Like you said, Hindustan is a pathetic excuse for a nation. It has more poor than 28 poorest nations of Africa. It was only prosperous, under Islamic Rule.

India’s economy grew at barely 3 percent until we (I’m DBD) liberalized our economy in the 90s. We started out in the 50s with the same GDP per capita as South Korea, which grew by leaps and bounds and is now on par with industrialized, western nations. Per capita, we’re still among the poorest nations in the world. That’s a separate discussion though.

The ancient Arab world was extremely prosperous, well before oil. Both under Islam, and in antiquity. The gulf Arab states however were fishing villages. It’s important to make this distinction. Even in the Arab world (don’t forget North Africa), there are few fans of Saudi Arabia/the UAE.

Islam changed around the time the Muslim Brotherhood started, basically to counter British imperialism. You could almost legitimately blame the British for this one. They left a mess wherever they went. Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Egypt. (They just left India impoverished, but I do think we did very well to adopt a secular constitution, unlike Pakistan. Our lack of government accountability kills us though!) The USA is repeating these very same mistakes. And the USA has caused some newer non-Islamic ones with Vietnam, its support of corrupt autocratic right wing dictators in South America.

Do you see why America bashing happens? I’m no America basher, quite the contrary. I’m a constitutionalist. America needs to get back to its founding principles of liberty and freedom.

Gaza’s economic condition has everything to do with blockades and conflict. And little to do with Islam.

Yes, the Taliban are awful, no ambivalence there. They stood in solidarity with the hijackers of IC814. Didn’t allow Indian troops to storm the aircraft. What they do to their women is unforgivable/barbaric. But cliche as it sounds, the only way out of the mess is infrastructure development. This war is unwinnable/unaffordable.

The troll needs to be ignored, it adds nothing of value.

Reminded me of “Among the Believers” by VS Naipaul. Also this:

What Do Terrorists Want “In nearly all cases, the jihadi terrorists have a patently self-evident ambition: to establish a world dominated by Muslims, Islam, and Islamic law, the Shari’a. Or, again to cite the Daily Telegraph, their “real project is the extension of the Islamic territory across the globe, and the establishment of a worldwide ‘caliphate’ founded on Shari’a law.”

Terrorists openly declare this goal. The Islamists who assassinated Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 decorated their holding cages with banners proclaiming the “caliphate or death.” A biography of one of the most influential Islamist thinkers of recent times and an influence on Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam declares that his life “revolved around a single goal, namely the establishment of Allah’s Rule on earth” and restoring the caliphate.

Bin Laden himself spoke of ensuring that “the pious caliphate will start from Afghanistan.” His chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also dreamed of re-establishing the caliphate, for then, he wrote, “history would make a new turn, God willing, in the opposite direction against the empire of the United States and the world’s Jewish government.” Another Al-Qaeda leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, publishes a magazine that has declared “Due to the blessings of jihad, America’s countdown has begun. It will declare defeat soon,” to be followed by the creation of a caliphate.”

Yup. Once that happens, all their problems will go away like magic.

All this wouldn’t concern me but for the fact that this disease has also infected true faiths in the subcontinent. This unfortunate incident is just one example of how Hindu ritual of cutting of women’s noses has infected our Pure religion. To prevent this every true pious Muslim should do all within his power to get rid of this cancer.

Brit-Paki is obviously here to rile people up with extremist and inflammatory screeds. I’m surprised Vivek hasn’t banned him unless this is supposed to be some farcical attempt at being “Fair and balanced.”

Vivek did warn us we need to catch up with his learning curve! Give him a little more time. Till then the trolls can have a field day.

A little off topic, but refers to a conversation I just had… The Hawaiians could vouch–that was the tyranny of sugar and pineapple, that caused America to decide it should be the 50th (I think) state.

However, the filipinos ( heavily Christian which contributed to their openness) were glad when McArthur returned after WWII. The Japanese had been engaging in some terrible behavior one would never expect of such normally polite people. In an agency archives, I saw some grade school text books produced by the U.S. Dept. of Education for the Filipino schools in the early 1900s and I was impressed by the beauty of the illustrations and respect for the culture. No “exoticizing” just tastefully done colored drawings of everyday life and stories suited for the children of that country. But those days were a high-water mark for illustrators in the western world. I’m blown away by the quality of a lot of ordinary text-book drawings from the first 3 or 4 decades of the 20th century. I would say the Philippines is one of the few places where American foreign policy succeeded in winning friends and influencing people over a long period of time, at least until the 1970s.

As for Puerto Rico, considering how many are here, I think a referendum on the subject of remaining in the fold would be iffy.

No, Sameer.That’s a simplistic, non nuanced reading of the issue. As BritPaki so elegantly explained, and you can still read his comment in full at #49, the real fault lies in the corruption of the pure ideology of Islam by the evil Hindu cult. The solution is clear- more Islam. These countries should strive to be purer, preferably more than the Saudi Arabians themselves, and incorporate as much Islam as they can in every aspect of their life. Then all their problems will vanish, just like they have in the middle east.

An Afghan Muslim girl gets her nose cut off by her Afghan Muslim husband in the Islamic state of Afghanistan, and some how this is because of India and Hinduism. No the husband is just a total jerk.