cultural diversity and cultural acceptance.
Reader comment on item: Bush's Middle East Hopes
in response to reader comment: Maybe there is a cultural determinism

Submitted by Trans-parere (Canada), Jan 19, 2008 at 18:03

Islam perfectly answers to the perpetuation of the tribe and all that is tribalism. Local, familiar authority and a familiar governing hierarchy. Before the coming of Jesus the various Jewish tribes lived no differently. What probably saved the Jew was the dissipation of the tribes and that corresponding exposure to different cultures and adaptation.

Though they did have a leg up on many other peoples being at the crossroads of a continental trade route. Unfortunately it also made the area ripe for conquest and the tribal infighting the Jews were engaged in ensured that they never had a unified answer to those conquest. The people of the British Isle's had a similar experience through multiple invasions by differing cultures that broke the immediate organization of the tribe and broadened the local experience.

It is said that what was at the root of Rome's greatness was her cultural diversity and the easy acceptance of "foreign" ideas. This is not so in Islamic States. Islamic States by their "Authority" isolate themselves from any possibility of any easy acceptance of new ideas or cultural exchange. What is the level of immigration, being cultural diversity, towards Islamic States? As Rome, Christianity developed likewise. As Christianity was carried from east to west it modified, adopting elements of local culture to become inclusive.

Islam is exclusive. When Mohammad decided to spread his theology he sent out letters to the tribal chiefs. Bow down to me or die on the end of my sword. Islam had nothing else to offer. Join Islam. You get to live. Today, 1400 years on, Islam is still the religion of cultural fear (and is only adopted by "Westerners" who want to exploit that particular power of coercion). It's not about what Islam can do for you. It's about what Islam can do to you. Those who were once Islamics and have publicly left that system confirm this by their experience.

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