The Arab-Muslim and Semite-Christian Thing

NMB, Florida November 2, 2001 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

THE ARAB - MUSLIM AND SEMITE - CHRISTIAN THING

In the papers today Salman Rushdi and Thomas Friedman tried to bring light
to a dark and murky area in our thinking. Each came at it from a different
direction. Rushdie's analysis makes the most sense. But neither suggests a
hopeful solution to the knotty problems they describe.

In the east other cultures and peoples share a religion that came out of
Arabia 1700 years ago. The Arab, Mohammed, led his Arabian warriors from
Medina to Mecca and created a new religion. In a religious fervor to exalt
the notion of the one and only God, Allah, his soldiers raced in two prongs,
one east and one west and actually succeeded in parts of Europe. The main
thrust of this conquest was to convert all the conquered peoples into
worshippers of Allah. All the peoples who embraced Islam, however, were not
and are not, Arab.

More than a thousand years before Mohammed the Jewish religion began when
Hebrews established a nation around a central city, Jerusalem, a former
stronghold in the land of the Jebusites. The Jews did not proselytize, as
did the Arabs. However, after the second destruction of their Temple in
Jerusalem, their daughter religion, Christianity, became a power that
transformed the west.

Both the Islamic and so-called Judeo-Christian versions of belief in One
Primal God influenced the rest of the world and today, I think, there are
more Islamists in the "third" world nations than Christians. Africa and
Asia (excluding China, Japan and most of India) are in the Islamist camp.
Not all Islamists, however, are Arab. Their interests are not all the same.

The western nations have separated church and state in their governments
but this is not true for the rest of the world. We have managed to put
religion out of the sphere of government. Unfortunately, present day Israel
is not free from theocratic pressures. My greatest fear is that the
fundamentalists in our country will turn America into one of the
God-directed nations that we face in this post September 11, 2001 world. It
IS religion that brought about the attacks on the United States.
Carol's Evaluation: 10+ out of 10.

(I couldn't keep from writing and commenting on this topic and wanted to
save it. Carol believes that most of my readers - from their comments - are
not interested in replying but enjoy what I write. In that spirit I am
sending this out.)