Re: The Crusades
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Yea nicky, it really pays to keep an open mind so that you can distinguish between different forms of violence and the nuances of differing forms of dictatorship. That way you don't discriminate against forms of violence and those dictatorships that you have sympathy with or are just too cowardly to confront.
How noble and sophisticated of you.
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It is not a question of not confronting or having sympathy with forms of violence or repressive violence. But l;umping them altogether is absurd; I'd much rather live under some tinpot dictatorship that leaves you alone if you mind your own business than Stalinist Russia for example. I'd rather live in Egypt now than in Cambodia under Pol Pot. And I see a distinction between shooting someone for money and blowing up a cafe for political motives, despite the fact that both are wrong. Lumping them all in together is ridiculous.
I'll come back to your Quranic excerpts tonight or tomorrow; but let me quickly say firstly that context matters, and secondly that noone, not even MMMMMM [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img], believes that Islam or the Qur'an demand that everyone convert to Islam or be killed as you suggest.
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