[MD] Muslim Mechanisms

[skutvik at online.no]

Hi Khaled 

29 Jan.you wrote:
d I wonder 
> A few days back while channel surfing on the radio Sean Hanity of all
> people was being an apologist ( indirectly and unknowingly) for that
> sort of thinking. He was bashing the liberal Hollywood elite and how
> they have demoralized this country and saying how when the east looks
> at us and see all that sex and nudity and loose morals, they get
> scared and are trying to stop it from reaching their shores. He was
> channeling Sayed Qutb. As for the Umma idea, that is new. Nasser tried
> to bring a Pan Arab vision, and failed. Cultures in that part of the
> world are very tribal and geocentric, so the idea of the Umma is a
> Neocon idea being forced as an excuse to what is being done. I would
> say there is a stronger feel to a pan-arab idea than an umma. A Muslim
> living in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan or Palestine would feel a stronger
> kinship to an Iraqi Christian or Jew, than to a Muslim Kurd, Turk or
> Indonesian. 

I don't know the American media scene so well, but the fundamental 
Christian pastors are just as obsessed with sexual morals as the 
imams. Regarding the Umma or Kalifat or whatever, this is I believe an 
underlying trend within Islam, but never mind, we all suffer from the 
illusion that once you meet a person from a muslim country he/she is 
an islam scholar, or one from South East Asia being a guru. However 
it looks from here (Scandinavia) that the Muslims regard religion as 
some far deeper uniting factor than Europeans do Christendom, it's all 
nationalism over here. Now, the overwhelming enigmatic phenomenon 
is terrorism and the fact that it seems to be islam-motivated, and I just 
wonder how you look upon this issue. What do you believe is Al 
Qaeda's goal? The 11 Sep. attacks in USA looks more like a 
challenge than a military action, and USA swallowed the bait and is 
now in deep shit in Afghanistan as is NATO. And in Iraq there surely 
won't be peace - quiet at least - until a new dictator has established 
himself. A yet more sensitive issue. The Muslims here in Norway are 
mostly of Pakistani origin, but of late from all over the Middle East and 
North Africa. OK, among them are many brave women who stand up 
against the "moral police" we call - the young and not so young Muslim 
men - who want them to dress according to code. But even if they are 
tough (the women) it is as if Islam itself is taboo, don't they see that all 
trouble for the Muslim Wold is Islam -  I mean their attitude to islam. 
Europe was once in the grip of Christendom represented by the 
Church which - united with kings and nobility - kept people down. Was 
it after all the Church arrangement that made Europe able to free itself 
from religious tyranny, and - consequently - the Muslim world's lack of 
something similar to a Church what keeps them under the spell? 

Bodvar