Bahama Pundit

Religion & Apartheid in the Middle East

by Larry Smith

The dramatic loss of American credibility and prestige after four years of failure in Iraq has forced the once arrogant Bush Administration to take a more pragmatic approach to world affairs.

The adjustment includes improved relations with the United Nations; efforts to deal realistically with enemies like Iran, North Korea and Syria; and the beginnings of a shift on climate change policy.

Most recently, it has included a presidential tour of Latin America - a region that has been neglected since the early days of the Bush government, when Dubyah's first overseas trip was to meet with his Mexican counterpart.

But perhaps the most important element of this shift is a renewed diplomatic effort to settle the festering Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, which experts say is much worse off now than it was when Bush took office six years ago.

A new bestseller by Jimmy Carter - the president who helped negotiate the Camp David Accords 30 years ago - insists that the only effective approach to the Palestinian problem is the two-state solution first proposed almost a century ago - partition of the Holy Land between Arabs and Jews.

Seeking the Voices of Moderate Islam

by Larry Smith

A recent article (read it here) on the dangers of religious fundamentalism - and particularly radical Islam - drew responses from three Bahamians.

One called the article a balanced analysis:

"The enemy is fundamentalism across the board, as you rightly conclude. It would be a great thing if all the 'liberals' and 'secularists' could voice themselves more strongly, without resorting to the passionate screaming that these others always resort to, and really make their voice heard in the world again.

"To allow the increasing influence of the 'church' in politics here would be disastrous. Lawyers make bad enough politicians as it is. Priests and pastors? Truly frightening."

Another urged readers to watch the documentary 'Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against The West' (http://www.obsessionthemovie.com):

"Everyone on the planet must watch this. If I had ultimate power over the country I'd implement mandatory public education days. For one random hour on one random day of every week, all tv, cable, satellite, radio, even internet will be forced to show the same thing. The first thing I'd show would be this movie. I'd probably show it two weeks in a row."

The third declared that Islam was a religion of peace, and took issue with a "mistranslated" verse from the Koran as quoted in the article:

On Hate

by Nicolette Bethel

A band of youths barricade the small house in which a Haitian man lives, and set fire to it so that he burns to death inside. Two young men grab a third from a bar, take him out to the country, beat him with a pistol because he is a homosexual, and tie him to a fence post to die. A gang of Hutu citizens drag their Tutsi neighbours out of their houses, carry them to a nearby field, and chop them to death with machetes. A group of Arabs hijack planes and fly them into a pair of tall buildings full of Westerners just arriving for work.

These are all examples of the destructive nature of hate. I could go on, but I won’t, at least not for now. Instead, I want to talk about hate itself. I want to talk about it because in all our conversations — on the radio, in the newspapers, in the street, and, apparently, in the church — that is one thing that we don’t seem to talk about much. We say many things are taboo — homosexuality, godlessness, sin, and too much mixing with foreign elements for starters. The one thing we don’t seem to think is taboo is hate.