[Dean's World] Aziz P: a response to Arnold

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Posted by Aziz P:
a response to Arnold
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1199143470.shtml


   Arnold left a comment a few days ago that I've fanatically preserved
   in my browser tabs through several PC reboots. I usually don't respond
   to questions like this unless I have a measure of respect for the
   questioner. And I do, so I am. And I hope that the respect is
   reciprocated enough to give my argument below, and the supporting
   links I reference to, due consideration in the spirit of persuasive
   debate.

   Let me address each point in turn, since they seemed to be largely
   independent.

     Special note to Aziz: Don't get the idea that I imply any of the
     above has to do with religion. Islam sounds to me more
     straightforward than Christianity, and has fewer obscurities than
     Judaism. Which to a mind like mine makes it sound attractive.

   Your respect for Islam is appreciated, but I don't think it's strictly
   relevant (aside from your general distrust of religion). But you
   should know that Islam is anything but straightforward. You probably
   have some mental picture of what Islam is, analogous to Rozenweig's
   concept that in Islam there is no love between the mortal and the
   divine (a million Sufis are laughing with derision). Let me assure you
   that Islam is too many things to list, but a good rule of thumb is
   that Islam is not what non-muslims claim it to be.

     But two distinctly separate national cultures cannot sit in peace
     on the same small patch of territory, and this war can't be ended
     except eithr by eradicating Israel or by moving all or most of the
     Pals elsehere. Simple as that.

   Sorry, but that just isn't true. If you think that the I-P conflict is
   about culture, then you might have something if you analogized it to
   bitterness between brothers; in other words, the fact that Arab and
   Jewish culture isn't as different as either would like to admit, and
   the similarities breed conflict more than the differences. But no,
   Arnold, I hate to say it but the conflict really is about one simple
   thing: land. Not culture. Land. That, and the simple inescapable maxim
   facing Israel: Democracy, Jewishness, Greater Israel. Pick two.

   And in fact there is a very realistic pathway to peace. Dump the right
   of return, give Jerusalem "international city" status, and dismantle
   the [1]illegal (according to Israeli law) west bank settlements (PDF
   link). In other words, something along the lines of [2]the Taba Accord
   (accepted by Olmert) and [3]the Abdullah Plan. It's not really rocket
   science, but both sides need to want it, and neither sides' leadership
   does.

     I took my pick along time ago. Chances are you did too. Either way,
     I won't blame you. But just because my wife and I are Europeans
     living on the american continent doesn't make us brothers and
     sisters of all or any of the rest of the Europeans.

   you took your pick? on what, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? I think
   that the only honest assessment of that conflict is "a pox on both
   your houses."

     So why should a guy like you, a Moslem from India, be a brother of
     some guy from Nablus, just because he acknowledges the same god and
     the same prophet that you do?

   Well, I'm not, when it comes to matters of political dispute. In fact
   when it comes to the IP conflict, I am on record as being [4]pro-Wall,
   have [5]praised Israeli airstrikes on Syria, [6]ferociously condemned
   the terrorists, and [7]expressed my admiration for the basic mission
   of the IDF (which is to defend Israel from existential threat, not act
   as thugs for hire on behalf of thieving religious [8]fanatics, much to
   those [9]fanatics' violent disappointment).

   However, I am that Palestinian's brother in another, more important
   respect than mere disputes over land. [10]I don't believe in the Ummah
   as a coherent entity of relevance to American muslims, and I think
   that [11]muslims in America need to articulate their issues in the
   political sphere independently of what the "Ummah" is obsessed about.
   But there IS a kinship, and its of a kind with the one i share with
   you, my fellow citizen of this nation. If you cant recognize why that
   should be so, then you're missing something essential about
   conservatism.

   I am muslim. It's what I am. But it's not who I am.

References

   1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/21_11_06_west_bank.pdf
   2. http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1995/10/FM%20Peres%20Statement-%20Opening%20Winter%20Session%20of%20Knes
   3. http://www.nixoncenter.org/publications/articles/Kemp/031002crown_prince_abdullah.htm
   4. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2005/02/krauthammer-fence-to-enforce-peace.html
   5. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2003/10/israel-was-right-to-bomb-syria.html
   6. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2002/11/lanat-upon-hirabists.html
   7. http://dean2004.blogspot.com/2003/08/muslim-for-dean.html
   8. http://joesettler.blogspot.com/
   9. http://theblackkettle.blogspot.com/2005/06/idf-settlers-clash-as-army-razes-gaza.html
  10. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2003/09/good-of-ummah.html
  11. http://cityofbrass.blogspot.com/2007/10/defining-muslim-left-part-i.html