[Athena]

This is the Islam month of Ramadan. This means it is a time of fasting and reflection for all Muslims.

Can we separate out those Muslims who for economic, political and military reasons, have taken to violence, because they do not represent the faith. This problem is brought about by many, many years of bad western political policy. If you want to debate this please start a thread for this. Here I want to speak of the faith, as Mohammed presented it, mandates people to think and reason clearly. It also produces very reverent people who do not mention the prophet Mohammed without stopping to say "peace upon him" and who constantly say "peace be upon you", when closing a written statement. Here are other terms


In The Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

God willing

These terms are used constantly and daily, producing a culture very humble, peaceful, reverent, and contemplative. What messed this up was western, economic goals that exploited Muslim countries, and often empowered evil dictators, because they could pay them off, support the evil dictator's power, and get for themselves the resources and regional power they wanted. This created chaos and all kinds of evil for people who have been the ideal of Godly people, even as Christian understand this ideal.

But the sin of wrongs begins prehaps with Muslims, long before our memory. Their sin?
When Rome fell, leaving only the Catholic church to bring civilization to a barbaric Europe and unite groups of people who traditional warred with each other, it faced a huge challenge that consumed the energy of the church. Muslims isolited themselves from this barbaric world, and cut off the Christian world's access to ancient documents, and access to the papyrus essential to writing anything down. The result was the Dark Ages far Europe, at a time when the Muslim civilization was excelling in math, science, medicine and all things civilizing.

Please, there is so much to say, and when the world shares awareness of this history and its ramifications, the meaning of the Savior (logos, the word) may be realized. Peace be upon you.