Can Religious Leaders Redeem the Future of the World?

Religious priests - christian and muslim - can serve humanity best by getting a real job.

gill sahib is it that "The clash of civilizations must stop before it gets out of hand" or a clash of ideas?.

These pompous assholes think that the old man in Rome controls Christiandome. Isn't it a little too presumptuous of them to assume the responsibility of Muslim masses?

Sometime back a few Orthodox Jew high priests from Israel had a dialog with their Indian (Hindu!) counterparts. And they concluded that both Hinduism and Judaism teach us the same thing. I mean give me a frikking break!!

You can't talk to religious nutcases. How do you talk to peole who fly planes into buildings, blow up pizza parlors. movie threaterrs,. buses and trains all in the name of religious warfare or perceived injuctices..screw that..no talking. Take it to them and stick it up their ass.

Dash-Dot: #2
Let me clarify as follws.
Samuel Huntington published his "The Clash of Civilizations" in 1996. The attack on the twin towers of The World Trade Center occurred on Septenber 11, 2001, which played into the hands President Bush to open up the way for attack on Afghanistan. Although Iraq was invaded on the facile claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, it was a step toward opening up the clash of civilizations against the Muslim world. If now Iran is invaded, it would further expand into a wider conflict of civilizations. Although Huntington's concept is flawed as pointed out by many critics, the neocons have taken it literally and run with it.
I concluded my article by writing "The clash of civilizations must stop before it gets out of hand" in the above perspective.
Mohammad Gill

Dash-Dot: #2
Let me clarify as follws.
Samuel Huntington published his "The Clash of Civilizations" in 1996. The attack on the twin towers of The World Trade Center occurred on Septenber 11, 2001, which played into the hands President Bush to open up the way for attack on Afghanistan. Although Iraq was invaded on the facile claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, it was a step toward opening up the clash of civilizations against the Muslim world. If now Iran is invaded, it would further expand into a wider conflict of civilizations. Although Huntington's concept is flawed as pointed out by many critics, the neocons have taken it literally and run with it.
I concluded my article by writing "The clash of civilizations must stop before it gets out of hand" in the above perspective.
Mohammad Gill

Gill sahib, what do you suggest? Invite islamic fundosover for chai patta and try to discuss why Allah is crazy for thinking he owns the planet?

Maybe as a scholar and a writer, you should write an eessay ont he following:

"whereever there are muslims in significant minority..there are problems with co-existence" ---philippines to Europe.

Re: # 7

gill sahib,

..... i am afraid that the clash of civilizations - actually it is a clash between the civilized and the uncivilized - cannot be stopped unless al-lah sends down a revision to his message ...... as long as people like dr israr, zeemax, urstruly and osama keep on iterpreting the holy text in its originnal form, this clash is inevitable .....

..... but, it is really nothing to worry about ..... the world has survived many clashes between civilizations and between civilized people and barbarians ...... rome, greece, byzantium, arab, dutch, persian, german,chinese, japanese, portugese, ottoman, mongol - you name it, and every "civilization" has clashed with another at some time or the other ..... some, like the mongols, disappeared from the scences and others like the dutch have been diminished greatly ....... only a few primitive people - like hindoos and the eskimos - have managed to stay above this fray .... but if you believe huntington, hindooism is also a real civilization and it might be part of this global clash soon ..........

the ulama who wrote this open letter are all respected traditionalist [as opposed to extremist] ulama and it is a noble gesture but i don't think it will make the blindest bit of difference simply because it takes two hands to clap and the vatican is not interested in serious dialogue with islam--certainly not under ratzinger the nazi pope.

also, the real popes of the west are the banking institutions and not the vatican any more. it is not the middle ages.

as to gill sahib's question, 'can religious leaders redeem the future of the world?' the answer is an unconditional YES. ONLY they can do it.

The author writes "Even if the Pope responds positively, it will not immediately stop the ongoing warfare, but it will be a first step in the right direction. "

First let me begin by saying that the author, who mass produces articles on here, has again produced a tape recorderesque, banal, nonsensical article that helps cloud the issues rather than fix any problems.

Now, when we know that this letter is the work of idiots who want to crystallize into reality, the mythical war that does not exist in the world while at the same time legitmizing the Huntington thesis-which is a bunch of BS- as well as obfuscating the real issues that of the US elite maintaining their hegemony at the expense of the rest of the world. So, why is the US media so fascinated with this letter. On the one hand they don't want to show Musilms in a conciliatory mode, so they say it contains veiled threats and on the other they want to show that this farce the WOT is actually a war between civilization (Christian) and an ideology of hate (Islam). They get to have their pie and eat it too thanks to the work of some idiots who want to play Captain Kirk by writing grand letters, with their mind stuck in the Middle Ages where the Church dominated the scene but now is valued less than a backyard sewer as far as determining global affairs of consequence.... The US started this farce, they fueled this farce, they have institutionalized this farce and part of that farce is this back and forth about Islam- neither Islam nor Christianity have anything to do with this WOT or the global security situation, whatsoever....

#11 Posted by Naqshbandi on October 15, 2007 12:36:52 pm

Bhai,

I beg to differ.

There's a landmark accord btw Shias and Sunni clerics in Iraq not so long ago. Had the polarisation stopped there?

U know very well the western societies are not under the spell of clergy. If u remember Pope spoke against Lebanon and Iraq in the past. Has Israel stopped it offensive or Bush halted his hold on Iraq?

These rapproachment btw the religious heads wud add to atmospherics. There wont be any meaningful result out of such accords.

Prolly a constant hammering abt the Jews, Muslims and Christains being the children of Abraham/Ibrahim wud bring some perspective in this world. Not much though.

Such letters in themselves can not stop the war and herald a peaceful era because the political power and the decision-making authority is not in the hands of the religious leaders who wrote the letter. They however can certainly help to change the propaganda of hatred which is fuelling the fires of the war and consequent violence. Under the present circumstances, those who vie for peace are considered unrealistic ideologues which is simply unfortunate. The clash of civilizations can not create a peaceful ambience for any one. Violence begets violence. It is very dangerous and can lead to a global conflict with nuclear weapons. True, the Muslim world doesn't have the nukes but an expanded conflict will not necessarily remain confined to the west and the Muslim world. It might drag in other conutries as well.
In my opinion, war is not the solution to any thing; it is, on the other hand, a pathway to global destruction. If homo-sapiens want to sutvive, they will need to learn to live in peace.
The response of Archbishop of Canterbury is encouraging and if he and the other religious leaders, Christian and Muslim, continue to preach and practice peace among their communities and condemn violence, the existing heightened climate of hatred might be scaled down.
Mohammad Gill

Dr. Gill,

I agree with ur opinion - each and every word of it.

masadi writes: "First let me begin by saying that the author, who mass produces articles on here, has again produced a tape recorderesque, banal, nonsensical article that helps cloud the issues rather than fix any problems."

Yaar masadi, please append that to your signature, but change the author to (Mohammad Gill and Dr.Sohail)... look at my signature for inspiration :D

No offence Gill sahib, I think this article is a worthy one indeed.
with much respect,
thinking storm