I like this one.

cv

I like this one.

cv

No sh1t.

After the risk of life and limb we get 'no thanks'

Sorry...

We were brought up to hate - and we do

By Nonie Darwish - Daily Telegraph

(Filed: 12/02/2006)

The controversy regarding the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed completely misses the point. Of course, the cartoons are offensive to Muslims, but newspaper cartoons do not warrant the burning of buildings and the killing of innocent people. The cartoons did not cause the disease of hate that we are seeing in the Muslim world on our television screens at night - they are only a symptom of a far greater disease.

I was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt and in the Gaza Strip. <snip>

In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. At school we sang songs with verses calling Jews "dogs" (in Arab culture, dogs are considered unclean).

Criticism and questioning were forbidden. When I did either of these, I was told: "Muslims cannot love the enemies of God, and those who do will get no mercy in hel_l." <snip>

Full text, or hit snapback arrow. Edit: Should be post# 73, not #68.

Excellent of Camerata to post this article as it cuts through the surface issues to journey beneath the top-most, attention grabbing events and exposes one of the deeper, underlying issues; which are always at the root and consequent cause of any manifested surface event. Hatred lies very close to the core of the problem here. And if hatred can be taught then it's opposite needs to be taught with a much more resounding voice. But to do so effectively one must first firmly believe in hatred's converse, which conviction will indubitably cause one to live the belief rather than paying it mere lip service. Fighting hatred with hatred will lead to . . . well, only more hatred. This must be realized and thoroughly understood if anyone is truly interested in turning the ship towards a preferred course. Only once one turns away from hatred will the efficacious solutions become known. Otherwise, they will naturally and essentially remain forever hidden from view, while counter-actions are conceived and deduced and taken which, by their very flawed philosophical basis, can only be doomed to further failure.

Here's my take on the current situation of Moslem versus the rest of the world. It's a dance between opposing idealogies, differing belief systems which, as disparate as they outwardly appear, share a great deal of commonalities via similar beliefs that are played out quite differently amongst the participants. Hatred, for instance, can be acted out in only one of two roles - perpetrator or victim. The roles will, though, be reversed by the individual many times; sometimes perpetrator, sometimes victim. You strike me and I strike you back. And so a never-ending game of role reversal ensues - until, by assuming the perspectives of each position often enough to realize the inherent hypocrisy involved, one decides to quit playing the very unsatisfying, destructive, and often times deadly game. As individuals we each make the choice to take part in the dance or not.

If I've learned anything about the true workings of this world it is this: people live their beliefs. The ideas which people subscribe to will be projected outward onto the world stage and experienced as real. The outer world is merely a mirror reflecting back the inner world via manifestion of one's own ideas, which are then accepted as self-evidenced truths. Nothing can exist in the outer world until it first exists in the inner one. If the ideas have value then you will be pleased with the resultant materializations. And if the ideas have little or no value the results will not be favorable as the ideas are unworkable, so obviously evidenced by the problems they necessarily create. Which problems then only serve to inform little more than the ideas need to change if different results are desired and to be expected. If not, we can only expect history to repeat itself eternally and can then be categorized as insane per Einstein's definition: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This is the theory known as 'the universe as idea construction,' which I no longer consider to be a theory. Interestingly enough, it works whether you believe that it does or not.

As Shakespeare so aptly and profoundly expressed it, "all the world's but a stage." Our lives are our own personal productions where we write the scripts, direct and produce the play, and act it out in the starring role. And since no other can live your life except yourself no other can write the script for you. But it is our responsibility, and perhaps our only responsibility, to become aware of the scripts we write for ourselves by way of our beliefs and to change those beliefs which do not serve us well. The belief in hatred does not serve us well.