The USA Political Thread

[lennco]

Here you can spout your USA political views.

Rules:
1. Keep it clean
2. No fighting
3. Respect the views of others.
4. US Political views, No Religious views
5. Have fun

:wave:

 

[GILSAN]

Are there any majority Muslim countries in the world where other religions, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. aren't persecuted?

Slavery still popular in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/index/

Not on planet Earth. In fact most minority communities of Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists that used to live in majority Muslim countries, 40. 50. 60 years ago, have been driven out or kicked out by the intolerant Muslims.

Haris showed videos of 1 mosque being blown up and another shot at, but he didn't show videos on Youtube showing many hundreds of churches destroyed or burn by Muslim fanatics all over the world, including in Europe

 

[TheEnd]

Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes

Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally

Thousands of documents detailing some of the most shameful acts and crimes committed during the final years of the British empire were systematically destroyed to prevent them falling into the hands of post-independence governments, an official review has concluded.

Those papers that survived the purge were flown discreetly to Britain where they were hidden for 50 years in a secret Foreign Office archive, beyond the reach of historians and members of the public, and in breach of legal obligations for them to be transferred into the public domain.

The archive came to light last year when a group of Kenyans detained and allegedly tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion won the right to sue to British government. The Foreign Office promised to release the 8,800 files from 37 former colonies held at the highly-secure government communications centre at Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire.

The historian appointed to oversee the review and transfer, Tony Badger, master of Clare College, Cambridge, says the discovery of the archive put the Foreign Office in an "embarrassing, scandalous" position. "These documents should have been in the public archives in the 1980s," he said. "It's long overdue." The first of them are made available to the public on Wednesday at the National Archive at Kew, Surrey.

The papers at Hanslope Park include monthly intelligence reports on the "elimination" of the colonial authority's enemies in 1950s Malaya; records showing ministers in London were aware of the torture and murder of Mau Mau insurgents in Kenya, including a case of aman said to have been "roasted alive"; and papers detailing the lengths to which the UK went to forcibly remove islanders from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

However, among the documents are a handful which show that many of the most sensitive papers from Britain's late colonial era were not hidden away, but simply destroyed. These papers give the instructions for systematic destruction issued in 1961 after Iain Macleod, secretary of state for the colonies, directed that post-independence governments should not get any material that "might embarrass Her Majesty's government", that could "embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants or others eg police informers", that might compromise intelligence sources, or that might "be used unethically by ministers in the successor government".

Among the documents that appear to have been destroyed were: records of the abuse of Mau Mau insurgents detained by British colonial authorities, who were tortured and sometimes murdered; reports that may have detailed the alleged massacre of 24 unarmed villagers in Malaya by soldiers of the Scots Guards in 1948; most of the sensitive documents kept by colonial authorities in Aden, where the army's Intelligence Corps operated a secret torture centre for several years in the 1960s; and every sensitive document kept by the authorities in British Guiana, a colony whose policies were heavily influenced by successive US governments and whose post-independence leader was toppled in a coup orchestrated by the CIA.

The documents that were not destroyed appear to have been kept secret not only to protect the UK's reputation, but to shield the government from litigation. If the small group of Mau Mau detainees are successful in their legal action, thousands more veterans are expected to follow.

It is a case that is being closely watched by former Eoka guerillas who were detained by the British in 1950s Cyprus, and possibly by many others who were imprisoned and interrogated between 1946 and 1967, as Britain fought a series of rearguard actions across its rapidly dimishing empire.

The documents show that colonial officials were instructed to separate those papers to be left in place after independence – usually known as "Legacy files" – from those that were to be selected for destruction or removal to the UK. In many colonies, these were described as watch files, and stamped with a red letter W.

The papers at Kew depict a period of mounting anxiety amid fears that some of the incriminating watch files might be leaked. Officials were warned that they would be prosecuted if they took any any paperwork home – and some were. As independence grew closer, large caches of files were removed from colonial ministries to governors' offices, where new safes were installed.

In Uganda, the process was codenamed Operation Legacy. In Kenya, a vetting process, described as "a thorough purge", was overseen by colonial Special Branch officers.

Clear instructions were issued that no Africans were to be involved: only an individual who was "a servant of the Kenya government who is a British subject of European descent" could participate in the purge.

