One of the things that seems to be getting confused here is the concept of being Arab - and being Muslim. While it may be true that Mesopotamia is the birthplace of civilization, the concept of zero came from the Babylonians (but also emerged independently with the Mayans and in India):
http://www.mediatinker.com/blog/archives/008821.html
and that ancient civilizations like the Persians were all great things - it is also a fact that all of these things happened before the advent of Islam. Since Islam has taken over as the predominant religion in this area of the world it is hard to argue against the fact that development and progress have been pretty effectively stifled.
In the Western world many empires and countries have risen and fallen in the period of the last 1000 years. Other than the Ottoman empire - what has happened in the Islamic world? Even Bin Laden and his ilk can't think outside the box - they don't want to build a new empire - they want to restore the old one. It certainly appears by watching history for the last 200 years or so that the philosophies and thought processes that religion and culture give you have something to do with human progress. Japan turned itself from a feudal country into a fully modernized country in 50 years - and beat the Russians during the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. Once the Chinese started to emerge from the stupidity of Communism - look what has happened to their country. The Arab countries have more money than they know what to do with - and yet they still can't seem to join the modern world. There has to be a reason for this.
It sure seems that by looking at the history of the last 100 years or so that most of the peoples on the planet have a good possibility of getting along together. Here in the US we have Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Africans, Jews, Christians, etc. etc. - and for the most part they all get along. And yes - I know we have Muslims too - but it seems that when those Muslims actually try to adhere to the tenets of their religion - everybody else suffers. While all of the other religious and ethnic groups can find some common ground - it sure seems that the only common ground that everybody can find with Muslims is that they must either become Muslim - or they are thought of as dhimmi - as less. I can't think of single other religion whose representatives come out and say that they are here in this country to take over and institute their own laws:
“Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
This was the sentiment of Omar M. Ahmad, the Chairman of the Board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR, as told at an Islamic conference held in Freemont, California, in July of 1998.
( from
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16353 )
And please don't try and feed me that religion of peace crap - I remember seeing the bodies falling out of the towers on 9/11 - and a lot of the people who died that day were from this area. If you are going to argue that I am being insulting than please tell me why the following things are almost unimaginable:
- a bunch of Buddhist monks hijacking a plane and flying it into a building and claiming it was done in the name of Buddha
- a bunch of Amish hijacking a plane and flying it into a building and claiming it was done in the name of Christ
- a bunch of Hindus hijacking a plane and flying it into a building and claiming it was done in the name of Ghandhi
- a bunch of Jesuits hijacking a plane and flying it into a building and claiming it was done in the name of Christ.
But yet not only is it completely imaginable - and has been imaginable to people for hundreds of years now - that a bunch of Muslims would hijack a plane and fly it into a building - in the name of Muhammed and Allah?
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