On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 15:28:24 -0600, 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.

Nah...the west has only had an advantage since the colonial era &
petrochems...and do you recall exactly when the Ottoman Empire fell?
Not too long ago, right? It took them awhile to shrink back towards
Turkey, but by golly, they had made it to Austria at some point. The
Bosnians are their descendents.

Though I am never one to claim that the colonial powers were deserving
of any praise, nor the puppets dangled by the US to meets its own
goals worthy of anything but scorn, Islam is quite capable of
mishandling itself and perpetuating its own horrors on its own people
as well as others of the same religion. Is the scale as large? Not
these days, but certainly history bears this out.

Do you think the Taliban were kindly to their own? How tolerant were
they of those who did not thik in lockstep? How about what goes on in
Darfur? How much did Yassir Arafat & his thugs steal from the
Palestinian people, how do the Saudi royals treat their citizens? Do
you like how sharia law treats women in Africa?

You are talking about disparate tribes and groups who have been
warring with each other for longer than history has been written. OUr
involvement there is just a ****-drop in the bucket of time. Doesn't
make it nicer, but try to understand history better.

EVERY political side in history has been capable of bloodthirsty hell
and given the opportunity, lets it run rampant on any and all in its
way.

>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.

Actually, it is Al Qaeda who will benefit. Dubya's invasion of Iraq
was music to their ears and the best recruitment poster possible, but
don't blame the West for ALL these troubles...they have been going on
over there a long, long, long time....before this, before partition in
1948, before WW I, way, way, way back.

Boron