The Egyptians have suspended talks with the Vatican that were planned for a couple of weeks back.
Funny thing about the Crusades, they were a Western response to almost 400 years of Muslim aggression. We really should be getting an apology for all the invasions of Christian lands over the last 1,400 years and all the recent terrorist attacks in the name of Islam. But somehow, I don't see that coming any time soon.
Related link: After setback in dialogue with Islam, Vatican official entrusts talks' future to God
A two-day meeting between the Vatican and an Egyptian institute of Sunni Islam set for Feb. 23-24 was suspended. Egyptian officials have said unofficially that the future of dialogue hinges on an apology from the Pope.They still have a problem with the Holy Father condemning attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt. The fall of Mubarak has not changed this line.
The bombing of the Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt after a New Year's Mass nearly two months ago was the first in a series of events that led to the suspension.Looks like Egypt is worried the West in going to step in. Which could be why they are also calling for an apology for the Crusades! They also want an apology for the Pope's Regensburg address and a condemnation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
In the days that followed, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the attack and called for greater religious liberty in Egypt and protection for all citizens. His words appear to have been perceived by the government through media reports as possible calls for a western action in the country.
Funny thing about the Crusades, they were a Western response to almost 400 years of Muslim aggression. We really should be getting an apology for all the invasions of Christian lands over the last 1,400 years and all the recent terrorist attacks in the name of Islam. But somehow, I don't see that coming any time soon.
Related link: After setback in dialogue with Islam, Vatican official entrusts talks' future to God
Looks like Egypt is worried the West in going to step in
ReplyDeleteThey stepped in long ago, with Egypt getting over 2 billion a year in funding from the USA since 1979.
What's got them worried is that the USA, after 32 years of funding, has a 64 billion dollar question for them now: Are they going to behave or will the funding have to be stopped.
Remember, 1979 was when Egypt struck a peace deal with Israel, and the USA helped that along.
Ultimately, we don't care if Egypt is ruled by a dictator or by the people, we just want stability and world peace.
Egypt playing hardball with the Vatican and bringing the Crusades into it is just an attempt to get the whiney Western liberals who haven't bothered much with history and all that other stuff that happened in the past to figure out a long time ago we didn't want to be converted to Islam.
And apart from a far too many idiotic liberals who think they are immune to bad things happening, I'd say most of the Western World still doesn't want to convert to Islam, even if we are making it easy for them.
We shouldn't be apologising for this. The USA might want to consider switching Egypt's funds over to Israel to make the point a little clearer.
Apologise for the Crusades? Sure. Just as soon as muslims apologise for Beslan and 9/11.
ReplyDeleteZT port said: "Ultimately, we don't care if Egypt is ruled by a dictator or by the people, we just want stability and world peace."
ReplyDeleteUmm, is this typical ZT satire, or serious?
Lets rephrase changing one word:
"Ultimately, we don't care if New Zealand is ruled by a dictator or by the people, we just want stability and world peace."
Sorta sounds a bit silly now, doesn't it?
Hi Sean. When I said "we don't care" I meant us as a collective where our will is expressed in the actions of the State. Of course, as individuals we care like we cared deeply about Rwanda but did nothing meaningful in the days leading up to the masacre. Like we care individually about the ongoing human rights abuses in North Korea but the State has her hands tied when it comes to ending them. Like we care about Libyans but seemingly not until a month ago and how we care about Egyptians but for the last 32 years were happy that they were considered stable
ReplyDeleteI don't see any democracy springing out of Egypt either. I see more persecution of the Coptics and Egypt deginerating into brutality until they throw off the yoke of fundamentalist Islam. It is incompatible with democracy
To continue with the "we" word, did you know that we have pumped in 64 billion dollars in military gear, economic development seed money, health programmes, democracy programmes etc into Egypt since 1979 via the USA "we"? I bet they've also had money via the UN and Europe. What did they do with that support? Not anything more than gear up to take more and demand more, as we see in the post above. All we've done is arm a society that will consider all foreign aid and investment as blood libel (to borrow a phrase that gets a few American progressives excited) and then we individually get excited we might be seeing the glimmerings of democracy. I don't think it is a glimmer of anything other than the light off a sword and the reaction of the USA at the state level will be to accept anything that brings stability to the region because they full well understand that even stability is a major win for the world. Although I'd suggest temporary stability like we've had in Egypt over the last 30 years may not have been worth it. Maybe stopping all forms of aid and telling them their oil rich sheik masters can fund a fairer society would yield a better long term result.
ReplyDeleteSorry you guys chucked a mental and undertook a methodical and deliberate agressive expansion into other peoples coutnries untill after several hundred years we finnaly got angry enough to take it BACK and you saw what happens when you push your luck too far.
ReplyDeleteGive the concept some thought.