You dealt with alot people from different backgrounds for a long time, so I would like to hear your take on the "evil" Muslims in general.
sorry to take so long, trav, but i wasn't terribly well, and wanted to have a good think about my response.
first off, i don't believe in either "evil" or "good". it all depends on context, persepective, intent, and prior knowledge. and that goes for both evil and good as abstract concepts (i.e., having an independent definition), as actions (e.g. shooting someone), or as qualities which people do or do not possess (a "good" or an "evil person"). i prefer to use Right and Wrong, myself - some things are one of them, and easily definable - racism, sexism, injustice, irresponsiblity, etc. however, there are various shades of grey as well as the black and white versions, some of which comes under what i call "understandable, but not excusable/acceptable" banner: some kids who've been horrifically abused whom i've worked with, behave in ways which i'd call understandable, but it's still not okay for them to behave in those ways. etc., etc., etc.
so, that's the first bit explained. as for the second bit - "muslims" - i still maintain that it's not illogical to lump a whole bunch of disparate people together into one convenient grouping. i mean, just have a look at us lot on here: can you honestly say someone stating "all people with AS are..." would be even marginally correct? not a chance. and it's the same for muslims. which is why i take anything which is stated by a "leader of the muslim community" - whether pro or anti-jihad, or whatever - with a v large pinch of salt. it's quite simple, there's no such thing as the muslim community, or the christian community, or the gay community, or the autistic community, etc. change -ty to -ties, and i might just start listening a bit more closely.
i don't claim to know everything about muslims (about anything, infact), but i do have a lot of experience working and living with a very mixed bag of people. my personal take on different cultures/religions etc. is that there are positive, neutral and negative things about all of them, on both a personal and a political level. basically, i have problems with things muslims do/believe in, but then, i have problems with things jews, christians, hindus, wiccans, atheists, capitalists, scoicalists, greens, uncle tom cobley and all do/believe in. the point being that i don't subscribe to the "evil muslim" thing, any more than i subscribe to the "all muslims are wonderful" thing, etc.
so, as far as i'm concerned, in this instance, the israelis are wrong, and have been compounded their offences over some years. on the other hand, jews have been systematically hunted for fucking centuries, so one can understand their rage. still doesn't excuse the way they've gone for lebanon recently, though, under any circumstances. the situation is far too complicated and tortuous to be able to describe it in a few words. and that's not a cop out - it really is centuries old.
does that go some way to answer your question, trav?
(and i don't give a toss if anyone thinks i did this cos of what was said in the blurb under the "lucifer's forum" bit - you can project all you like, anyone who
does think that. it's your waste of energy, not mine).