freediver wrote on Jan 7^th, 2016 at 8:17am:


It would have been a lot easier just to say you really meant 'what Muhammad did' when you said 'what the caliphate did' - instead of inventing this absurd cock and bull fairy tale about some sex slave breeding program, now wouldn't it?

freediver wrote on Jan 7^th, 2016 at 8:17am:


No its not - there were no pagans in the territory conquered by the caliphate outside the Arabian peninsular - not in Persia, not in the middle east, not in the near east, not in North Africa and not in Spain. Comprende?

lol why don't you believe it FD? Its a pretty basic fact of history - by the 6th century, paganism in the near/middle east was reduced to the Arabian peninsular. You know who wiped them out? The Christians.

You said yourself you had no idea - so why on earth would you contest this?

freediver wrote on Jan 7^th, 2016 at 8:17am:


I can’t find your link, FD, but Wikipedia asserts 11 to 14 million slaves in the Muslim over twelve centuries, including the 20th. Children of slaves were freed under Ottoman rule if they became Muslims.

But let us compare and contrast. Guess how many slaves were sent to the Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries alone. A small clue: the slave trade formed 5% of the British economy in the early 19th century..

Slaves were not freed for becoming Christian, so I guess we can say Christianity was not spread by the sword.

But I think we can safely say that capitalism was. Freeeeedom, no?

Quote:


Good point FD.

The French model was to spread liberty by the sword. Capitalism was part of that.

So you think Islam was not spread by the sword because it is all America's fault?

Sure - aggressive war is bad and I don't condone it by anyone.

The differences I suppose were
1. 1000+ years ago, just about everyone was doing it
2. it was not the industrialised, mass warfare that overwhelmingly targeted civilians - that Justice Jackson was talking about - but relatively clean and swift campaigns that only targeted the regime forces (who incidentally were themselves occupiers)
3. Far from spawning unspeakable suffering as the Nazi invasions did - the muslims unquestionably improved the life of the inhabitants and spawned great prosperity in the lands they conquered.

freediver wrote on Jan 9^th, 2016 at 7:59am:


No, I think Amerika is just a symptom of capitalism. Uncle doesn’t enter and buy up countries for himself, as Mother did. Uncle does it for his friends, the oil, engineering, arms and construction companies. Amerika is sold off too. Uncles subjects don’t profit from this. Amerika has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world. It has the highest incarceration rate. It has one of the highest income gaps of developed nations. Homelessness, unemployment and poverty are rife.

This is the model Uncle exports, and often demands. If Uncle wasn’t running the show, one of his brothers or cousins would. And when Amerika gowes, someone else will.

I don’t know about Islam being spread by the sword, but it seems quite irrelevant, don’t you think? If you can show it, please do. If you can’t, no problem. I’m sure those Ottomans were complete bastards, but their scope and bastardry could not possibly rival Uncle’s.

Take the Saudis - the harshest regime in modern times. It’s beheaded almost 500 people in the last year. It amputates the hands of thieves. It stones women to death. Covertly, it funds the hardest, most fundamentalist militant groups around. It gave us al Qaida, and probably ISIL.

The Saudis are Uncle’s man in Arabia. Uncle trains and arms their troops. Uncle built their cities, ports and power plants. He supports the House of Saud to keep the oil flowing. If the Saudis don’t accept Uncle’s offer of help, they’ll go the way of Saddam, as everybody knows. For now, they’re free to hack heads. Uncle guarantees it.

Who knows? The caliphate probably supported similar regimes in its time. But this is not that time. Uncle professes to support Freeeedom, as do you. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. When the Ottomans put recalcitrants’ heads on stakes outside the city gates, they were sending their message out. Don’t f vck with us.

Today, Uncle uses CNN and Fox News.

You know this, I know this, the entire world knows it. Capitalism is not spread by the sword, but by air strikes, drones and covert action. The entire history of the world, including Islam, pales in comparison.

If you were secular in your world view, FD, you’d set your sites on the real malevolent force at hand. But you’re not, and you can’t.

You blame Islam, no?

freediver wrote on Jan 9^th, 2016 at 3:53pm:


If you don’t like the answers, perhaps you should refrain from asking the questions, no?

Don’t answer that.