Mononoke: I disappeared fror a while and then I never reviewed this thread. I don't suppose it hurts if we're off-topic on a dormant thread. I don't have a lot to answer for the general question, as you've seen me say elsewhere. I said only basically that I hope that if peace is finally there that it has a chance to hold permanently, but what little analysis on the subject that I heard did not sound particularly promising. When there's war, neither side's hands are clean (usually all the more true when there is not reasonable freedom to investigate the matter by journalists). Any hardened culprits on either side need to be pulled out of the conflict if it's possible to clearly identify them as a specific threat to peace. It's all very general from where I am, and of course I wouldn't know about slogans if there were any.

Maybe off topic slightly. There can never be any lasting peace on this wretched planet until the last nail in used on the coffin of religion.

I can't say that I absolutely, totally agree (though largely). If there were no significant wealth disparities in the world, which it's possible is an easier proposition, then whatever malevolent religious (and political) leaders there may be would find it impossible to get either the loss of empathy or the will to self-sacrifice required for destruction from more than a rare few very sick individuals.

I think a real appeal for Christians is prayers. who has time to pray 5 times a day? even casually, it'll take you fifteen minutes. but Christians, they only head to their church and pray for god once in a week, and their prayer's are comprised with with gaiety and music. Muslims just babble on some Arabic stuff.

I have no problem looking-up xtian apologetics for details to diss the koran with - they can certainly get pretty studiously skeptical when it comes to any religion other than their own, which amuses me greatly. I'll generally cross-check with other sources just to be on the safe side, however.

When it comes down to it, it's just pure fanboyism. Wilfully blind to the shortcomings of one's own geek love-interest while being scathingly critical of others, irony and hypocrisy be damned! "Dude, your Jesus sux!" "Dude, your Mohammed sux!" Maybe Kevin Smith should make a movie about it or something...

What Sphynxcat just said might actually have a great deal of value in combating all religions. If psychologists, neurobiologists, and sociologists could nail down this as a proportionally strong feature causing religious bias, then it would also nail down most religious belief at the same time. This possibly would only be able to get rid of it with a religion-like substitute, but seeing it coming could be of value in determining that that substitute is much less harmful than what we see today.

The best I've seen in my travels as a sales rep was a muslim in the corner of his store set aside for prayer time, I presume it was facing Mecca. Bending over with head on the floor and ignoring three shoppers waiting at the counter to be served. The shoppers were westerners who getting sick of been ignored walked out. Now, this particular shop was a very slow payer of goods bought from me, which was mainly 16KG tins of feta, which he sold at the rate of 2 per week.
Then I understood why so many muslim nations are so backward. Religion always comes first.

Of course a couple of things deserve note on this point of angelo's. There was a time when Muslim nations took religion less seriously than Christian ones, I think you could say (?); and they were the more advanced of the two then. Second, it's not clear that speed in attending to one's customers would be the major problem you perceived in a majority Muslim nation: They probably have much bigger problems (economically speaking) on account of their religion, but it could be significant and someone should do a doctorate on it.

Someone wrote:]Second, it's not clear that speed in attending to one's customers would be the major problem you perceived in a majority Muslim nation:

No, the customers would be butting the rug alongside him.

^^'butting the rug' - I like that, lol.

Does anyone know the why of the muslim way of prayer, with their heads on the floor and bums sticking up in the air? Why not like the christians kneel in subservience to a tyrant.?

No idea, though it wouldn't surprise me if the sudjud had an Asian influence as it greatly resembles the kowtow in many ways.

Pope Paul used to bow and kiss the ground on arriving at a new land, but that's entirely different to the muslim prayer backbreaking way.

Sphynxcat wrote:^^'butting the rug' - I like that, lol.

Of course ... thinking about it, it could also be a euphemism for something quite different...

I think very few responses here if any addressed Jerôme's reply, which was OT.

Well, thinking about it, all the thread is OT...