Painstaking measures were taken to prevent post-independence governments from learning that the watch files had ever existed. One instruction states: "The legacy files must leave no reference to watch material. Indeed, the very existence of the watch series, though it may be guessed at, should never be revealed."

When a single watch file was to be removed from a group of legacy files, a "twin file" – or dummy – was to be created to insert in its place. If this was not practicable, the documents were to be removed en masse. There was concern that Macleod's directions should not be divulged – "there is of course the risk of embarrassment should the circular be compromised" – and officials taking part in the purge were even warned to keep their W stamps in a safe place.

Many of the watch files ended up at Hanslope Park. They came from 37 different former colonies, and filled 200 metres of shelving. But it is becoming clear that much of the most damning material was probably destroyed. Officials in some colonies, such as Kenya, were told that there should be a presumption in favour of disposal of documents rather than removal to the UK – "emphasis is placed upon destruction" – and that no trace of either the documents or their incineration should remain. When documents were burned, "the waste should be reduced to ash and the ashes broken up".

Some idea of the scale of the operation and the amount of documents that were erased from history can be gleaned from a handful of instruction documents that survived the purge. In certain circumstances, colonial officials in Kenya were informed, "it is permissible, as an alternative to destruction by fire, for documents to be packed in weighted crates and dumped in very deep and current-free water at maximum practicable distance from the coast".

Documents that survive from Malaya suggest a far more haphazard destruction process, with relatively junior officials being permitted to decide what should be burned and what should be sent to London.

Dr Ed Hampshire, diplomatic and colonial record specialist at the National Archive, said the 1,200 files so far transferred from Hanslope Park represented "gold dust" for historians, with the occasional nugget, rather than a haul that calls for instant reinterpretation of history. However, only one sixth of the secret archive has so far been transferred. The remainder are expected to be at Kew by the end of 2013.

 

[TheEnd]

The Greatest Cover-Up in History ? How Imperial Britain's Racist India, Africa & China Narrative ‎Still Persists

"Many hundreds of years before the coming of the English, the nations of India had been a collection of wealthy and highly civilised people, possessed of great language with an elaborate code of laws and social regulations, with exquisite artistic taste in architecture and decoration, producing conceptions which have greatly influenced the development of the most progressive races of the West." Henry Mayer Hyndman, 20th Century British politician.

"Indian philosophers' subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys." T. S. Eliot, British playwright.

This, the penultimate article of this series, seeks to explain how British perceptions of India (and by extension, those of a once prosperous Africa, China and Middle East) are still unwittingly framed through the capricious prism of supremacist colonial propaganda. Firstly, for a country which a number of respected scholars have suggested may be the greatest single contributor to human civilisation, such perceptions of India are not just crassly derogatory, but factually untenable.

"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked." Mark Twain, American author.

A primary indicator of the success of any civilisation is its economic standing, which often directly impacts the quality of social justice, human development, polity, governance, as well as achievements in science, innovation and the arts. By this vital yardstick alone, India has been the most successful nation in recorded history.

According to the painstaking calculations of Cambridge University economic historian, Angus Maddison, India was the world's largest economy for the majority of the 1,700 years before the entrenchment of the British East India Company.

India had accounted for as much as 33% of global GDP - more than three times that of the whole of Western Europe combined - with even a GDP per capita often exceeding that of Britain. During the eras of loot, war and colonisation that preceded the British Raj, the 'Indian way' remained largely intact and as a result, India was still the second largest economy in the world, briefly overtaken by her giant sister civilisation, China (which was also subsequently brought to her knees by Imperial Britain).

"India was a far greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or Asia. She had great merchants, businessmen, ship building - nearly every kind of manufacture known to the civilised world was already in India". Rev J. T. Sunderland, American Christian minister.

By 1700, India was again the world's largest economy, accounting for 24.4% of global GDP, more than that of the whole of Europe combined, and almost ten times the size of Britain's economy, whose growth had already began benefiting from 'trade' with India, China and Africa. By the time of independence, a socially, economically and industrially devastated India's share of global GDP had plummeted to a mere 4.2%.

"A significant fact which stands out is that those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today." Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

By independence, the world's leading ship building, metallurgy and textiles industries had been systematically decimated (and subsequently cloned in Britain); a society with a system of mass education was now almost fully illiterate; and callous Imperial policies led to a population explosion that India is still grappling with today.

