http://pnews.org/ Progressive News & Views (since 1982)
In spite of the Muslim students you have taught, MOST Muslims are not ready for college nor modernity. Most are illiterate. >From Spanger: Excluding Indonesia, the Muslims world literacy rate stands at only 53%, against 81% for China; Arab literacy is only 50%. Only 1% of the population owns a personal computer. It is delusional to believe that the Arab world, which now exports (net of oil) as much as Finland, might come to compete with China, India and the rest of Asia in the global market for goods and services. Just as the Muslim population peaks, the one bounty that nature has bestowed upon the Arabs, namely oil, will begin to diminish. According to the US Department of Energy, conventional oil production will peak just before 2050 at the present 2% rate of production growth. In short, the Muslim world half a century from now can expect the short end of the stick from the modern world. It has generated only two great surpluses, namely people and oil. By the middle of the century both of these will have begun to dwindle. But at the moment it has 25 million idle young men. No leader can remain in power who does not give them a destination to march to. By no means does that imply that all of these 25 million will become suicide bombers, but a great many of them are likely to emigrate to Europe, including Eastern Europe, where populations are stagnant and about to decline. A Muslim takeover of Western Europe surely is a possible outcome. Notes [1] Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer M. Nafi, Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century (Tauris: London 2004), p 9 [2] Ibid, p 2 [3] Op cit, p 14 [4] Economist, July 4, 2002 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GH23Aa01.html On Thu, 22 Jun 2006, Ed Kent wrote: > http://pnews.org/ > Progressive News & Views (since 1982) > > Hank, again, teaching in our port of entry college in Brooklyn (Brooklyn > College, CUNY) I am directly in contact with many Muslims and aware how > biased against this expanding group of Americans we have become since > 9/11. We had a Brooklyn gulag where Muslims were secretly imprisoned > and beaten by the same guards that did their thing at Abu Graib -- one > of them moved on from Brooklyn to Abu Ghraib and has been convicted for > his abuses there. Our students have included the head of our student > philosophy club from Iran, two department aides, and I fought summer > before last to keep one of our best here after her parents from > Bangladesh were turned down for refugee status -- they were both > qualified doctors and Neemarie was heading towards that career. As a > talented 20 year old she got on the web and got her family safely to > Canada where she has resumed her studies. She is not allowed to return > to NYC which she loves, but her younger brother and sister, both > American citizens, may. Neemarie was at one of our super schools, > Stuyvesant, near the World Trade Center, when the planes hit. She was > horrified as were all Americans -- Muslims included: > > http://www.youthcomm.org/NYC%20Features/Nov2001/NYC-2001-11-15.htm > > I set up the Israel/Palestine list to correct biases such as those you > are expressing here and to move us into the future rather than staying > locked in the past. I am deeply worried about Israel's future and just > posted an item about European Jews disassociating themselves from it. > > Best, Ed > > P.S. Again, read Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century and you will > discover that Muslims co-existed in their nations with both Christians > and Jews. Today the struggle is between modernism and radical Islamism > in each of the Muslim nations -- comparable to what we have going with > our right wing Christian fundamentalists who would similarly impose > THEIR moralistic creed upon any and all. To miss the inner struggle > within Islam is to tip the scales in the wrong direction. > > http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000051606&bic=HRDD*&ds=Islam&sort=sort_date/d&m=8&dc=94 > > Hank Roth wrote: > >> http://pnews.org/ >> Progressive News & Views (since 1982) >> >> >> I have to agree with Joni. As a very active member of many, many Jewish >> left-wing groups years ago we tried and we tried and it didn't seem to >> matter but it was only because we did not understand at the time that you >> cannot remain a Muslim and still believe in peace. It is not part of their >> religion to submit to anything but Mohammad. Any truce they make is >> tactical. It seems like I'm generalizing and I try to avoid that, but the >> fact of the matter is, unless a Muslim becomes an atheist he/she will not >> agree to coexistence with infidels which are anyone who isn't a Muslim. >> Muslims are even at war with each other. Until the west realizes this they >> will continue to go on making the same mistakes of trying to encourage >> Muslims to be democratic but the truth is Bush and his gang are not >> interested in democracy; they only want power and fundamentalists share >> the same objectives but each is only concerned with their own salvation. >> The Jews must remain strong and there must be a strong Israel. There is no >> other alternative to this. >> >> >> --- Which incidentally is why I hated Spielberg's Munich. It was >> all about Jewish guilt where there should not have been any. Anybody here >> see it? >> >> Hank > -- > "A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is > legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli) > -- > Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies] > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine > http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/ > http://www.bloggernews.net > > > > |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| > pnews-news - (NEWS) - Send "subscribe" or "unsub" > in subject to pnews-news-request(at)inyourface.info > pnews-views - (VIEWS) - Send "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" > as subject to pnews-views-request(at)inyourface.info > |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| > Everything begins at The Worm Hole: http://pnews.org/ > > > ----- > Something Really Nice for > your Honey - http://blackhillsg0ld.com/ > Something Really Sexy for Her for Holloween: > http://tinyurl.com/q878y > --------------------------------------------- > NEVER pay for a podcast again: > Check it out - http://tinyurl.com/mnr7r > ----- > |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| pnews-news - (NEWS) - Send "subscribe" or "unsub" in subject to pnews-news-request(at)inyourface.info pnews-views - (VIEWS) - Send "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as subject to pnews-views-request(at)inyourface.info |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Everything begins at The Worm Hole: http://pnews.org/ ----- Something Really Nice for your Honey - http://blackhillsg0ld.com/ Something Really Sexy for Her for Holloween: http://tinyurl.com/q878y --------------------------------------------- NEVER pay for a podcast again: Check it out - http://tinyurl.com/mnr7r -----
