Imtiaz Muqbil's Op-Eds

[Gerasimos]

Thanks for all your comments and opinions.

I think that most Sunday Post readers have had their fill ad nauseam of Mr Muqbil's "Soul Searching",
and, as Fibbuster1 suggested, we'd like to read some other viewpoints in Post for a change.

Here are just a few Muslim, Christian and/or Arab writers, journalists and activists of international repute, who through their moral responsibility and courage dare to speak the truth and strive to promote better understanding, dialogue, peaceful coexistence and mutual respect amongst people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds-often with constant threats to their lives by Islamist radicals and extremists. I’m sure that readers would find their works interesting and refreshing:

Dr Zuhdi Jasser, Dr Wafa Sultan, Ms Nonie Darwish, Mr Walid Shoebat, Ms Brigitte Gabriel, Mr Ishmael Khaldi,
Ms Asra Q. Nomani and Mr Elias Bejjani. Google them for more information.

More suggestions to make the Bangkok Post a more balanced and less biased publication that really deserves its slogan: "The Newspaper You Can Trust”?

[pachangamac042]

Interesting topic, but…

Less conflicting topics have disapeard from this forum. Sometimes this is so strange and confusing here…

Gerasimos, have you never noticed, that readers letters are printed in the Bangkok Post postbag, witch contain things witch would be against the BP forum rules?

[Sean Moran]

The reason for that is that what gets published in the PostBag is the same as what gets published when you reply to an article published on the newspaper website, and about the best that every other newspaper I have looked at in these last few years does too, without going to the trouble of running a REAL forum themselves, as the Bangkok Post has been bold enough to do. Moderator approval for every comment.

Here you get to post your posts on the newspaper's free ink (as Bob Ansett used to call it) WITHOUT waiting for editing. It's instant publication!

That is why we need to abide by stricter rules than what might get by without such lazziz faire freedom of waffling. If you want to hate Islam or hate Christianity or hate the friggin' Bhagwan Shri Rashneesh, then write a letter to the editor.

<oops. sorry. accidental cut&paste error re url to the old cafe.>

---o0o---

Incidentally, I've been reading a book about the Templar Knights recently. Around the time of the Crusades they were a very influential part of helping the pilgrims make it to the Holy Land and they made a fortune out of something, but I read in this book last night something I never knew, having never yet studied Islam, although given time I hope to read the Koran.

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all three go back to Ishmael and Issac - both of them sons of Abraham.

[GORDON]

Not a lot unlike chinese whispering . What started the same or similar is not recognisable thousands of years later.

[taliwatan]

I find this article and the responding posts fascinating. The complexity of todays world does not allow us to place the blame for our problems on just one group or another.

I would have to be considered a Judeo-Christian. I agree with Mr. Muqbil that we should consider in our churches and synagogues how we are and have been responsible for "violence on the global stage". Historically and currently people from the "Judeo-Christian" camp are guilty of making decisions that have led to problems and atrocities both large and small. Unfortunately many of the leaders, both high and low ranking, who make decisions that lead to said violence are really only "Judeo-Christian" in a geographical sense because they happen to lead societies residing in the realm of Judeo-Christian locations. Were their personal daily actions and their political policies to be closely examined these leaders couldn't actually claim to live by Biblical principle. Yet Mr. Muqbil, you choose to tirade against all of Judeo Christianity. Many of us may disagree with our leaders position and subsequent actions.

But what of Islam Mr. Muqbil? You note that Islam is not innocent when you say that "Judeo Christianity has betrayed it's values to a 'greater degree' than that of Islam." Yet Judeo Christianity is to blame because they are, in your opinion, the greater perpetrator. I'm not sure that you can claim that the Islamic world is effectively "held accountable" for their actions. There are plenty of examples of perpetration in this historical quarrel from Muslims in several countries around the globe. Do all Muslim leaders act in accordance with the Koran and it's principles as interpreted by the Islamic majority?

It seems to me that you are zealous to find solutions. Certainly this is a shared problem. Pointing fingers at one side without fairly owning up to the transgressions of the other hardly helpful. Problems exist between parties and unless both are willing to give and change solutions are hard to come by.

Shalom

[triptrip]

i think the root cause of all these conflicts lies with religion. if only man believes in aliens and avatar, many lives would have been spared throughout the centuries.