I would like to start a new thread due to the length of some others.

The U.S. is a target for terrorism from Islamic factions due to our support of Israel. Make no mistake, it is a religious "war".

I believe that the U.S. should stand firm and strong in it's support. The U.S. should not seek revenge, but should seek JUSTICE. If that means full scale military action -- so be it.

I will continue to pray for peace.

I've heard a lot of talk from Christian fundamentalists and Bible literalist about the "end times". Now I wonder.

May God bless us and the Holy Spirit live within us to see us though.

John P.

-- john placette (johnplacette@yahoo.com), September 13, 2001

Answers

Make no mistakes, Islam is a hellish religion of the devil. But if you look at things through Palestian eyes (not all Muslim, by the way - some are Christian) you get a different picture. The Israelis have brutally bombed Palestinian camps and homes. Also some churches. The Israelis are also guilty of horrendous acts of terrorism. To speak against "our ally" is considered anti-Jewish. But this is why the U.S. is hated by many Arab/Muslims - because we support those who have taken their homes and killed their loved ones.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), September 13, 2001.

John P, I agree with you! We have to have Justice! We have to keep Our People Safe! We can not allow people to be blown up while working to support their Family's in thr middle of City! We would not even have this Great Country, if our previous leaders did not believe in Justice! May St. ElizaBeth ANN Seton, Our First American born Saint, Who was also born in New York City in 1774, watch over us in Our times in need. David S

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), September 13, 2001.

I am a little peturbed by some of the messages here which are to varying degrees anti-Islam.I am by no means offering a justification for the 'terrorist' actions of militant Islamic Palestinian groups (Hamas etc ) but my opinion is that I think there is a degree of moral culpability on the part of the Israelis.I am reluctant to argue this point as I am afraid that it countererd by those who can only mistakenly argue that it is 'anti-semitic',but my view is that for too long,the Israelis have justified their own 'holocaust'/'shoah' of the Palestinians by their own sufferings last century.Is it not ironic that for the days following on from the WTC attack,Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank (Jenin),knowing that the eyes of the world were averted?Palestinians have had their civil rights and dignity stripped from them .Remember;History is written by the victors and it is ironic that people have forgotten how the same terrorist tactics,the same 'twisted logic'which inspires someone to carry out such an attack,were themselves used by the founders of 'Eretz Israel' back in the late 1940's.(cf King David Hotel an example in part.......)

-- Lucie (lfollett@uk.indocarrsec.com), September 21, 2001.

Lucie,

Israel doesn't justify their present actions on the holocaust. They do so based on the unrelenting terrorism they face daily at the hands of people such as the Hizbollah who hate them and teach that all Jews and Christians must be killed - that is a fact, not an opinion.

Israel has learned that the only way to preserve their existence in such a terrorism culture is to heavily rely on intelligence sources to pre-emptively strike at the terrorists BEFORE they themselves are the target. Only occasionally do they get that opportunity. Most of the time they wind up burying their dead children and then having to retaliate afterwards. They also have the only effective way of bringing justice - they assasinate terrorist leaders.

While I occasionally find Israel's actions too aggressive based on the apparent provocation (from what we hear on CNN), I also know that we don't hear the complete picture.

Now that the U.S. has been brought into this picture, I say we have a lot to learn from Israel and I'm sure the U.S. is going to be much more sympathetic to Israel's actions in THEIR war on terrorism which has been ongoing for many years now.

David

-- non-Catholic Christian (dlbowerman@yahoo.com), September 21, 2001.

Dear Lucie:
Nobody will argue with you in that respect. In our forum, we've mainly compared the religion of Muslims to our own; always acknowledging many good people are Muslims. I myself have called Muhammad a false prophet. Not many of his followers may have been guilty of perpetrating the crime in New York. But they WERE his followers. Then, immediately following, demonstrations in Palestine took place, where the public was jubilant!!! Are they ''guilty by association?'' No-- they are only guilty by celebration-- of wholesale sinful slaughter. I didn't see any Israelis celebrating, on my TV. And, I'm sure that right here in the U.S., many thousands of Muslims watched the destruction of NYC with great sorrow. With enormous distress. Did any number of Muslims have a feeling of PRIDE, when it was realized other followers of the Prophet were the ''heroic martyrs'' in this crime? You better believe it, Lucie.