One of the most macabre manifestations of the malevolent intent and unequivocal ineptitude of British rule - which is still shamefully projected as 'benevolent' and 'efficient'- was the genesis of mass poverty and famine throughout what is now called the 'developing world'. Tens, of millions of people in India - and hundreds of millions throughout the colonised world - died from starvation alone during such 'Victorian holocausts'.

Under British rule, India suffered more famines in mere decades than during the preceding 1,000 years.

During a visit to Pakistan, Prime Minister David Cameron stated that many of the modern world's problems were the product of Imperial Britain's legacy. These words do not merely apply to the conflict and strife that prevails from Syria and Egypt, to Israel and Palestine, but also to the destitution, the poverty, the illiteracy, the corruption, and the deep-rooted public sector inefficiencies and nepotism institutionalised by British rule, which today afflicts vast swathes of the (re)developing world.

"..I was filled with astonishment and indignation at the apparently conscious and deliberate bleeding of India by England throughout a hundred and fifty years. I began to feel that I had come upon the greatest crime in all history." William Durant, American historian.

One of Mahatma Gandhi's principle grievances against the British was not merely that of Britain's presence in India - he even accepted allegiance to the Crown. Instead, it was how Britain had systematically dismantled painstakingly nurtured Indian systems of administration, food and water management, industry, grassroots economic prosperity, education and social cohesion.

"When the British came, there was, throughout India, a system of communal schools managed by village communities. The agents of the East India Company destroyed these village communities. Instead of encouraging education, the Government encouraged drink." William Durant.

Starving children in Africa, malnourished villagers in India, despotism in the Middle East and the corruption, gender crimes, illiteracy, social decay and destitution that afflicts more than half of humanity are the real and overwhelming legacies of colonial rule.

It is of no irony that virtually all former British colonies, from Kenya to India, and Egypt to Pakistan, have been cursed with almost identical Imperial footprints; the same set of existential problems, the same Victorian social character, and the same wholly disingenuous post-colonial narrative.

In this context, and given her relative size, India's achievements since independence are particularly astounding given the scale of the existential threats that she faced in 1947, and the fact that she has pursued a path which she ostensibly first gave to the world - democracy. Despite the ugly headlines that dominate our view of an India that is still recovering from the direct impact of colonial rule, the country has lifted more than half a billion people out of poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy and achieved rapid strides in science, technology and the arts.

 

[mr-x]

Donna Brazil comes clean about corruption at the DNC... after sitting on the info for over a year.

http://therightscoop.com/pure-of-he...d-dws-under-the-2016-corruption-bus-big-time/

 

[TheEnd]

Middle-class cocaine users funding slavery and murder

City bankers, middle-class students and middle-aged professionals must admit that their cocaine use is supporting slavery and murder, the former head of UK drug strategy has said.

 

[mr-x]

The notion that British rule is the reason India and Pakistan are poor countries ignores their own history of violence, racism, cast system, religious intolerance and Marxism. Usually spouted by ignorant Marxist.

America, Australia, Canada survived the yoke of oppression and flourished. Our Governments are based on natural rights of the individual, limited democracy and the rule of law.

You can't name one country in this world that didn't take land and resources by force. That's not an excuse, just context.

 

[TheEnd]

Did slave labor help build your computer or smartphone? There’s a strong possibility.


North Korean workers — labouring in Chinese factory conditions likened to “modern day slavery” — process seafood for U.S. and Canadian companies as their government takes most of their wages. The income could account for a sizable portion of the cost of North Korea’s nuclear program.


NYC also benefitted greatly from slavery. The same things that make New York a rich and attractive place today made it a partner in slavery leading up to the war – namely its ties to finance and commodities trading. New York was enriched by slavery, and then enriched again by the war effort.


Slavery footprint is a site that asks the simple question, "How many slaves work for you?" The answer feels like it should be zero—after all, nobody reading this owns another human being (I hope). But because of the vast network of supply chains that make up our ever-increasing global marketplace, it turns out that it's a pretty hard question to answer.

As a thought exercise, let's consider the sparkly stuff, like the paint on your car. A common way to make something sparkle is to infuse it with mineral called mica, explains Justin Dillon of Made in a Free World, an organization dedicated to promoting transparent and humane supply chains. "Anywhere between 50 and 60 percent of the world's mica," Dillon tells me, "comes from a region in India where it's mined by kids using prehistoric tools going down into rathole mines. They come out with sparkles on their face."

