re: #16 Romantic Heretic

I still follow the postings at hurryupharry.org (currently down) which still does what LGF used to do years ago, expose Islamists and argue about Islamism.

One of the sane and intelligent commenters was in the middle of some complex argument and I think made the point that in his experience Muslim women in the UK all oppose Israel even if they know nothing about it, because there is a principle that one always supports Muslims against non-Muslims, everything else being equal.

Muslims in the middle east may all be at each others throats, may not be monolithic at all, but that doesn’t mean that there’s NOTHING to saying that they support as a block.

Polls say that about 40% of British Muslims support the introduction of Sharia. It’s a foolish attitude but that’s still a very large block.

As for Israel, the position of Israel in the Middle East is that of a scapegoat. Let me quote something I once said to someone who feared WW3 (out of google’s cache):

One thing people forget to mention in these conversations is the extent to which Jew hatred and jihad serves extraneous purposes less dark than say reclaiming the waqf and fulfilling the prophesy of genocide…

Islam is set up rather badly to promote warfare between Muslims and everyone even ever so slightly different from one’s own sect. Israel is a very welcome diversion from the need to kill one’s neighbors in the middle east. Everyone, different sects of Muslims and even Christians in the middle east get drawn into the comradery of hating the Jews together.

The war on Israel is the only unifying force the middle east has, the only safety valve, and the safest past time.

In this sense the war on Israel isn’t totally serious. If it got serious, if it ever ended, it would no longer serve the purpose of bringing countries together and forestalling every neighborhood becoming a killing ground.

Israel is the most timid, most civilized enemy that one could have in the middle east, and everyone there thinks God wants them to have enemies.

So if you think of killing Jews as a harmless, simple pastime that people engage in for fun entertainment and comradery, then maybe you can see that people don’t necessarily want WW3.