Re: Bush planning nuke attack on Iran?


leftie wrote:

To point out that Toad's assertion that 'most Muslims are
anti-modernity' is factually incorrect, perjoratve stereotype does not
make one a "Muslim apologist."


Who says I was referring to you? But that was a poor choice of words
on my part.

I think Toad is right in some of what he says--the part about Muslims
having a fundamentally different world view than the West or the East.
And I have not so thoroughly swallowed the "cultural relativism" party
line that cultures that are different are simply different, not better
or worse. The same logic has been used by defenders of things like
female genital mutilation. I reject that argument. Certain cultural
behaviors are deplorable and must be condemned, even if it seems
"culturally intolerant" to some.

I am still waiting to if Todd's challenge can be answered by someone.
It's an inflammatory statement, and I'm quite surprised that no one
here has come up with anything better than founding a multinational
port management company.


To discuss the problems of the Middle East, or Africa for that matter,
without a discussion of the legacy of colonialism in creating those
problems serves only to create further misunderstanding.

Yes, Iraq isn't responding to nationalist urges in a way that serves US
interests. This is because Iraq is a fiction created by colonial powers
that was held together only by force. If that leaves Iraq in a position
where it is not making "technological breakthroughs" at the moment it is
not because its people are "anti-modernity" -- even if they are becoming
progressively anti-West. It is in large part a legacy of colonialism --
and the actions of a neo-colonialist superpower -- at play here.


Toad was referring to far more than just Iraq with his challenge. I
fully understand why Iraqis are rather absorbed with thigs like not
being struck by stray bullets at this point. But the Saudis, for
example, don't have the excuse of being subjugated by war.


Furthermore, to hold the history of the United States up as some sort of
superior standard of nationalist development ("from the age of
reason") without reference to the genocide of the Indians or slavery or
Jim Crow is to reveal a jingoistic impulse, not an honest,
historically-grounded discussion.


To deny that tue US has committed egregious and horrendous acts would
be foolish. We need go back no farther than the unnecessary dropping
of nuclear weapons on Japan in 1945 to identify a fine example of it.

But we also have greatly progressed, to deny that would also be
foolish.

Peace,
Neil X.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bush planning nuke attack on Iran?
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    (rec.music.gdead)
  • Bin Ladens Speeches 2003-2006
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    (alt.sports.football.pro.ne-patriots)
  • Re: It all comes full-circle ... WMDs found in Iraq
    ... >> the fact is that large numbers...hundreds of millions...of muslims are ... >> for hundreds of millions before the invasion of iraq. ... of muslims are islamists. ... attack on any country where muslims predominate is an attack on islam. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Antonieo Coulter
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    (alt.autos.toyota)
  • Times: The umma, the caliphate and historys lessons
    ... History, is akin to "a nymph glimpsed bathing between leaves; ... Saddam Hussein in Iraq and suddenly discovered that circumstances had ... That a creed can combine a vision of the caliphate centuries old while ... Muslims are killed by Muslims than anyone else; ...
    (alt.religion.islam)