Dillon's not bullshitting— last year 12 multinational companies had been purchasing mica that had been mined by children. And it quickly came out that those kids weren't exactly working in those mines because they were looking for an alternative to a paper route. "It's painful to see. I look at sparkles very differently now," Dillon says.

Modern-day slavery, Dillon explains, is "extreme poverty with the bottom dropped out." It means being a person who is forced to work in terrible conditions who doesn't have the privilege of stopping. "Anywhere where you don't have the structure around you to protect you and hold you at a basic level of justice," Dillon says, "the conditions are there for you to fall into slavery." According to data from Made In a Free World, over 29 million people could be considered "slaves" under that definition.

Fortunately, there are steps people can take to fight this new version of slavery. Namely, they can help to change the attitudes that make people complicit about the use of forced labor in the supply chains of products they use. Made in a Free World aims to bring awareness to forced labor in supply chains, not just among consumers, but among large corporations who have the power to alter purchasing decisions on a large scale. If enough massive corporations start buying from suppliers who enforce fair labor practices, maybe people can feel a little less bad about buying stuff, armed with the knowledge that they're doing so responsibly.

 

[mr-x]

India has some of the Smartest people in the world who can't wait to leave it. India is poor b/c the Government is corrupt, intolerant of individual rights and Marxist.

 

[TheEnd]

Top UK business leaders decry current state of capitalism

Management greed, corporate tax dodging and investor short-termism under fire

Some of Britain’s top business leaders have delivered sharp criticism of the state of capitalism, admitting that management greed, corporate tax dodging and investor short-termism have left it in need of reform and modernisation. “The underlying promise of western capitalist economies — that a rising tide lifts all boats — has been broken,” said Baroness Shriti Vadera, the former minister who now chairs Santander UK. “A better model” is now needed, she added.

 

[TheEnd]

Capitalism is not delivering on its promise to raise living standards, a former head of the business lobby, the CBI, has warned.

Lord Adair Turner, who is also a former City regulator, made the comments ahead of the release of third quarter growth figures for the UK on Wednesday.

He said the basic idea that "a rising tide raises all boats" had gone wrong.

Economic growth was not feeding through into people's incomes and living standards, he said in a BBC interview.

"Everybody knows that capitalism is not egalitarian, but the broad promise has been that, over a ten year period, you can be pretty confident that a rising tide raises all boats and everybody feels somewhat better off, and that's gone wrong," he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money programme.

 

[TheEnd]

India has some of the Smartest people in the world who can't wait to leave it. India is poor b/c the Government is corrupt, intolerant of individual rights and Marxist.

I think right now the smartest people in the world, can't wait to leave it.

 

[GILSAN]

Donna Brazil comes clean about corruption at the DNC... after sitting on the info for over a year.

http://therightscoop.com/pure-of-he...d-dws-under-the-2016-corruption-bus-big-time/

Mmmmm... not sure about Donna coming clean. As the end of the article says:

Amazing. All of this shock and outrage from the very woman who leaked debate questions to Hillary, not in the general election against Trump, but in a Democratic primary debate against Bernie Sanders! She wanted Hillary to beat Bernie just as much as DWS wanted it.

Of course, as former head of the DNC, she’s now trying to cast herself in a more neutral light. But I don’t think anyone worth their salt in the political world is going to see her as the white knight that saved Camelot. They know she’s dirty.

 

[offthehandle]

I am here in Pakistan and here we have millions of religious muslims minding their own business but I am sure once America does what it did to Iraq and Afghanistan the attacks will only increase

Sorry if this rambles, I got carried away.

I have never had a chance to ask a Muslim about their religion. Can you help me understand it? For years, I have read all sorts of western news and propaganda. Al Jazeera news I happen to think has some good alternative commentary as does RT, I have not spent enough time to judge either as having an Ax to grind, so to speak.

Is Islam a religion of peace? Is Islam and the Koran against Christians? From my reading, it appears much is said “If you are not one of us you are an infidel”. Is that true? Or is this propaganda?

Does your mosque teach that the "west" is the enemy? If we “christian born” people are infidels, therefore if that is true is it exclusionary?, whereas say “Born again Christians” appear as inclusionary, accepting everyone. Yet throughout history until the 1800-1900’s, Christians have killed many, many people to advance their cause. These terrorists are portrayed by Politicians and in some of the news media as “Radical Islamic terrorists”. They are supposedly in the Islamic minority, according to what I read. ISIS is comprised of Mercenaries too (Per Putin’s comments) , its not all simply fanatics.

