Atlantic article

["Harry Veeder" <eo200@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On PKT Mason Clark brought to our attention the following article,

"The Roots of Muslim Rage"  -- The Atlantic, September 1990:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/90sep/rage.htm


A key idea in this article that people of the Islamic faith
feel that they have a natural right to politically preside over
non-muslims (non-believers).

Historically, Islam has proven to be very tolerant of
other religions whenever they had political control.
By having political control they feel the non-believers
will of their own volition convert to Islam. For a "true"
believer, it is blasphemy to allow non-believers to politically
preside over them.

Is it realistic for us to expect Islam to adopt our
western political model where church and state are
separate? I think we have to acknowledge that this
expectation is completely unrealistic, so we need to
work with Islam to stop human rights abuses which are
clearly being perpetrated by some Arab dictators and
Islamic fundamentalists.

Harry