Monday 1 January 2007

Not only the US or the West or what China does better

Although I agree with Greg Davis' statement according to which "America is certainly much better off than Europe today for two reasons: first, her Muslim population is much smaller (maybe 5 million despite what some people say); second, she is still largely Christian" I do not think that "it will [only] be left to America to nail the colors to the mast". First public opinion is waking up in Europe too; it is already becoming more difficult for imigrants from Muslim countries to get a visa even if it should become impossible, unless they formally give up their religious ideology or are persecuted in their country for being "apostates". To compensate for Europe temporary demographic deficit we should rely on immigration from Eastern European and other non-muslim countries in Asia (Vietnam, China, Laos...) or South America.Second a large part of the world is still "muslimfree" : the Far-East. If that area of the world proves less naive than we have been, those technically "polytheist" countries, where people are still very much attached to their traditional values and beliefs will be in the coming years, decades or centuries, the real retreat ground for the "free world" in the global battle that is menacing.One of the Chinese government policies that seems especially pertinent to me, as it shows indeed a deep understanding of Islam, is that referred to in a bulletin from Human Rights Watch (which disaproves of it) on 11 April 2005, under the title : China: Religious Repression of Uighur Muslims . In that long article we learn that "The Chinese government vets... what version of the Koran is acceptable".That means indeed that the Chinese authorities in charge of religious education have at least taken the pain to read the Koran - which most probably their Western counterparts probably never did. And if there are "expurgated versions" of that book, it is that while reading it they identified in it the numerous passages (insults to unbelievers, call to murders, apology of lying to, and deceiving, non-muslims) that are not only against the most basic values of the human species but also a direct threat to the public order and social peace of any society, nation or state. As the Chinese do not feel any compulsion to be tolerant to Islam as one of the "people of the Book", as we to often did, very consequently they forbade versions of the Koran that could inspire inimical and dangerous thoughts to the very sensitive minds of young readers.Here are the reference of the complete article:http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/11/china10447.htm>

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