Quote:
Originally Posted by Arabesque
MC,
It is not the medicine that cures. Allah (swt) cures.
|
yeah, but Allah is also the one who causes bombs to explode and bullets to hit their targets, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arabesque
I thought we were talking about the American government? I'm sure scientists from the United States developed all sorts of useful inventions, but how is that relevant here? Are you saying that it's OK for the government to kill so many Muslims, because guess what, there are other Americans handing out the shrouds and the coffins at the same time? Nice charity.
|
No, I was talking about America as a society. Of course the government is a big part of it (and like I've said the US government played a key role in wiping out smallpox, among many other things). But America also includes the people, the culture, the institutions, the businesses. Its an entire society, one of the most prominent ones in the world. The government stems from the society and the society is effected by the government. The way I see it, you cant separate the two, beyond saying that you hate Bush and his crowd without hating every single individual American person.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arabesque
No seriously, even the drug-industry is making money out of illnesses. It's not like they're giving out the medicine for free. But nevertheless, I'll say we recognise their contributions. Now at some point in the past, Muslims were advanced, and I'm sure they too have made useful contributions which saved many lives.
|
There are many motives for why various things were developed. Sometimes altruistic, sometimes not. The end result, within my argument, is that all these hundreds of millions and billions of lives were saved. If the stockholders at Eli Lilly got rich from it too, then its win-win.
And of course muslims have made many very important contributions, and continue to make them. I dont know why you brought that up, I never denied it. We should be proud of everything we've given to the world (AND continue to give). I was just pointing out that American society has done alot for humanity. Probably more than most (or all) other countries currently. That does not get recognized by anti-american people very much, or at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arabesque
But I still don't understand the argument. I still think the American government killed so many Muslims. I'm not talking about the ordinary American people here, in case you thought I was. I'm sure I specifically said, "I hate the government." Did I even mention the people?
They're dumb. Ok, I admit.
|
Like I said, America is an entire society. You can either like America, or dislike America. Within America there are alot of components- the government, individual people, the religious communities, the companies, the academics, the pop culture, the high culture, the minority cultures, and so on.. each of those individual things is connected to all the others. Of course one can have feelings about any of these elements individually, but in the end they are all part of a whole
I understand the point you are making. You dont like America's policies, and I know the specifics about the policies that you dont like. The point that I was making is that America, as a society, has done far more good than harm for the world, including the muslim world. We can work towards making it ALL good, rather than just a balance of good vs bad.
ws