What is your background/interest in the Middle East?

[JStone]

Is it just me, or is someone in this thread coming across as an arrogant, pretentious douchebag?

You're lacking in self esteem. We get it

 

[Saigon]

JStone -

Why won't you answer the question?

Why not just talk like a normal person, and explain in your own words what your connection with the Middle East is, and why you post so much about it.

No one is attacking you. I'm genuinely curious, and if you have a good reason, I'd no doubt be a bit more generous in my reading of your comments.

 

[Sunni Man]

Is it just me, or is someone in this thread coming across as an arrogant, pretentious douchebag?

You're lacking in self esteem. We get it

LOL, it only took a few seconds for idiot JStone to raise his hand and acknowledge he is the douchebag!!

 

[Saigon]

Is it just me, or is someone in this thread coming across as an arrogant, pretentious douchebag?

You're lacking in self esteem. We get it

LOL, it only took a few seconds for idiot JStone to raise his hand and acknowledge he is the douchebag!!

I noticed that, too!

I was thinking that probably everyone on this thread sounds a little arrogant when they talk about what they have done, but I wasn't going to insist it must be me!

 

[Iridescence]

............ palestine was a Roman invention to call Israel.................

Vatican Seeks Control Over Jerusalem Holy Sites - Columns - theTrumpet.com by the Philadelphia Church of God

Vatican Seeks Control Over Jerusalem Holy Sites

January 19, 2012 | From theTrumpet.com
Roman Catholic support of the Palestinian cause isn’t what it seems.

Brad Macdonald ​

In an article in Arutz Sheva last month, Italian journalist Giulio Meotti explained how Catholic authorities in recent months have “increased their political initiatives for Catholic control over some sites in Jerusalem.”
In December, for example, the head of the Vatican’s Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, said that “peace negotiations in the Middle East must tackle the issue of the status of the holy sites of Jerusalem.” According to Tauran, it’s time that some of Jerusalem’s holy places, including the City of David, were put under Vatican charge.
After all, “it’s practically just the Holy See who is concerned about [Jerusalem],” Tauran stated.
One especially intriguing development has been the Catholic Church’s emergence as a seemingly ardent supporter of Palestinian statehood, including Arab control of Jerusalem. Last fall, the Vatican sided with most of the international community in supporting the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations. In a statement last September, retired Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, together with representatives from various Christian communities in Israel, pledged “support for the diplomatic efforts being deployed to win international recognition for the State of Palestine.”
In his sermon on Christmas Day, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem reiterated Catholic support of Palestinian statehood. “We want a just and comprehensive peace to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We adhere to the position taken by the Holy See, clearly acknowledging the two-state solution with security and internationally recognized borders,” he stated.
In December 2009, Twal and other high-ranking Catholic officials released an overtly anti-Israel, anti-Jewish document detailing the “injustices” against Palestinians by Israel. In it, the Catholic officials implored the international community to “stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades.” There was no recognition of the multiple suicide attacks on innocent Jews, or the thousands of missiles launched at Israeli schools, homes and hospitals. The document also included a lengthy section reconciling Palestinian “resistance,” a polite term for violence or terrorism, with the biblical instruction to abstain from violence and war. “The aggression against the Palestinian people which is the Israeli occupation, is an evil that must be resisted,” the officials claimed. “It is an evil and a sin that must be resisted and removed.”
In other words, no measure of Arab “resistance” is too extreme, or morally or spiritually wrong.
In another instance, Twal and his counterparts, who operate under the direction of the Vatican, stated explicitly that they endorse the “establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds [Arabic for Jerusalem] as its capital.”
If you know your history, such effusing support of the Palestinian cause—to the point of ceding Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian nation—is more than a little odd.
After all, can you name a moment in history when the Vatican sincerely endorsed Muslim control of Jerusalem? In fact, history is full of examples of the Vatican opposing, often violently, Muslim control of the Holy Land. Remember Pope Urban ii, the man who set off the crusades in the Middle Ages? “The continued occupation of the holy places—and above all Jerusalem itself—by the infidel was, [Pope Urban ii] declared, an affront to Christendom,” wrote historian John Julius Norwich.
Pope Urban ii delivered his fateful speech November 27, 1095 in the countryside just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. “This royal city [Jerusalem] … situated at the center of the world, is now held captive by His enemies,” he lamented. “It is in subjection to those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathens. She seeks therefore and desires to be liberated, and does not cease to implore you to come to her aid.”
Inspired by Urban’s call to arms and intent on earning “salvation,” tens of thousands of Europeans set out for Jerusalem. In the first crusade alone, Catholic crusaders slaughtered some 70,000 Jews and Arabs, all in pursuit of their goal to pry Jerusalem from the “infidel.” The first crusade was followed a few decades later by another, then another, then another—each an attempt to purge the Holy Land of Muslims. History is clear. The Vatican has never supported Muslim control of Jerusalem!
So why is it doing so now?
It is not! There are two reasons the Catholic Church for now is making it appear that it supports a Palestinian state, and greater Muslim influence over Jerusalem. First, the Vatican supports Palestinian statehood because this effort undermines Israel’s control over the city. When it comes to diminishing Israel’s grip on Jerusalem and its holy sites, Catholic officials are happy to let the Palestinians do the dirty work.
Second, the Vatican’s endorsement of Palestinian statehood provides ideal cover for its own ambition to wrest control of Jerusalem. Don’t forget, Jerusalem is as important to the Vatican as it is to Jews and Muslims. For Catholics, Jerusalem is the birthplace of Christianity and the setting of many important biblical events. The Holy City, as Catholic dogma states, is its universal headquarters. Does anyone really think the Vatican is genuinely interested in ceding control of these sites to Muslims?
At the very least, the Vatican’s endorsement of Palestinian statehood is political chicanery. More than likely, it’s a calculated ruse, and part of a Trojan horse strategy by which the Vatican gains the trust of the Palestinians and international community before more actively staking its claim to Jerusalem and its holy sites. Whatever happens, don’t expect the Vatican to stand by and cheer as Muslims assume control of Christianity’s holy sites. That’s never going to happen.
Keep an eye on Jerusalem, and especially on the Vatican’s dalliances in the city. Bible prophecy tells us Jerusalem is the nucleus of end-time events, and that the Catholic Church will make a play for the Holy City in the final days before Christ’s return. We’ve often pointed to Daniel 11:40, which describes a gigantic clash between Catholic Europe and Iran and its radical Islamic supporters. In verse 41, we read that after Europe’s army defeats the king of the south it is invited into “the glorious land [Jerusalem in biblical terminology], and many countries shall be overthrown.”
According to this prophecy, the climactic events that precede the return of Christ revolve around Jerusalem. This city, as Gerald Flurry has explained, is a thermometer for measuring the imminence of Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. The more the tension rises between Jews and Palestinians, and the more the Catholic Church interferes in Jerusalem, the closer we are to this awesome event!