I have a close friend Indian, born in Kashmir, which all his fathers land was taken from them by Muslims from Pakistan. He has much hate and many negative things to say about Pakistan because of it. Very prejudice, with cause. I don’t share his view as it has nothing to do with me. I don’t know or understand all geopolitical differences, as it is so complex. But what I know about prejudice is that within this thread here all participants are all very strongly opinionated. It is an interesting debate. If anything, I am a Penn Gillette or George Carlin type sort of “Leave me alone” person.

The entire world has good hard working people, some of less education and opportunities due to 100's of reasons. I have been fortunate to have been born at time where I had economic security and an environment to create a business to feed myself and family. I don't consider it "White privilege", whatever that means. Sure I suppose because I had a normal accent, I had it easier on the phone and communicating- but nothing else. I was never given ANYTHING Free from the Gov't, nor borrowed money or taken any grants or hand-outs. I have had successful Black friends who have become part of the American dream, two of which are business associates, one was a room-mate in the 70's. I have a close female latina friend who has 12 brothers and sisters who all came to the states illegally and all settled and live in Silicon valley and are entrepreneurs, business owners, real estate owners and tax payers.

Unfortunately, worldwide it takes only a few to make life miserable for others. Be it the richest like Soros funding hate groups in the 1% wealthiest or a few terrorists flying jets into the world trade center in US territory. Graft and Corruption is everywhere, the Lobbyists in the USA are probably the worst since the GDP is massively higher than the rest of the world.

The masses, the taxpayers, job creators in all countries suffer from Political and Gov't incompetence as well as Multinational Corporation's lobbying. The US Military Industrial complex win's by selling more weapons. Yet, it employs people with high paying jobs. With all the NSA spying and sophisticated intelligence gathering going on worldwide- no gov't can completely stop lone wolf idiots from acting out. The news media blabbing about banning people from renting trucks and cars is silly. Banning weapons is dangerous. The saying "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". Look at the failure or 1930's alcohol prohibition and the "War on Drugs", complete failures and wasted tax dollars.

Most all wars are bankers wars and over money, religion and land. The US and Allies should never have gone to war in the middle east and created the mess we as citizens of the world must endure. Thank the Oil families and businesses for that mess. The UK were the first to go there to ME, while tents and Nomads and no borders really were defined, the French in Northern Africa exploited there too. The US multinationals later. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan and gave up. The US has done the same invading and wiping out a few cave dwellers above your country, resulting in collateral damage. It’s a mess.

The US revolution was about personal freedom and taxation without representation. The US foreign policy historically is to police the world and lead in protecting those who cannot on their own like Kuwait. While the ideology of spreading democracy is a noble one, it does not work in some places. Vietnam was a sad mistake, started by the imperial french. WWII the US servicemen suffered to protect Europe, yet some of the current generations of French and English seem to forget this. The Russians had more deaths than Allies assisting in WWII as I recall.

40 years ago in the US when and where I was growing up was diverse and inclusionary, I went to school in an inner city, and a ghetto nearby, we had all races. Asian, Latin, Caucasian, African American, Pacific Islanders, etc. We all got along fairly well, nothing like the divisive crap going on now. There were no Muslims as far as I know, so hence my above question. I have only become aware of them constantly by the news media slanting and with all the negative press and 9/11. Btw, We had jewish students, but none stood out or were separated they mingled with all. It was an interesting mix, looking back.

Many societies have 2 faces. Look at the "Peaceful" loving Japanese. While in Osaka, they were mostly friendly and I enjoyed it. But I was also treated in some circumstances here and there as a “Gaijin”, we were actually requested to leave our seats in a bar so Japanese can sit there instead.

The level of hate and confrontation I read everywhere and see is appalling. I love my country, I respect all cultures, but fear all governments.

 

[offthehandle]

Do Westerners ever apologize for war crimes committed abroad ? The US is the biggest terrorist in terms of casualties and it's a fact. US policy has caused more deaths than all terrorist attacks combined.

