Letters to the Editor
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War of Ideas as Well As Action
I would like to see the intellectual heft of the left engage more fully in the ideological struggle that SHOULD be being waged against the Salafist/Whahabi curent that seems to be generating most of the violent behavior among Muslims in the world (or cowing the rest into silence). If you look back in the Muslim world, this is where the current round of violent jihad thought seems to be spreading. To call all adherents of Islam "terrorists" is plainly wrong, since all Muslims do not adhere to this school of thought. But at the same time to deny that there is NOT a problem with the growth of this interpretation throughout the world is also equally wrong - with the equally valid question of why it is so appealing?
Al-Qaida was a problem long before 9-11 - in Khobar Towers, in Africa (Nairobi) and in Yemen (USS Cole), and the same ideology propelled the first World Trade Center Bombing in the 90's. But Al-Qaida did not invent the ideology at it's core - and that is the part that needs to be clearly addressed by BOTH the right and left in trying to find a way to neutralize its appeal among many in the Islamic world. The idea that drives so many to fight, to rage and to commit suicide HAS to be addressed in some way by the "West" unless a total catastrophe is to be averted.
I agree that while Christianity as a faith has had a bloody past, that is no excuse to use it as a club on ourselves today to prevent action against the violence of another faith. The West pretty well grew out of the violent phase with religion as we learned to tame the ideas that drove us to conflict. The same can be hopefully said in the future of the Islamic faith. But at this point - ideas and arguments and reasons need to be developed to counter the appeal of the fundamentalists. Since this kind of thought process gets you killed or imprisoned in the Islamic world - it better start being developed in ours if this insanity is to end.
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Salon does not play fair
And neither will we. Every time Salon runs an article that trashes men for the entertainment of women, ALL open Salon letters will be defaced.
The Media has too much power. Their stereotypes are too damaging. It is unacceptable for feminists to attack men constantly in print merely for their own profit.
This defacement will increase Salon's publishing costs and devalue their online community. This is a legitamate way to make them bear the cost of their actions.
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Thanks to the reviewer, this is one book I will not be looking for
Am I reading this review correctly? Did the author of this book attempt to explain the current islamic fundamentalist-terrorist movement without reference to the Saudi Royal family and its desperate desire to retain and increase its power and wealth? After one glance at the book jacket, I would put a volume like this back on the shelf of the local Barnes and Nobles and go look for something else to read. THis is like going to Mars to find a cure for global warming on Earth. When the author does not even start on the correct planet, you know that he is not going to find a solution for your problem.
The Saudi Royals have been nurturing a type of extreme islamic fundamentalism that has as one of its basic tenets the proposition that only a monarch can rule a truly devout muslim state. Their enemies, the shiites, believe that only the clergy can rule a truly devout muslim state. The Saudi Royals employee Papa Bush and James Baker III, and they have done lots of favors for lots of Texas oil men in the past including George W. Bush. This should tell you all that you need to know about the economic roots of the present conflict.
As for the terrorist threat to the US, we will be attacked only when the Saudi candidates need a boost in the polls. And no matter how often we are attacked, fascism will never take hold in the US, because we are the poor, huddled REBELLIOUS masses which fled from other countries because we refused to do as we were told. Fascism is for people who stick with the Fatherland or Motherland through thick or thin, following orders whether right or wrong, accepting their lot in life. Americans are the wily rats who have enough sense to flee a sinking ship and go out into the world to seek better homes for themselves and their families. They do not goose step.
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Christian Fascism is NOT Western Civilization. What makes the west matter is the Enlightenment
It's the worst sort of big lie to suggest that those, wherever they come from, who are trying to defend the enlightenment values of freedom, reason, respect for the rights of others, etc. against BOTH their Islamic AND Christian enemies are repudiating civilisation. It is ALL those who are trying to drag the world back to the dark ages who are civilisations real enemies.
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They do not goose step
You obviously have not had a great deal of exposure to modern "consevativsm". Either that or you have had a GREAT deal of exposure to it.
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The moonbats are out! (sorry ricky Bush is your albatross)
Clearly note the moonbats are out in full force tonight! So far Salon is somehow responsible for the plight of men, Bush is a "gift" to the left and Christianity is fascism. What other pearls and witicisms do the moonbats have to offer? I don't even want to know.
Small wonder India is displacing us as intellectual and economic superpower;
they don't have this kind of baggage.
The only further comment I have is to "ricky". here goes:
Sorry, guy. Bush is all yours. Not one of us voted for him. I in fact have never voted for a GOP cretin in my life (save for Richard Lugar, who certainly is no cretin).
Rather than voting for a continuation of the most successful administration of our livetimes, you chose to vote for this festering idiot that would sell his very own mother for a buck fifty. You chose to vote for a nation that taxes nurses and truckdrivers at higher rates than millionaires and billionaires, for an IRS that audits waitresses instead of known elite schisters. You voted for a Congress that pays companies to offshore work, that runs up 450 billion dollar annual deficits for your grandkids to pay while effectively ensuring the end of the American middle class as you knew it. You voted for an Administration more indebted to corrupt Saudi Arabian sheiks and swindling corporate schisters like Ken Lay than to American families. You vote for smoke and mirrors foreign policy that favors threats it can't deliver over sound policy. You voted for energy companies to have the ability to gauge consumers without accountablity. You voted for 75 years of courts that are hostile to American labor and workforce. You voted for the end of any sort of privacy and seemingly new ways to have the federal government in your life dreamed up daily.
Nope that steaming pile of dung in the White House is yours and all yours. Ditto for Congress. You are fully responsible for your own plight as the tab comes in - when you lose your pension and have to work till your drop, when you can't sell your home for more than 30% under your mortgage,can't find a job that pays more than 25,000$ even with a college degree and so forth. THEN you can spout about how great feudalism is and how awful were the things that took 200 years to get, pensions, 40 hour work weeks, healthcare, affordable education, vacations, a social saftey net - all those things that developed what used to be the American middle class, and all those things that you tossed out like candy in less than two decades by letting some overweight doped-updemagogue living in a Palm Beach mansion tell you what your opinion was.
You got what you voted for .
And from those of us who didn't vote for it and got it thanks to you - a big fat pox on you in spades.