Bonjour Mes Amis

I generally don't bother with forums other than as a mere observer, but there seems a sincerity and maturity here that's rare. And as a retired "brief", or "shyster", I actually got a kick out of Cheney's attempted fratricide and your comments about the survivor.

It is an interesting coincidence that I'm familiar with Colchester, (at least Colchester of the 1980's), and that my daughter is currently a student at NYU and living in Brooklyn. It surprised me how congenial the chat was between an Englishman and, I presume, an American, given some of the subject matter.

I am Canadian, from the Niagara area originally, and I felt a little reaction to your disapproval concerning the Athabaska tar sands. However, I take no offence, as the realities of an oil based world economy would call for such exploitation regardless of whom happened to be the closest to the particular resource.

So, a thousand salutations to both of you, the main contributors, and allow me to add my two cents, which were minted in 1953.

On the Cartoons

One of the things to keep in mind about the Muslims is that they really have no history or cultural foundation for a separation between religion and state. They genuinely have a hard time getting their heads around the fact of the freedom from censorship we know in the west. Of course, one must except the instigators, this was much too focused to be a "genuine" reaction, not to mention the fact that these same cartoons appeared in Al Fagr, an Arab language newspaper, in Cairo last October with no discernable reaction.

https://www.di2.nu/files/Muhammed_Car...ds_Posten.html

Does that fact cause you to wonder? No protests or boycotts occurred in Egypt. Was it not insulting then and there?

The gauling issue to me is the general intolerance for things
non-Islamic whether it's ancient Bhuddist statues in Afganistan, or the institutions of the west. When that is coupled with the efforts of Iran to build nuclear weapons it makes the US policy of pre-emption seem unfortunately necessary.

I do not hold these views as a Christian, Hindu or as a member of any sect. I wish only to live in peace without intimidation. The world, in my lifetime, has become too small not to find a rational way to coexist with the Gods of various cultures.

That should be obvious to all, so the next question must be: "To what end is discord being fomented?" Is there such a long term strategy that we are unable to divine it? Unfortunately, again the seeds of future conflict have been and are being sown in the Islamic schools known as Madrasas. So, for the forseeable future, I would guess that there will be an over supply of fanatics.

https://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21654.pdf

Islam is not a centrally organised faith in the manner that Catholicism, or Baptist Conventions are: this is no Pope or Archbiishop of Canterbury to promulgate a "party line" to keep adherents on beam. This is another fact that is hard to understand for westerners because there is not one voice to stand up and say either, this or that, is or is not, official Muslim creed.

To conclude on the Islamic points, I do think that reform has to come for the sake of the faithful. And I'm not talking about central Islamic tenents, rather, there has to be some form of leadership developed so that violent rogue groups, of all faiths, can be marginalized. The clashes with Hindus, Jews, and Christians as well as the monumental insult to the Bhuddists should be sufficient to make thinking people take notice that the current laissez-faire approach to administering Islam and the responses to it are costing lives. Indeed, such a dialogue should and will have to include other major faiths so that some protocol exists for redressing issues. What has to be abandonned is the underlying attitude on all sides that no one's faith but one's own is legitimate.

Am I blaming Muslims? No! I point to the lack of a clear indication of what Islam stands for in the lives of those who bear me and my family no ill will. The condemnation of insults might well then be issued, the point made and taken without the response that confirms every prejudice about Islam's irrationality thereby driving people further apart.

Violence and terror must be condemned as political tools. The lesson of Palestine's ultimate self determination must be achieved by dialogue not terror and reprisal.

Is that going to happen? It had better.

Perhaps we should all just focus on hunting lawyers.