Dave Smith > wrote in
:

> Michel Boucher wrote:
>
>> zxcvbob > wrote in
>> :
>>
>> > But here's the
>> > key: Were they violent demonstrations? If so (and I serously
>> > doubt it), how widespread were they?
>>
>> Why are you so intent on bringing this back to violence, as
>> though the Western world has not caused violence to Islam time
>> and time again? If you tally up the violence to Islam by
>> Westerners and the violence to Westerners by Islam, I think
>> you'll find they still have a lot of wiggle room before the
>> scales are even.
>
> That is going to need some explaining. Are you going back to the
> Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition? Some times you just have to
> get past the things done in the past by people of 20 -100
> generations past.

I mean within my lifetime, so since the end of World War II.

> Every time you turn around there is a different excuse for middle
> east anger.

Maybe you, but I've always felt it was one reason. Total Western
disregard for Islamic sensitivities from the very beginning, going as
far as commiting or supporting acts of violence against sovereign
islamic states in breach of international treaties.

>> I think you have to ask yourself, who at this juncture, stands to
>> benefit the most from these series of events? Motive is
>> everything and some people's ship of state has recently sprung a
>> leak.
>
> I think what we need to ask ourselves is if we want to surrender
> our personal rights and freedoms to the rantings of a bunch of
> fundamentalists, the sort that would go on a violent rampage over
> some harmless drawings, or are we prepared to offer out support to
> a government who has a record of standing up for personal rights
> and freedoms.

I don't think there's any danger of the West becoming islamicized
before it gets well and truly cornholed by the religious right which
is among us. Again, who stands to benefit the most? Come on. It
ain't that hard.

--

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why
the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

Dom Helder Camara