Can the cartoon wounds be healed?
Photo courtesy of the BBCThe great and the good from Europe and the Muslim world spent two days at a quiet retreat in southern England this month in an urgent effort at crisis management.
The mood was sombre.
"There is no trust," lamented a senior Muslim diplomat. "Dialogue has failed. We need a historic reconciliation."
The soul-searching was prompted by the bitter controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The republication of the cartoons in several European countries - after they first appeared in Denmark last year - provoked a wave of Muslim anger and dire warnings of a "clash of civilisations". Healing the cartoon row wounds by Roger Hardy, BBC Islamic affairs analyst.
Mark Alexander
7 comments:
This is probably excellent news. The polarization between Islam and Islamists versus the civilized world has always been there, but only the Islamists have ever grasped it. Can it be that Westerners are finally catching on? Sir Rudyard I paraphrase: Middle East and Islam are Middle East and Islam, West is West. Never the twain shall meet. That is reality. Now let's get on cleaning out the stables.
George Mason (PBUH):
I think it must be because I utter the phrase peace be upon him each time I refer to you online that gives you prophet-like status in my eyes, Sir! :-)
I think it must be the same emotional feeling that a Muslim gets when uttering the same phrase when referring to their prophet(s)!
Sir Rudyard I paraphrase: Middle East and Islam are Middle East and Islam, West is West. Never the twain shall meet.
That is indeed reality! Westerners, it seems, are slow to catch on!
Now let's get on cleaning out the stables.
Too true!
"There is no trust," lamented a senior Muslim diplomat. "Dialogue has failed. We need a historic reconciliation."
Is it any wonder that the West cannot trust that diplomacy can be relied upon to reach a solution? Nevertheless, the West continues to promote the idea of dialogue, and Muslims, who don't care whit about dialogue, repeatedly decry a lack of diplomacy. Even a bit of cartoonish satire is enough to launch Muslims into violence.
Muslims' warning that a clash of civilizations is impending is false. The clash has been going on for centuries, in one way or another.
This always reminds me of the leftists who during the Cold War kept talking about building bridges to the communist countries. Remember the Phil Donague / Vladimir Posner joint telecasts?
Always:
Muslims' warning that a clash of civilizations is impending is false. The clash has been going on for centuries, in one way or another.
Right! These are two immiscible cultures and religions. We heard little about the Muslim world for a long time, simply because they were as poor as dirt. Poor people, as we all know, have little power and influence. That all changed with the oil embargo of the Seventies. The rest, as they say, is history!
Jason:
Yes, and in reality, there are no bridges to be built. Somebody please tell me how a bridge can be built between our culture and theirs, when they are so unwilling to compromise?
Why are Westerners so willing to give it (our civilization and way of life) all away all of a sudden? Remember how it was fought for when communism was the bête noire?
Could it be because little money was made from the communist world? Cynical, I know; but true nevertheless.
Bld:
Clash of CivilisationS?
Or clash of civilistion with Barbarism?
It depends whose definition of civilization you're using, I guess!
Is it any suprise, when as a white British citizen, I smile and nod hello towards a passing moslim man and most times he ignores me and looks at the ground? (If they are young, I may get a spit towards the ground, or an ignorant scowl at best.)
Oh, come now, Bld! You don't seriously expect a Muslim to acknowledge you on the street, do you? Why should he talk to the likes of you, an unbeliever, a kafir :-)
When I walk down the street with my dogs, and I nod and smile hello to a veiled moslim woman with her children, and the kids run to her side and she deliberately crosses the road without so much as acknowledging my friendly gesture?
That's a triple whammy! First of all, you're an infidel in her eyes. Second, you're a man. Good Muslimahs are not supposed to talk, or even look at men, more especially strange ones who are infidels! And third, you have a dog on a leash. You know what Muslims think of dogs, don't you?
How can there be integration when the integratee does not want it? How can there be integration when one of the parties considers the others "infidels" or less than themselves in worth, and when their belief system (islam) tells them to mistrust us and not to be friendly to us. What a freaking nonsense.
Exactly! How can there be?
It is islam that must reform itself, and join the other religions in Britain that at least do not encourage bombing the civilians.
Yes, it is; but don't hold your breath for it!
If we see another wave of attacks by moslims, (yes that's who they are, that much cannot be denied,)as the secret services have promised we will, (and to which they claim they have prevented very many already,) then how does that bode for the future?
It bodes ill, Bld! Very ill, too!
What a mess we have allowed to grow around us.
Yes, and through sheer ignorance and hopeless optimism.
Our Society dipping towards a police-state to maintain security.
It looks that way, doesn't it?
What does this say for the hope of integration and it's benefits?
You've answered your own question! Sweet Fanny Adams!
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