Native speaker if Im not mistaken. Or nearly native.

I find islam frightenly expansionistic. My mum is from Croatia and she only has horror stories about the time the turks invaded moe than 500 years ago. It shaped bosnia and albania and the kosovo - people were forced to convert, some did - ancestors of todays muslim, some fled - ancestors of todays croatians in the mountaineous regions - and the serbs fought back and still hate muslims - see them as traitors. It happened in the 15th century but I guess that part of history still defines people. I try to be tolerant but I hate the fact that the concepts of freedeom, tolerance and human dignity is used as a tool with the ultimate goal to abolish them alltogether and have their kalifate in all of europe. Religion serving the state.. (very popular conspiracy theory) Im a bit paranoid sometimes

As for criticising christianity without backlash - isn't that one of the big achievements of the development during the last +/-250 years or so? Human dignity, ratio (Vernunft), Freedom of speech, freedom of the press etc.  It is good thing to stand above slurs and slander and not let it bother you, to be aware of your own qualities and achievements. It's mostly insecure and pathetic people who take everything so personally and view it as an attack.

Here is Father Botros in an interview with Egyptian television:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXX2fO8pM4

He only cares about Christians, but at least he dares to speak up.

 

Don't worry. Almost everybody here knows that I understand German.

Watch the video. It's amazing how much you understand when you remember the basic corresponding consonants:

Arabic Taw = Hebrew Shin (athnaim = shnaim)

Arabic Sin = Hebrew Shin (seba = sheva)

Arabic Bet = Hebrew Vet (Arabic has no fricative for Bet)

Those are the relevant ones for the speech in the video. Otherwise some others also apply: Fe/Pe (Arabic has no Pe), Dad/Tsadi (Hebrew has no Dad, and Ghayin/Ayin (modern Hebrew has no Ghayin).

It is true that the most fanatical Islamists are Arabs. But the most moderate Muslims are Arabs too. Part of it is, I am sure, that the Qur'an is written in classical Arabic with lots of Aramaic loan words (that were common at the time in cities and would obviously be used by a trader with Syria) while modern Arabic dialects are considerably different from the classical dialect. Many sentences simply changed their meaning.

Other parts of the Qur'an are routinely ignored by Muslims. Some of the more surprising bits are the statements about Israel (Muhammed believed the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel) and Arabs (Muhammed thought the Arabs were the worst in hypocrisy and disbelief). Quote those statements today and you are on your own.

 

Croatia? That explains your name, I suppose. (You one told us what Utemia is short for.)

I cannot imagine that your mum ever met an invading Turk. I don't think the Turkish invasions were much worse than most invasions. But then Yugoslavia is one of those regions that generates more history than it can handle. You have cultural Romans, Greeks, and Muslims, like a miniature version of Europe and the Mediterranean. All the wars fought hundreds of years ago remained unresolved and on ice in Yugoslavia and had to be fought again, on a smaller scale, once the weather got a bit warmer.

 

 

Meanwhile, our SecDHS is more worried about the anti-Muslim backlash than she is about the anti-American frontlash.

Yes, Idknow that the Bedouins in the Israeli Army have vowed to fight for Israel. But Ialsoknow that they are facing problems, especilly after the Intifada to movingup to command positions.

Theonly way to defeatr prejduce is to eschew identity politix, as I have argued.

Freedom is only a minor matter of detail in most societies.

The Bedouins in the Middle-East have always faced problems. There are prejudices against Bedouins but it's not because they are Muslims.

Everything that makes Muslims look bad, the extremism etc, is simply not very present in Bedouin culture. The vast majority of Bedouins everywhere are neither Arab nationalists nor Muslim extremists. In fact their version of Islam is much too conservative to have been influenced by modern extremism or nationalism.

The problems they sometimes face in Israel because of the Intifada has to do with their Arab nationality, not their Muslim religion.

 

My parents picked names that were international, and the bible is a pretty good resource for that. (John, Johannes, Jean, Ivan, Giovanni) alot of names work in alot of languages.

The balkan is a interesting topic in itself, but it (sadly) doesn't really fit within this thread. My mother never met an invading turk (duh) but in that regard events are kept alive in an oriental manner. Centuries do not really matter, history is kept alive. I would say that alot of the animosities between nationalistic serbs and muslim kosovares and albanians and muslim bosniaks are rooted in that time.

I meant because your mother is likely Catholic.




They definitely are.

Yeah. But that wasn't the sole reason my parents chose biblical names. They wanted good solid names, and names that are international. My brothers are named after the evangelists (except there is no Lukas) and my sisters Anna and Elisabeth. Ruth is the odd one out in that collection lol and I didn't really like my name when I was little. Only old ladies were named Ruth.. but on the other hand I found it really funny that there was a famous baseball player called Babe Ruth, and a candy bar. Wasn't such a bad name after all

Generally, I think that names are really important (and could even ruin a persons life). The names some hollywood stars and celebreties chose for their children just makes me really wonder if they had all their senses together or not. And I have character stereotypes that I associate with certain names - I dunno if a name can influence what a person'll be like in life or not, but sometimes it feels like it does. It is interesting how many people on JU emphasized that President Obama's middle name is Hussein - as if that defined his character and mentality.

That's an interesting comment, considering all the Muslims that died in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of Muslims. So we should accommodate Muslims even more by not sending them to fight their own people. That's an interesting concept, join the US armed forces so you get to pick and choose who to fight. Why would a Muslim join again?

If Muslims are not willing to step in and defend other Muslims from the likes of Saddam and Bashir, what good is that faith?

 

Ah, but how do you defend those who are under Saddam and Bashirs wrath when you yourself (not you leauki) are killing them? These Muslims give a whole knew meaning to "knocking some sense into people". I wish to save you from the evil Saddam or Infidels of the West but I must kill you to do it.

Our capacity for inane stupidity appears to be boundless.

At least those commenting on his irrational article let him have it.

By my last count most Iraqis were still alive.

 

The article was too jovial in its tone -  the joking style about an incident where so many people lost their lives or were injured is very inapropriate. And he didn't really say what he thought about the major. But aside the deficiencies in the article, the critique about generalizing is not wrong.