JStone, play nice, now.

 

[JStone]

Is it just me, or is someone in this thread coming across as an arrogant, pretentious douchebag?

You're lacking in self esteem. We get it

LOL, it only took a few seconds for idiot JStone to raise his hand and acknowledge he is the douchebag!!

Who's the "douchebag"? You worship a cave-dwelling, caravan hijacking con artist married to a 6 year old when he was in his 50s and who married his ex-daughter-in-law, who plagiarized Judaism and Christianity.

 

[Saigon]

Who's the "douchebag"? The only person on this thread who can't explain his interest in the Middle East?

Yeah, that's about it.

 

[Lipush]

Is it just me, or is someone in this thread coming across as an arrogant, pretentious douchebag?

You're lacking in self esteem. We get it

LOL, it only took a few seconds for idiot JStone to raise his hand and acknowledge he is the douchebag!!

And what is YOUR business in the middle east?

 

[Moonglow]

My interest are historical sociology, as far as the Jews and Arabs, they have been at each others throats for years. War is nothing new there and will continue even if the Jews were not there. the jews give the Arabs a focus on their plight and how they want to free themselves of foreign control.

 

[Sunni Man]

And what is YOUR business in the middle east?

I am part of the Ummah (global muslim community) in Islam.

Any where that muslim are being mistreated by non muslims is our business.

We believe in justice for our brothers and sisters.

 

[JStone]

And what is YOUR business in the middle east?

I am part of the Ummah (global muslim community) in Islam.

Any where that muslim are being mistreated by non muslims is our business.

We believe in justice for our brothers and sisters.

