[Buddha-l] anti-Israel and anti-semitism

[Nichts]

Am 23.09.2006 um 14:27 schrieb Mike Austin:
> My concern would be more about 'them' taking over my mind,  i.e. 
> letting a fascination for politics, Islam, Israel and so on displace 
> topics more central to a Buddhist discussion group.

The eagerness of Christian, Jewish, Moslim, Hindu and even Buddhist 
fundamentalists for `cosmic war´, the `last battle between the forces 
of materialism and true religion´ is indeed fascinating. In the moment 
still very few in the West realize the depth and strength of Moslem 
beliefs. Beliefs supported by kind of practices long since atrophied in 
the West. Who, five times each day, performs ritual ablutions and 
prostrates themselves in prayer? The discipline and self-abnegation 
demanded crystallize in a rock-solid will and a culture of hate such as 
we see with the Palestinian resistance. A grisly struggle to the death 
is happening in Jerusalem, which may be a template for the future. Our 
future. And in many ways we know this without recognizing it. Some of 
my friends do not go anymore to the places in South of Thailand, they 
once enjoyed. And in a few years this will be also the case with the 
South of Spain. L´Andalusia. The border separating what Muslims call 
`dar al-Islam´, the "House of Submission"(Islam), from `dar al-harb´, 
the "House of Warfare" (everyone else) is a long irregular battlefront, 
one that stretches across four continents. `Soft´targets are 
plentifull. How long it will take for the Age of Terrorism, the mass 
psychosis on all sides, is beyond estimation. But as with all things it 
will end in time. And this end and what comes before this end will 
affect us as Buddhists.

Thomas Fink