Kate, the way we apologize is we the taxpayers pay for what the politicians create, the US taxpayers pay for it all with the massively high GDP and wealth extracted from working people. And the massive $20 Trillion debt now. We send billions out in foreign aid. Remember the Marshall Plan? Rebuilding Europe after the war? Europe would be a ghetto maybe today and still fighting among borders had not US Taxpayers paid for that. And at the Nato Meeting- those Arrogant Politicians had the nerve to snicker at Trump saying he was going to make sure that Europe is not continuing to be a deadbeat on NATO payments per % of GDP, Especially Germany with their strong economy. Greece and their suffering economy however was up to date where I read about it.

What about rebuilding Japan?, soon to rebuild the Middle East. To label the US as a terrorist country might be your opinion you are entitled to it but that is beyond being callous and rough. The US made and makes lots of mistakes. A big one was the firing of all the Iraq Military after the war ended. Huge mistake. The powers that be never apologized either. But speaking of terrorism- so have the Europeans, after all they were the ones who invaded the America's!, Caribbean and Northern Africa 600 years ago. Africa has plenty of Terrorists and puppet Gov't's being exploited by the entire world, most recently the Chinese.

Certainly, the origin of terrorism was from Norway! Or Genghis Khan, or Ottoman Empire... please. But the USA isn't about spreading hate and evil. It's all about the money and attempting to teach economic independence and trade.

All of the world has origins of terrorism historically and in all forms, it isn't a 20th century problem that started in Munich Olympics.

 

[offthehandle]

 

[Haris]

Are there any majority Muslim countries in the world where other religions, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. aren't persecuted?

Slavery still popular in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/index/

There are many majority Muslim countries where even Muslims are persecuted, for example, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Bangladesh, even Saudi Arabia. Most Muslim majority countries persecute not only non-muslims but also muslims. The problem is not with Islam but with the leaders. No muslim majority country is ruling by Sharia.

 

[Haris]

Not on planet Earth. In fact most minority communities of Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists that used to live in majority Muslim countries, 40. 50. 60 years ago, have been driven out or kicked out by the intolerant Muslims.

Haris showed videos of 1 mosque being blown up and another shot at, but he didn't show videos on Youtube showing many hundreds of churches destroyed or burn by Muslim fanatics all over the world, including in Europe

Well there are hundreds of videos of Mosques destroyed by the coalitions air strikes not just 2 I showed. Fallujah in Iraq was once called city of mosques with few hundred mosques and almost all mosques have been destroyed now in the name of liberation and democrazy.

 

[mr-x]

There are many majority Muslim countries where even Muslims are persecuted, for example, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Bangladesh, even Saudi Arabia. Most Muslim majority countries persecute not only non-muslims but also muslims. The problem is not with Islam but with the leaders. No muslim majority country is ruling by Sharia.

I thought Iran and Saudi Arabia enforced Sharia law?

 

[Haris]

I thought Iran and Saudi Arabia enforced Sharia law?

Haha I know most non-muslims think like that. There is no tax in Sharia.. except a small Jizya tax on non-muslims (which no muslim country in the world takes). No water, sales, electricity or gas tax in Sharia. The natural resources belong to the people. The ruler who takes taxes will go to hell. That's Islam. There is much more that Saudi Arabia and Iran do against Sharia. Iran isn't even a Muslim country. We the Sunnis call them sons of Jews because the one who started the Shiite religion was Abdullah ibn Saba the Jew.

 

[GILSAN]

Sorry if this rambles, I got carried away.

I have never had a chance to ask a Muslim about their religion. Can you help me understand it? For years, I have read all sorts of western news and propaganda. Al Jazeera news I happen to think has some good alternative commentary as does RT, I have not spent enough time to judge either as having an Ax to grind, so to speak.

Is Islam a religion of peace? Is Islam and the Koran against Christians? From my reading, it appears much is said “If you are not one of us you are an infidel”. Is that true? Or is this propaganda?

Does your mosque teach that the "west" is the enemy? If we “christian born” people are infidels, therefore if that is true is it exclusionary?, whereas say “Born again Christians” appear as inclusionary, accepting everyone. Yet throughout history until the 1800-1900’s, Christians have killed many, many people to advance their cause. These terrorists are portrayed by Politicians and in some of the news media as “Radical Islamic terrorists”. They are supposedly in the Islamic minority, according to what I read. ISIS is comprised of Mercenaries too (Per Putin’s comments) , its not all simply fanatics.

