mugabe wrote:markfiend wrote:But IMO it's a slippery slope. If we back down to their religious taboos about pictorial depiction of The Prophet now, then it will be harder to argue against the next concession they want, and the next, and the next.
Oh, yes. If we can't depict of the prophet, what's next? Will they try and stop us from calling them "ragheads" or "camelfuckers"? Should we let blacks dictate whether they can be referred to as "niggers" or not, or let homosexual people veto the publishing of gay-bashing articles? I don't see the problem, really, neither do I see freedom of speech at stake.
Well, if the radicals get more power, you may see where the rights that gays and lesbians struggled decades for will go. Down the drain, probably. And you don`t even need muslims, just give the catholic church a go.
Did the taliban ask for the religious feelings of others when they blew up the Buddha statues in 1996? And will they tolerate you for tolerating heretics? Did the ones who faked cartoons think about the fact that they offended their very own commandments by this?
So will they reward your tolerance toward them?
Ossama was quoted saying something like "We want our oil for us!"
And that is, as I suppose, worth a thought: If the oil wells run dry, how will the Arabians be able to keep up their standards of living? Could it be that there are some pers(ia)ons in the background with enough influence and money to raise such turmoils as to bring the oil price higher as long as this source of money works? Or maybe they are just jealous on the money and power the western governments make on energy related taxes? In the end, it is energy they dug out of arabian deserts, one might say..
euphoria wrote:Then I'm fully with you on what you wrote above - this conflict was most of all fuelled by disliked governments in the arab world who at last found a chance to blame someone else for what they have failed in (which is everything). I'm even prepared to go further than them "allowing" the embassy attacks - it wouldn't surprise me the least if they brought people in by bus from the poorest areas of the country...i.e. the people who suffer most from their own government. Very cynical but also very logical.
Aye. We know that scheme from several examples of the last century, along with them the Reich #3.
(And: It was Einstein who said "I don`t know what weapons the third world war will be fought with, but I am sure that the fourth world war will be fought with clubs and spears!")
"These are my principles! And if you don't like the just says so, I have others, too!"
~Rufus T. Firefly