I'm not aware that any American celebrates when he sees on TV the Israeli state committing injustices. Israel is fighting a war, and many innocent Palestinians are suffering injustice. But innocent people suffer in most of the Islamic states, and not just in the ''fundamentalist'' ones. They suffer at the hands of Muslims like themselves. Have you ever had a can of acid thrown in your face? One country's Muslim patrol will do that to you, for going unveiled in public. But no Israeli would do it to you. That's an (extreme, I know) example of the difference between our religions. ''By their works you shall know them.''

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), September 21, 2001.

It was not Muslim terrorists that originally started the chain of events that led to the 911 attack, supposedly by bin Laden.

Rather it began with Zionism over 100 years ago, terrorism in Palestine in the 1920s up until today, and the invasion of foreigners into Palestine claiming to be returning home to Israel.

And just as the Palestine league of Arabs were about to ask for independence after WW2, the Allieds helped establish Israel and then the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand continued the wartime espionage into the Cold War and continues today, with help from their respective embassies and sympathetic people both in the Church and in business, government and especially the military.

The game of power politics is tied to commerce and international banking and oil, but the supreme masterminds of 911 are to be found in the CIA, the Bilderbergers, and the ECHELON project members listed above.

Bin Laden is only a tool of people more powerful than he is, and he had alot of money to fight to free his homeland of the corrupting influence of the one nation capable of the destruction of Islam, America.

However, this does not excuse America from imprisoning 1000 Arabs when only 10-15 are guilty.

Nor does it excuse carpet bombing Iraq 24/7 since the Gulf War became too expensive to sustain.

This is not a war between Christians and Muslims.

This is not a war against terrorism.

This is a war between old friends, a war over oil, an endless war, Orwell's 1984.

It is not Armegeddon, not Golgotha, not a Millennialist's Paradise.

It's all about money and power, and is inhumane to alot of women and children and especially men.

And its root cause will always be ignorance.

For the love of money being the root of evil due to the inaction of good people worldwide arises out of ignorance.

War itself arises because governments have the monopoly on force.

Yet peace is still at hand when one contemplates one's actions before committing them, and practises non-action to counteract the good people's inaction.

This is not mere words sounding mystic, but a Truth.

Non-action is not overtly acting in a situation so that no one wins or loses yet everyone gains.

A win-lose scenario is usually the result where one side acts and the other side does not act swiftly to block the one, and thus is the result of inaction/action.

In the case of the war against terrorism, because the real motives are not upon everyone's lips nor in everyone's thoughts, it is possible for the news media to filter out truth that might cause the foolish to entertain notions of "thoughtcrime" now illegal.

One cannot protest war, for that makes America strong.

One cannot support "freedom fighters", for that term is ungood.

"Terrorists" who fight for freedom are bad people.

And everyone must be on America's side or be bullied into becoming vassals of the American Empire.

This is why Mwali fell in the Comoros to US troops.

This is why the FBI wish to establish an outpost in Toronto Canada.

Then there are Israelis and criminals abusing the new wiretap law.

And thus 1984 is but grown up into majority in 2002.

Yet this is not according to biblical prophecy.

Revelations paints a picture of a man hiding from State troops, his mind drawing the escape through the Door.

And yet...

There are many ways through that Door, even a Middle Way that encompasses the boundless Heavens itself yet never abandons the earth from which it sprang.

-- Stephen Kawamoto (shkawamoto@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002.

Welcome back, Stephen. It has been a while!
From the looks of things, you shouldn't have gone away, because it appears as though your cranium has sprung a leak. Not too many smarts left up there, I see. {_8^D)

You stated, "This is a war between old friends ... And its root cause will always be ignorance."
That is not correct. The war's root cause is human sin, free-will choices to do evil, wrong choices made by terrorists, choices pleasing to satan.

You continued, "This is not mere words sounding mystic, but a Truth."
You need not worry that we could ever misconstrue your words as being "mystical." And precious little of it is "truth," either.

Stay tuned, Stephen. You can learn good stuff here.

God bless you.
John

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.