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Karen,

We all know that spiritual ideals within any faith can be misapplied, abused and distorted. Extreme examples within the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition come to mind.

I believe that I commented that the "seeds" of the destructive power of Islam are found within its body of belief. However, there are aspects to the faith that are praiseworthy and my intention was to point out that the concept of jihad is not PURE evil at its root.

There are also righteous and well-meaning Muslims - we should certainly acknowledge that. There is a beauty within Islam as well, even if much of it was borrowed from Byzantine Christianity.The radicalized jihadists that define the concept for most of the world prove to be a detriment to the cause of Islam. But Islam was not spread initially through peaceful means - that really has never been its M.O.. I agree with John the Night Watcher that there are very clear demonic elements within this religion. But no religion can be completely false, otherwise it would have no appeal whatsoever.

We need to acknowledge the good and reject the evil in whatever faith we encounter that is not our own. How else can we work towards their full conversion?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for the Muslim peoples!

Gordo

Hey Gordo,

Your points are well-taken. We Christians should have half as much zeal for our faith that many Muslims have for theirs.

Certainly, we should guard against looking at Muslims personally as being evil. The several Muslims I know seem very nice.

Maybe these fundamentalist Muslims are serving a purpose... to make people realize that Islam is not a peaceful religion, and that it's a force to be reckoned with.

Hilliare Belloc, the famous Catholic writer of the last century, made the uncanny prediction in the 1930's that Islam would rise again.

God bless,

Karen

It did not take long to get back on to, they did this to us and that to us and they never say sorry for anything they have ever done to anyone etc etc.

We are the Christians, not them. The Editor did what was right. He followed the lead given by his Church. We know what is right and what we have to do. We have to rise above the ways of the world and respond as Christians and take the moral high ground.

ICXC
NIKA

I've just started reading Bat Yeor's work on "Eurabia". I highly recommend it to you (at least based on what I have read thus far). She offers a knowledgeable perspective on the growing stages of dhimmitude (servile submission to Islamic political will) within Europe rooted in the fear of either enslavement or murder at the hands of Islamists. The excuse of the policies of America, Britain, and Israel are all pretext for something far more sinister. Just ask the Christians in what was once the thriving Christian territories of Egypt, Turkey, Syria, etc etc. Past is prelude, and the burgeoning populations of the Middle East are looking to Europe as the land of opportunity. Europe is already home to a resurgence of a toxic anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity and anti-Americanism (clasical Western Civilization included). The culture and the economy is being groomed to become the land of the dhimmi.

Radical jihad needs no excuse to take action. They already have their sights set on our destruction here in the US. I think that you and I would agree that Israel needs to face its role in the sometimes barabaric mistreatment of the Palestinian people. (Just read Archbishop Elias Chacour's "Blood Brothers" for a Palestinian Christian perspective on the creation of Israel.) But the cause of radical Islam cannot be reduced to issues of policy alone - it is a far more systemic issue and I believe that this is something you have refused thus far to acknowledge.

Gordo

I watched a PBS special called Holy Warriors last night, it was about the "Holy" War by Richard the Lionheart and Salahideen for Jerusalem.

Both men prayed, both men fought. At the time, Salahideen was the one following the "Geneva conventions" by allowing Christians to live in Jerusalem, while Richard executed 7000 Muslims. Even in that day, those beheadings were considered terrorism.

Did Muslims in those days view Christians as some Americans today view "the terrorists"? Do Muslims today compare GW Bush to Richard I?