
