Re: This morning

At 9:43 am +0100 14/9/01, Fabian wrote:
[snip]
>
>There's a few of us saying, "they're all responsible,
>they should all be punished."
I am not one of the "us".  I haven't, thank God, met them and I earnestly
pray they remain a few, a very, very small few.

>I think I can capture well the feeling with the
>following quote:
>"If we lose this war, we do not fall in the hands of
>some other states but will be anhiliated by world
>radical islam.
With respect, I do not find this at all helpful.

I fail to see what the events of September 11th have to do with Islam,
whether 'radical' or otherwise.  Each sura of the Koran begins: "In the
name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate".  How by any stretch of the
imagination can the mass murder of thousands of innocent people be carried
out in the name of a god who is merciful and compassionate?

Have not Muslim leaders in the past few days unequivocably condemmned these
events.   Have not leaders of western democracies and prominent church
leaders stressed that Muslims are *not* to blame for these terrible events?
Or is this all a nightmare & dreamt the whole ghastly business.

A high proportion of the students I teach are Muslims.  I haven't noticed
them exactly jubilant over the past events.  To somehow link them to the
evils of Sept. 11th is IMO a grave injustice & a mischievous
misrepresentation.

OK - some (possibly all) the perpetrators of these crimes originated in a
Muslim milieu.  But do we condemn 'radical' Christianity because of ETA and
the various 'Protestant' & 'Catholic' terrorist groups of northern Ireland
before the Good Friday Agreement?  Do we say all Christians are responsible
and should be punished?

Nah - so why adopt double standards?

[snip]
>
>The original quote was from instructions issued to the
>German press in April 1943; and where I have written
>"Islam" and "the West," they had "Jewry" and
>"Germany."
Equally unhelpful IMNSHO.  I was around in 1943 and altho I remember little
from then (I was only 4), the world was a very different place.   This IIRC
is the second time a modern democracy has been likened to Nazi Germany.
For goodness sake, get real.

Hey - I thought this list was for constructing languages.  Maybe I've got
that wrong too & lost the plot somewhere.  Personally, I'm finding some of
the politicking quite sickening.

When some tragedy strikes, whether personal or national, we naturally
express our sorrow and condolences.

Cannot we leave it like that and let (misinformed) politicking take place
on some other list?

Ray.


=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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