Apology accepted but if you’d read the thread you could hardly have failed to see that Jinx was flailing the mega brush in all directions and so my McVeagh point was entirely appropriate.
You are aware of the moors, right? Ya know, bunch of folks, conquered a whole lot of Europe? How about the fact that the entire numeral system we use is arabic? Maybe that the Romans themselves never did figure out that a ‘zero point’ could exist? How about medicine? How about the some of the only centers of learning during the Dark Ages? How about preserving copies of Plato, Aristotle, etc… that the West had lost?
Eh, I’m wasting my time.
Hey Jinx - you know i think youve got him there.
He must be well pissed that you have foiled his plan with your vast knowledge regarding the workings of the world and its many peoples.
spingears - what , presicely, is overrunning Europe, pray tell? Just so i know what to look out for.
Sin
I’m not aware of an appropriate word that would be equivalent to “racism”. Like in hateful and disparaging comments adressed at a group of people on the basis of them having a specific ethnic background (yes…you can also nitpick about “ethnic” if it makes you feel better). And “antisemitism” is already taken. But given the number of comments about arabs or muslims on this board that wouldn’t past muster, and would result in a pile up and possibly a ban, if they were directed at blacks or Jews, we’re in dire need of such an appropriate word. I’m really fed up reading all this crap getting a free pass.
Make that “antiarabism” or “islamophobia” if you like it better.
And since you like nitpicks, “caucasian” or “white” isn’t a race, either.
Moronic racists as far as I can tell, although over-run isn’t the right word. ‘Infected’ maybe.
So in short, he was raised a Christian, like many Muslims are raised Muslim, yet didn’t follow the commands of the religion, just like many Muslims don’t follow the commands of theirs.
This is not the first time I see you posting this.
When it comes to talk about “race”, it all depends on what definition you give the word.
In your definition Semetic is the same as Caucasian.
So you also claim that Jews are Caucasian. Then it is a pitty you didn’t live at the time when Hitler got his strange ideas to root out the - in his view- non caucasian “untermenschen” (read Semites, read: For Hitler that meant “Jews”).
You could have informed him that he was about to root out people of what he perceived as his own race. Think about it how many millions of lives you could have saved.
Berbers are mostly considered to be of Caucasian origin. I don’t think there is consensus about this yet, but from what I read there are strong indications that they are indeed Caucasian. In any case: Many Berbers look a lot more “Caucasian” then any full blood Arab I have ever met.
For your information: Arabs are Semites.
In my view that is not the same as Caucasian, but although I am the son of a full blood Semetic father and a full blood Caucasian mother, I am not an expert in this matter. It never kept me occupied to make distinction between people by dividing them into “races”.
Salaam. A
tagos " Moronic racists as far as I can tell ".
Oh, in that case i think springears is too late. Looks like you already have your fair share ( see - op )
Jjimm - thanks for starting that thread. Reasonable, rational and enlightening as always. Jinx, may i suggest you read it.
Sin
Sorry to disagree but astronomy has been invented independently by a number of cultures over the centuries including but not limited to China, Egypt, Incas, Mayas and others. A lot pre-date Islam and those that do not are not linked to Islam.
Algebra was invented by the Arabs, but pre-dates Islam by three centuries or so.
I have no evidence to refute the chemistry statement.
I will try to come up with cites for the above.
Algebra Cite: http://vmoc.museophile.com/algebra/section3_1.html
Astronomy (not a good link), also I missed out the greeks. http://www.vilspa.esa.es/astroweb/yp_history.html
You’re missing the point - Islam built upon and was the conduit into Europe of the ancient knowledge that otherwise would have been lost and so played a huge formative role in the building of western society as we know it.
Care to elaborate on this meaning free phrase?
Perhaps you are correct, but now it is the wahabbis (sp.?) et al that want to destroy all of this knowledge and live in the 7th Century.
I must apologise for the hijack as I think we are getting away from the original thread.
And the point of this thread is that Muslims are no more Wahabbists nor Binladen-followers than Christians are Young-Earth Creationists or McVeigh-followers, and that Islam gave us Avicenna and Averroes just as Christianity gave us St Augustine and William of Ockham.
Agreed, I was not attempting to generalise, perhaps I misunderstood the OP which was about OBL who it appears is a wahbbist or at least a supporter of their ideals. Iwas not saying that all Muslims agree with this point of view.
on the subject of Oil, IMHO OBL won’t care about oil prices if he wins and gets a state that follows his interpretation of Islam.
They don’t want to destroy the knowledge AFAIK, (I’m willing to be corrected with a reputable cite though) they just don’t like the morality. or lack of it in western societies. Just as they’re not opposed to the technolofy - only the moral impact of uses of it.
Short answer to (clearly by Western Media) formed Idea:
No, “the Wahhabi” don’t want to “destroy” any knowledge or live in the 7the century.
They only want to implement their lunatic idea of Islam and its teachings on as much people as possible, they want to export this idea to as much places as they can reach and use it to brainwash as much Muslims with it as they can.
They can do this fairly unlimited because their guardian, the House of Saud, is adequately shielded by the Western (read: mainly US) Umbrella.
This Western (read: mainly US) Umbrella does not look at the Wahhabi doctrine as having a potential to be dangerous, does not see it as in violation with Human Rights (especially regarding the position of women) does not treat it as something that should have been marginalized instead of being supported, shielded, propped up, received help to grow from a lunatic murderous intolerant sect to the monster that it is now.
Salaam. A
I stand corrected
Sorry, clairosbcur, I sometimes forget to correct for language differences. I was taught in school that there are only three races: Caucausoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid, and that every human group fits into one or more of them (like Latinos, who often combine all three in their genes but are technicially an ethnic group, not a racial one). Causcasoids are the most numerous and widespread and their hair and skin colors and chararacteristics vary the most, from very light to very dark, so Arabs, Greenlanders, Finns, East Indians, Russians, etc. are all Caucausian.
Maybe this is obsolete (from the mid-70s) but I still find it jarring to see the word “race” applied to people who are the same biologically but just speak a different language or who have different religions. I know in Europe it may be different, though. But I was told very strictly NOT to regard Jews, for example, as a race at all. They can be black, white, Latino, or whatever. Maybe this was a political reaction to the Holocaust, because studies of the Holocaust were a very big deal in NYC public schools and they wanted to make sure we knew it.
The concept of ‘race’ has come on a bit since the 70’s (my education era too). Here’s a good overview.