Unfortunately, too many people in the U.S. get way too much pleasure from their food, if you know what I mean.
Ah - I thought this is what you were getting at. And again, precisely my point. I'll repeat: . Nourish us. Give us pleasure. In other words, eating enough to sustain us, and enjoying the intrinsic pleasure in a peach, packed with imminent flavor. Such a peach isn't grown via methods designed to give it glow, with nothing going on inside; washed out, devoid of all character - but hey, unblemished! We value food when it's cheap, and we measure "a good meal" by how much we are able to stuff ourselves silly with nutritionless, flavorless goop.
As a Muslim I will freely admit that the Muslim Nation has fallen behind in terms of science and technology. We can only marvel at the West for their recent progress in these fields. Those enlightened Caliphs who you were referring to were probably more fundamentalist than Osama Bin Laden. In any event, I fail to see your point here as Germany progressed significantly during the reign of Hitler, one of Catholicism's worst mass murderers. Tell Dr. Hoodbhoy that the Muslims are contributing oil, without which technological progress would be almost impossible. Why should he be bothered anyway, as Muslim Governments and consumers are buying trillions of dollars worth of Western products. You should not bite the hand that feeds you.
You are woefully mixing several things, and none of them square with reality, I'm afraid. I count achievement under the Caliphs as along several criteria: sciences, philosophy, art. The Caliphs referred to specifically encouraged a cross-cultural pollinization - jews, christians, muslims and others came to the center of Caliphate power to contribute to the flowering that took place. As with all such fecund periods of history (see Alexandria's history, for instance), it took place under a regime relatively tolerant of others' ways. The antithesis of your comparison of these Caliphs to Bin Laden. If you see Hitler's Germany as a time of advancement on a par with the great periods of tolerant liberalization among the peoples of history, well, I really don't have much to say. I agree with much of your last point. We in the west have treated muslim peoples like dirt throughout much of our sordid history as colonialists. And we have reaped, in the thirst for oil, what we have sown. But I do not think you help your cause by holding to this line above, as well as the line you hold on the other thread (regarding women in fundamentalist Islamic societies).
that what i'm affraid off. most muslim country are live by the oil. when the oil is gone than what happen? I'm a muslim, and I'm sad that many muslim are poor in the world. In indonesia now they have to take long queue for kerosene so they able to cook. Yes, they are people who still cook with kerosene. japan is a country with less resources, also singapore... but those country are well educated. They live very well and they do not need oil to live, they have knowledge of science and technology. if you have oil and the knowledge, will it be better?
If oil runs out then the whole world, especially the west, will have a problem not only Muslim counties. In fact western economies will collapse first due to their overwhelming dependence on oil. Do a search for "peak oil" in google and you will understand what I mean.
When the oil in the ground runs out (or becomes too expensive to recover), we'll just switch to biofuels and hydrogen generated using nuclear power. A minor inconvenience for the West, a complete disaster to the Islamic countries who have not invested their oil wealth in technological advancement.
Evidently you lack any knowledge of what crude oil is and what, apart from petrol, is derived from it. You also seem to think that biofuel is a viable alternative. Not so. There are several issues regarding manufacturing biofuel. Land, water, the environment and damaging effects to the food supply are just a few. Both Hydrogen and enriched uranium has to be produced using a primary energy source such as fossil fuel, coal or nuclear power. Both fossil fuel and coal are finite resources. Vicious circle isn't it? This situation is quite depressing, especially for Muslims. If the west had alternative fuel supplies then they would get the hell out of our countries and leave us alone to ride our camels and get on with our lives.
That is a wildly inaccurate assumption and I hope for your sake that it is not indicative of the quality of your thinking overall. Do you understand that we are in absolutely no danger of oil "running out?" Oil won't "run out", it will simply become more expensive to recovery -- more expensive than other available alternatives. Biofuel is a viable alternative -- without a doubt. The West's agricultural industry is currently running far below capacity. We have plenty to spare for use as fuel. The only reason that we do not do that now is that ancient oil is so cheap. Nope. Nuclear power is the answer. Don't be depressed, you can always strap on a bomb vest and walk into an Internet cafe. The trouble is that, when the West leaves Muslims alone to murder each other, they seem to "get on with their lives" by building terrorist camps in order to wage holy war on the inhabitants of Dar Al-Harb.
Much too old for that and there are tens of thousands of young Muslims prepared to do that already. The provocative rants of you and your ilk, only serve the interests of the terrorist recruiters as they use it to brainwash moderate Muslims, saying to them: "Look at these infidels, they hate you so much and insult your brothers and your religion all the time." You appear to be very ignorant about nuclear power, biofuel and fossil fuel hence your statements that nuclear power is the answer and biofuel IS a viable alternative. For uranium to be enriched it has to be first mined and transported using fossil fuel powered machinery and then enriched , again using fossil fuel. Power stations will have to be built and this too requires biofuel. Nuclear pollution is a big concern and security is a nightmare. Nuclear waste has to be transported large distances and any run of the mill Al Qaeda operative worth his salt can target a nuclear wast transport vehicle and cause immense damage. (Of course Al Qaeda will only use the nuclear option if America or Israel uses it first.) Even if the West has the capacity to produce biofuel the problem doesn't end there. There are other issues of concern. This is what a UN report states: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3152195 Also, if biofuel and nuclear power is such a viable alternative then why the bloody hell did america invade Iraq, sacrifice more than 70 000 american and south american lives and spend billions of dollars in the process. At $74.00 / barrel crude oil is no longer a cheap alternative. The war between Muslims and their enemies will continue until doomsday, whether the west leaves Muslims alone or not. Truth and falsehood have opposed each other since the beginning of time and Islam will prevail in the end. Deal with it!
You seem to be typical hypocrat . Look at two of your statements : Here you claim to be a moderate and don't want to provoke the militants. Here you provoke your militant brothers not to stop and continue the war irrespective what others do. How can we accuse miltants when people like don't want to co-exist and are convinvced about the victory of ISLAM . Please shun this mentality, as it can prove fatal for both ISLAM and the world .
Religious fundamentalism tends to retard scientific growth no matter what faiths are practicing it. In many cases, scientific growth is prohibited. Think of all those people who do not use modern technology because their religion tells them it's evil. Islam might not explicitly state this, but in parts of the Islamic world scientific advancement and Westernization are seen as synonymous. Oil can also be blamed for this lack of recent scientific advancement. In most cases, scientific advances are for-profit enterprises. Eli Whitney didn't invent the cotton gin for the good of the world, he just wanted to lower labor costs. Having oil decreases the need for new profit generators, so scientific endeavors could be seen as wasteful. How many enterprises make more money per dollar spent than pumping oil?
An interesting facts laid out by Dr Zakir Naik while answering questions raised by Dr William Cambell in open public discussion. Its a must watch video for both muslims and christians part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckMwbVmMkIw&mode=related&search= Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6AiBo0COUQ&mode=related&search= part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoR_lPgWc9Q&mode=related&search= part4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEigZv7QFKk&mode=related&search= part5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCpDc-L5_go&mode=related&search= part6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-4dKsVyTog&mode=related&search= part7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6AiBo0COUQ&mode=related&search= Its about scientific errors in Quran and Bible.