I have a close friend Indian, born in Kashmir, which all his fathers land was taken from them by Muslims from Pakistan. He has much hate and many negative things to say about Pakistan because of it. Very prejudice, with cause. I don’t share his view as it has nothing to do with me. I don’t know or understand all geopolitical differences, as it is so complex. But what I know about prejudice is that within this thread here all participants are all very strongly opinionated. It is an interesting debate. If anything, I am a Penn Gillette or George Carlin type sort of “Leave me alone” person.

The entire world has good hard working people, some of less education and opportunities due to 100's of reasons. I have been fortunate to have been born at time where I had economic security and an environment to create a business to feed myself and family. I don't consider it "White privilege", whatever that means. Sure I suppose because I had a normal accent, I had it easier on the phone and communicating- but nothing else. I was never given ANYTHING Free from the Gov't, nor borrowed money or taken any grants or hand-outs. I have had successful Black friends who have become part of the American dream, two of which are business associates, one was a room-mate in the 70's. I have a close female latina friend who has 12 brothers and sisters who all came to the states illegally and all settled and live in Silicon valley and are entrepreneurs, business owners, real estate owners and tax payers.

Unfortunately, worldwide it takes only a few to make life miserable for others. Be it the richest like Soros funding hate groups in the 1% wealthiest or a few terrorists flying jets into the world trade center in US territory. Graft and Corruption is everywhere, the Lobbyists in the USA are probably the worst since the GDP is massively higher than the rest of the world.

The masses, the taxpayers, job creators in all countries suffer from Political and Gov't incompetence as well as Multinational Corporation's lobbying. The US Military Industrial complex win's by selling more weapons. Yet, it employs people with high paying jobs. With all the NSA spying and sophisticated intelligence gathering going on worldwide- no gov't can completely stop lone wolf idiots from acting out. The news media blabbing about banning people from renting trucks and cars is silly. Banning weapons is dangerous. The saying "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". Look at the failure or 1930's alcohol prohibition and the "War on Drugs", complete failures and wasted tax dollars.

Most all wars are bankers wars and over money, religion and land. The US and Allies should never have gone to war in the middle east and created the mess we as citizens of the world must endure. Thank the Oil families and businesses for that mess. The UK were the first to go there to ME, while tents and Nomads and no borders really were defined, the French in Northern Africa exploited there too. The US multinationals later. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan and gave up. The US has done the same invading and wiping out a few cave dwellers above your country, resulting in collateral damage. It’s a mess.

The US revolution was about personal freedom and taxation without representation. The US foreign policy historically is to police the world and lead in protecting those who cannot on their own like Kuwait. While the ideology of spreading democracy is a noble one, it does not work in some places. Vietnam was a sad mistake, started by the imperial french. WWII the US servicemen suffered to protect Europe, yet some of the current generations of French and English seem to forget this. The Russians had more deaths than Allies assisting in WWII as I recall.

40 years ago in the US when and where I was growing up was diverse and inclusionary, I went to school in an inner city, and a ghetto nearby, we had all races. Asian, Latin, Caucasian, African American, Pacific Islanders, etc. We all got along fairly well, nothing like the divisive crap going on now. There were no Muslims as far as I know, so hence my above question. I have only become aware of them constantly by the news media slanting and with all the negative press and 9/11. Btw, We had jewish students, but none stood out or were separated they mingled with all. It was an interesting mix, looking back.

Many societies have 2 faces. Look at the "Peaceful" loving Japanese. While in Osaka, they were mostly friendly and I enjoyed it. But I was also treated in some circumstances here and there as a “Gaijin”, we were actually requested to leave our seats in a bar so Japanese can sit there instead.

The level of hate and confrontation I read everywhere and see is appalling. I love my country, I respect all cultures, but fear all governments.

Great post with lots of true facts, but, how do we solve at least part of these problems, since it will be impossible to solve them all.
How do you stop children from becoming bullies and be friendly with others?
How do you stop kids from leaving their cell phones for an hour, without freaking out?
How do we stop the MSM from creating, instead of giving us the news?
Where can we find some more Walter Cronkites, to give us the news?
How do we stop young Muslims from getting radicalized? Their parents were not like that.
How can we teach politicians, journalists and bankers to be honest and stop lying?
When can we stop with open borders, forced on us by Liberal politicians, against the will of the people?
When will we in Europe and America make a law to force all Muslim Imams to give sermons in that countries language, instead of in Arabic?
When will all Western countries ban the Niqab in public? After all, if I were to walk into a bank or some public places wearing a helmet I could be arrested right away.

So many questions... not enough answers.