[Kolokotronis]

"What happened to Byzantium, and the once flourishing eastern Christians? They were exterminated by muslims commanded by islamic texts to wage a jihad."

Well, not quite. We are very much alive, and growing, even in many Mohammedan countries if not all and often in a state of "dhimnitude". There is no question, however, that the rise of Mohammedan fundamentalism has brought on another period of persecution for Orthodox Christians in Mohammaden lands. Generally speaking, though, and with some glaring exceptions especially recently, Orthodoxy and Mohammedanism have lived side by side for centuries and traditionally have found a modus vivendi, so to speak.

I agree that virtually all of this article is an apologetic, but it does have some interesting and informative points for the Western reader. For example, the writer comments that religion permeates every aspect of life in a Mohammedan country. This is certainly true. It is also true in Orthodox countries though not to the extent that it does in Islam. Those of you familiar with daily life in Orthodox countries can understand what I am saying. In the West, the only places I can think of where religion played a role even close to this in the modern era are Ireland and Poland.

I think this is a particularly important point since we are being told that we are not in a religious war when in fact that is exactly what we are in.

[Haro_546]

I understand, but i think you underestimate the persecution side of the story. The larges community of easter christianity is in egypt and living under dihiminitud, in Iraq the Assyrian Christians number in thousands and there prospects are not positive, in turkey there was the Armenian genocide. Come on... should check the statistics Christians in prominently Muslim country have been diminishing for quite sometime.

[Siamese Princess]

I agree that virtually all of this article is an apologetic, but it does have some interesting and informative points for the Western reader. For example, the writer comments that religion permeates every aspect of life in a Mohammedan country. This is certainly true. It is also true in Orthodox countries though not to the extent that it does in Islam. Those of you familiar with daily life in Orthodox countries can understand what I am saying. In the West, the only places I can think of where religion played a role even close to this in the modern era are Ireland and Poland.

A major difference between Christianity and Islam is that Christianity offers its followers lofty moral ideals but leaves the practical applications to individuals, communities and nations. There are also disagreements between various Christian sects on both moral and theological issues but no one is persecuted for dissenting. Islam, on the other hand, is all-encompassing manual to not only ethics, but economics, politics, everything. There is a website that is occasionally mentioned on FR called "Ask the Imam" (www.asktheimam.com) where believers ask for religious guidance regarding the most mundance matters (my favorite is whether or not it was Islamic to peel a banana from the bottom -- the answer was no). In traditional Islam, there is no room for freedom or personal choice in anything -- EVERYTHING is governed by religious law.

If you think about it, this probably means that a traditional Muslim has a problem with the idea of self-government, of democracy or a constitutional republic: he doesn't know how to think for himself, he fears freedom, he prefers to be told what to do. If he votes, he'll probably vote the way his imam or mullah tells him, which renders the action meaningless.