For the last couple of days I've been pondering the following two articles. The first is Muslim Scholar Upholds Christian Presence in Middle East. The Muslim scholar was invited to a Vatican conference on the Middle East. He said at the conference that :
But the more interesting article was the linked one at the end of the first, introduced this way:
"The emigration of Christians is an impoverishment of the Arabic identity, of its culture and authenticity," said Sammak, who is an advisor to Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. He added that maintaining the Christian presence in the Middle East was a "common Islamic duty as much as a common Christian duty."How often do we hear this sort of thing? Maybe some Muslims, just like some non-Christians see the value of Christianity among them, even though they do not wish to take that step themselves.
But the more interesting article was the linked one at the end of the first, introduced this way:
Those who have studied the roots of the violent conflicts in the Middle East have usually found that they stem not mainly from religious differences, but from the creation of terrorist organizations by secular agents sent to the Middle East from communist nations to exploit those historic differences to advance their own agenda of world domination.What's disturbing in this second article is the inference that Russia has taken up the old USSR's unfinished business. While everyone is looking at Islam, those that pull the strings continue their work, unnoticed.
For background information about how terrorists in the Middle East have been supported by communist states, see William F. Jasper’s exposé, “No State Sponsors, No Terror,” published here on August 18, 2009.
Andrei, yes, totally agree about who ultimately pulls the strings.
ReplyDeleteThe thesis that Moscow is behind Islamic terrorism is bogus.
ReplyDeleteRussia is subject to it. 29 people were killed in a suicide bombing on the Moscow metro in March this year and another 17 died and over 200 injured in a suicide bombing in Vladikavkaz just last month.
What about the old USSR? What if it started back there and now runs by itself?
ReplyDeleteIt predates the USSR.
ReplyDeleteIn WW1 Lawrence of Arabia urged the Arabs to revolt against the Ottomans, atrocities were committed.
The Muslim Brotherhood more or less grew from that.
And before that the British and the French stirred up trouble for Russia in Dagestan during the Crimean war.
And before that the French stirred up Indian tribes to revolt against the British Americans and massacres of whole settlements occurred in the Americas as well as inciting Muslim violence in British India and so forth.
The breakup of Yugoslavia with all the human misery that entailed was incited and encouraged by the EU to weaken Russian influence in the Balkans and increase theirs.
Major powers do that sort of thing all the time.
Yes, historically Islam has been militant, it's the benign sort that's the exception.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's what happens when your religion is founded by a fellow who advanced it by the point of the sword.
You really need quotation marks when referring to the Chechen "parliament."
ReplyDelete