Peter Hendra wrote:

Love is surely in short supply in the world right
now. Perhaps now you will threaten me also?

Don W.

Don,
None of the above.

I wrote in jest to provoke the man.

Yes, I could see that in your writing because I've
read quite a few of your other posts, but decided
to respond as if you were serious because others
could easily misunderstand.

Nobody I know has any truck or sympathy for terrorism of any kind and
are saddened and annoyed at the growth of terrorism and these acts of
violence against innocent people world wide regardless of their
religion with which it has little to do and is used as an excuse and
point of focus for hatred. These include Tamil terrorists in Sri
Lanka, Hindu terrorists in India, the various Islamic terrorist groups
(who I reiterate are being totally un-Islamic) and Christian
terrorists such as in Indonesia who are being equally un-Christian.

I wholeheartedly agree. What is needed is for the
various religions to expell those who do evil and
profane the name of the religion.

What most are concerned about however, is that every Moslem gets
tarred by the brush applied to Osama bin Ladin or some extreme
ayatollah from Iran.

I don't think that this is true, as there are
millions of practicing Moslems in the US and
Canada. The problem is that extremism is a cancer
which has infected small groups of Moslems around
the world in many different countries. In the US
we are inundated by news reports of Moslem
extremists doing incredibly heartless and evil
things. At the same time, there is a deafening
silence from the rest of the Islamic world
regarding this evil. We cannot read minds, so the
silence and tolerance of the extremists by the
rest of the Islamic world is very troubling, and
leads to misplaced suspicions.

They are not anti-American. The question I have
had asked of me by so many is "Peter, why is America against Moslems?"
They just do not understand.

Well, personally, I don't think that the US is
against Moslems. Certainly not if they want to
live in peace with us.

The Christian terrorists or more correctly, those terrorists of
Indonesia who are Christian engage in heroin trafficking from the
Golden Triangle to the West and the smuggling of small girls and women
from Cambodia for the sex trade in order to buy weapons.

These people are not Christian, no matter how much
they claim to be.

These are a
high focus of Customs work as it is a sea born trade through the
Malcca Straits. Nobody would make the mental leap to conclude from
this that all Christians are supporters of terrorism and sex with
little girls as young as 6 years old or that it has anything to do
with doctrinal tenets. It is merely politically convenient for some
Western politicians to do so in regard to Islam.

I think that the problem is really more one of
misunderstanding between the various cultures of
the world. What is urgently needed is dialogue,
patience, and understanding--things typically in
short supply in human nature.

As I said, in our ranks we have several religions. What warms my heart
is that there is a wonderful tolerance between them all. During the
Hindu Devali (Hindu New Year), Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Christmas
festivals for example, families of different faiths visit each other's
homes and are respectful of their beliefs. Sometimes things get a bit
confused. My wife and son, who are nominally Christian (my
Mother-in-law is an Anglican minister) are phoned by several friends
(strict Moslems and Hindus) at midnight on Christmas Eve and wished a
"Happy Christmas" - confusing it with the Western New Year's Eve.

I have six adopted daughters (they were between 6 and 11 years old)
who were caught being smuggled from Cambodia for the sex trade. I
raise them as Buddhists, not as Moslems, because they were born into
that religion. Neither I nor anyone else have any right to make them
convert. They do however like Christian Christmas presents and
birthdays with parties and cakes with candles.

There are those of your religion that would brand
you an apostate and kill you and your adopted
daughters for what you are doing. We are fighting
them in Iraq right now, and they are killing the
Shia civilians by the hundreds for being
apostates. I guess to them "apostate" means
someone who doesn't believe exactly like they do.

Yes, I probably did go a bit overboard with The Captain, but he never
offended me; I was just provoking him for my own entertainment. I
shouldn't have. We also should turn the other cheek.

cheers and thanks for your comments
Peter

Actually, I've enjoyed the dialog.

Cheers, and thanks for _your_ comments

Don W.