Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-vision.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!mokhtar From: mokhtar@ubc-vision.UUCP (Farzin Mokhtarian) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: islam Message-ID: <1020@ubc-vision.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 17:41:08 EDT Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.1020 Posted: Wed Aug 7 17:41:08 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 8-Aug-85 00:09:09 EDT Organization: UBC Computational Vision Lab, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 45 ------------------------------ After reading a long article on islam by Mr. Martillo, one who is not "disposed" to believing him might feel "overwhelmed" by all of his "facts" and obscure "references" that he uses to "prove" whatever point he chooses to make and what's more: you are expected to understand his profound hatred for the whole of islam and all muslims because some of his ancestors suffered at the hands of a group of muslims. After all, who wants to argue with a guy whose family has a long history of being oppressed? Who wants to tell him that his hatred for all muslims is unjustified and unfair? That would be equivalent to "taking sides" with the "other side". But if one digs thru his "facts", one finds nothing more than quotes from a carefully picked bunch of extremists who can be found in just about any culture and any religion. How about if I give you a horrible picture of christianity by giving you a nightmarish picture of the dark ages, the holly wars, the popes who controlled the kings, the witch-burning ... . History will give me all the "facts" I need. That will only give a picture of the "past" of christianity. Complete that with a picture of the "present" of christianity by a few examples given to us by the likes of Falwell. True, he doesn't have "obvious" political power like Khomeini yet. Not yet. But he doesn't just hate those who oppressed jews. His hatred is very calculated and very pointed. He doesn't hate christians who have far excelled muslims in jew suppression (if numbers are important at all). But ofcourse, his family was in Libya. He speaks from experience. But even those jews who do have the experience of living thru Hitler's Germany only blame Hitler and a few select people around him. The nation which carried out his horrible plans suddenly gets back its innocence once the terrible leaders are gone and their culture becomes a much nicer culture. Obviously Mr. Martillo wants peace in the middle east. He just doesn't believe that muslims and muslim culture are worthy enough to support peace. After all, how can you lay the foundations of peace with some barbaric states? Aren't his numerous, long articles intended to make this point clear? If that is so, why don't we stop analyzing the other side's beliefs and start talking about the "actions" that each side (state of israel and arab states around it) have taken towards peace in the middle east? Farzin Mokhtarian ubc-vision!mokhtar ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We taught you, because you already knew."