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Originally Posted by dar512
Well, Marichiko, that's a start. However in order to confirm Radar's 100 to 1 ratio we'd need better numbers on how many Christians have been killed by Muslims over the same periods.
What you need to understand is that I'm mostly jerking Radar's chain.  : He stated a definite ratio when I just knew he never did any research to back it up. Also please note that I never said the statement was incorrect. I don't know from my own knowledge that it is. But if you're going to put stuff out there as fact, you ought to have something better than pulpit pounding to back it up. |
I understand what you're saying, Dar. Radar and I are rather unlikely allies and he should have provided citations. As it turns out, however, his 100 to 1 ratio is probably close to the mark if you check the other stats I gave.
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Originally Posted by dar512
In any case, I am not defending the crusades. But I'm not going to get all weepy over something my ancesters did hundreds of years ago either. And I don't think it in any way justifies current events.
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Thank you for clarifying your stance. I agree, its pointless to shed tears over the wrongs our own people may have committed centuries ago. It is useful to be aware of them, though. Ancestral hatreds can run deep, and certainly the collision between the West and the Mid East has a long and varied history. No, I don't think London or 9/11 was justified by the crusades and I doubt that the people who committed these actions were thinking of the Crusades either. The Crusades
do present a sort of backdrop for the mutual animosity of Christian versus Muslim, East versus West.
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Originally Posted by dar512
There's been a lot of strong rhetoric in many directions on this issue and most of it is hogwash. Nobody here has a clue what percentage of Muslims hate America/Americans. If they did, they'd be citing sources.
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Yes, people love to present rhetoric as fact. The statistic as to what percentage of Muslims hate America is an impossible one to find. As far as I know, there's been no Gallup Poll taken in Iraq and even if there were, I doubt that the respondants would give honest answers for fear of repercusions either way and from either side.
I think the biggest mistake people make is to view this as a religous conflict. It is not. The cultural tradition of the West happens to be Christian. The cultural tradition of the Mid East happens to be Muslim. Both Christ and Mohammed no doubt sit in heaven and weep to see what their followers are doing in the world today.