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Greetings:<br><br>
I would like to support Mo Henrickson's claim that many more Christians
have been killed in sectarian violence that Sunnis and Shias killing one
another. Saddam Hussein, hated by Muslim fundamentalists, probably
killed more Shias than all historical Sunni persecution put
together. Perhaps our good friend Ghazi could comment on
this.<br><br>
Prof. Ghazanfar is also the local expert on the contributions of Islamic
philosophy and science on European culture. (He just published a huge
book on the subject.) The European Dark Ages came to a close primarily
because Muslim scholars gave medieval Europe Arabic translations of Greek
philosophy and science. <br><br>
Baghdad was the center of the intellectual world for centuries while
Europe languished in the backwaters of world culture, and Islamic Spain
was the center of interaction between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish
scholars.<br><br>
The Catholic philosophy/theologian Thomas Aquinas could not have done his
famous Summa Theologica without Muslim help. Even evangelical Christian
philosopher believe that this is one of the greatest works on theology
ever written. Europeans did not get the original Greek texts until
Renaissance Italians went to Constantinoble and discovered
them.<br><br>
My research has shown that Indian Sunni Muslims were especially
hospitable to the Shiite minority. You will recall that my research
has also shown that Islam spread in India and Indonesia primarily by
peaceful Sufi missionaries. <br><br>
I give a lot of credit to Indian Hindus and Buddhists who lived a life of
religious tolerance and moderation that many Muslims modelled.
Hindu and Buddhist fundamentalisms are recent phenomena in which South
Asians have modelled colonial behavior and attitudes. For more on
this read parts of my new book project at
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/orv.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/orv.htm</a>.<br><br>
Let's speak truth, not ignorance about the world's religions.<br><br>
Nick Gier<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot
be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each
part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on
the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our
intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science,
religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its
various parts." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm</a><br>
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm</a><br><br>
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