www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Al Queda calls Queen enemy of Islam

Dear Daniel,

I can't help but wonder about your assertion in your post on how we can perceive Hirosima as being justifiable, and yet you never mention at what was done to Germany. Especially when considering that every city in Germany was bombed into the stone age.

As an example: I was reading about a person from Paris saying how she was at the Nuremberg trials because of her knowledge of both English and German. She said miraculously the town hall where the trials were being held, was completely intact. It was the only building in the city that survived. Underneath the rubble were 45,000 dead people and all one could see was a beggar here and there or some poor survivor searching for his/her loved one.

Do you realize the extent of their sufferings, and yet you say nothing. The Japanese were just as tyranical and marshall as the Germans. The only difference was that their attrocities happened to the people in the Far East, not to the Europeans.

Could the mention of the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be because we were the only one's involved in their bombings, after all the complete destruction of Germany and it's young boys, (age 12 mind you) and it's civilian population was in concert with Britain, France and Russia.

Then again, should we forget that the invasion of Normandy was not only at the cost of who knows how many of our men, (they attacked at the most dangerous area), but at at the expense of 40,000 (or so I believe), French civilians, caught in the bombings and cross fire's. That no doubt was due to the indifference of the English.

It seems that we, the U.S.A. are always being held at a higher standard than that of other nations. If that is so, then why are you so intent on condemning us?

Zenovia

Dear Daniel you said:

"�Do not underestimate the bitterness of the Islamic world toward the West, which in their eyes has humiliated them."

I say:

The bitterness of the Islamic world towards the West should not be any worse than the bitterness of the Christians in that part of the world at the humiliation of having their civilization taken over by Islam. Yet the Christians went on with their lives, left their lands and really are not bitter.

So I think it shows a cultural difference, and it should be condemning to them, not to us.

You said:

" And don't underestimate their outrage at the immorality of the USA, which is combined with self-righteousness on our part."

I say:

In that sense you are right. We ship our immorality throughout the world, and then act so self-righteous because we believe in democracy, etc. Our government knows it and tries to perform a balancing act. It wants them to have democracy, and at the same time wants them to establish whatever type of democratic government it wants.

Hard work you know, dear chap!

Zenovia

Islam is evil. That is all.

Let God arise and His enemies be scattered!

Zenovia- I said "Hiroshima and other WWII atrocities", which of course included the bombing of German cities.
Hiroshima is often mentioned first when discussing the killing of civilians in war as it was the occasion of a new form of slaughter, an unprecedented breakthrough in mass murder.
And no, I do not hold America to a higher standard than other nations. I merely tire of Americans holding their nation to a lower standard, or claiming that somehow the moral law does not apply to our actions.
There is no way to justify what we did in WWII that does not use consequentialist reasoning, also known as situation ethics, which the Church has always condemned.
I am, in my comments about Islam, merely trying to get people to try to understand where they are coming from. Of course it is simpler to denounce them as "evil" as our friend UC just did, but is that wise?
And I fear we make the task of moderate Muslims that much more difficult when we respond like that.

John Paul the Great always tried to build bridges to Islam, emphasizing our commonality, and uniting against the common foe of secularization [like at the Cairo Population Conference, when the Catholics and Muslims kept the abortion lobby from doing great evil].
The current issue of Time magazine has a good article about a moderate Muslim imam in suburban DC who is doing good work; check it out before you decide "Islam is evil".
-Daniel

We should remember to pray for the conversion of the Muslims. It's too bad so many Christians don't pray like Muslims do. Just think if they were Christians and how they would challenge us all with their fervor!
-Wolfgang