The ummah invented by a cave-dwelling, caravan hijacking con artist married to a 6 year old girl when he was in his 50s [pedophile] and who married his ex-daughter-in-law [incest]

You muslimes don't have very high standards for your fake prophet.

 

[Moonglow]

What was cultural practices in ancient times is not the same cultural practices today. Even Christians lived in caves while writing their text.

 

[JStone]

And what is YOUR business in the middle east?

I am part of the Ummah (global muslim community) in Islam.

Any where that muslim are being mistreated by non muslims is our business.

We believe in justice for our brothers and sisters.

Iran Iraq War, 1 million dead
Lebanese Civil War, 250,000 dead
Algerian Civl War: 300,000 dead
Bangladesh Civil War: 500,000 dead
Black Sept., Jordan's King Hussein murders, expells 80,000 Palestinians
Syrian army kills 20,000 Syrians at Hama
Iraq gases hundreds of thousands of Kurds
1400 year conflict between Sunnis and Shiites
Fratricide between Hamas and Fatah
Syria/Hizballah assassinate Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri

Alexis de Toqueville...

I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself

 

[Lipush]

And what is YOUR business in the middle east?

I am part of the Ummah (global muslim community) in Islam.

Any where that muslim are being mistreated by non muslims is our business.

We believe in justice for our brothers and sisters.

Yeah yeah I get it. That's your business in Islam. That's not what I mean.

I mean the Middle East. All the Ummah thing? Totally not an Islamic gig, because with all due respect, you might say you're all one and gathered and that, but so far it's only on paper, while "brother" Assad killing "brothers" in Syria, and we have yet to see your Ummah doing nothing more then scold him

So,once we have that cleard, I understand you have no real business in the Middle East? I mean you havn't been here at all.?

 

[Saigon]

My interest are historical sociology, as far as the Jews and Arabs, they have been at each others throats for years. War is nothing new there and will continue even if the Jews were not there. the jews give the Arabs a focus on their plight and how they want to free themselves of foreign control.

There is an element of truth in that. I certainly agree that wars would continue in the ME even if Israel disappeared but at the same time - this does not justify the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

 

[Jos]

I have worked and lived in about 40 countries, My work caused me to visit many local people everyday and hire and train local staff to take over the running of the company, In the Middle East I started off in Lebanon then Jordan I was then sent to start a new office in Iran After that I worked in the UAE and Qatar, before moving to Work in the US, Canada and Mexico, I then chose to work in the Far East, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. I then went to work for myself and started business's in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

In every country i lived in I tried my best to learn the language and culture of the Locals, the saddest plight I heard was from the Palestinian refugees, driven by force and fear from their homes and their country, and now even today unable to return to their native homeland

 

[Moonglow]

My interest are historical sociology, as far as the Jews and Arabs, they have been at each others throats for years. War is nothing new there and will continue even if the Jews were not there. the jews give the Arabs a focus on their plight and how they want to free themselves of foreign control.

There is an element of truth in that. I certainly agree that wars would continue in the ME even if Israel disappeared but at the same time - this does not justify the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

spoils of war.

 

[Saigon]

while "brother" Assad killing "brothers" in Syria, and we have yet to see your Ummah doing nothing more then scold him

I don't agree with that - the Arab Union have been quite vocal in their condemnation of the violence in Syria. Surprisingly so, IMHO.

It's also notable that what Arabic posters might say to each other on an Arabic forum, they may not always say here.

Were western countries now still caught up in Iraq and Afghanistant there might be a case for regime with Arabic support, but Syria is an almost impregnable target: vast distances, terrible terrain for an invading army, and large cities well suited for guerilla warfare.

I couldn't expect anyone to send troops into Syria.

 

[Sunni Man]

I mean the Middle East. All the Ummah thing? Totally not an Islamic gig, because with all due respect, you might say you're all one and gathered and that, but so far it's only on paper, while "brother" Assad killing "brothers" in Syria, and we have yet to see your Ummah doing nothing more then scold him

Assad is Not a muslim; he is an Alawite.

Every mosque in my local area is taking up collections and sending money to help the Syrian people with food and medical supplies.

That is considered humanitarian aid under U.S. law and is legal to do so.

It is up to each individual muslim to decide how to help the people there.

 

[Saigon]

I have worked and lived in about 40 countries, My work caused me to visit many local people everyday and hire and train local staff to take over the running of the company, In the Middle East I started off in Lebanon then Jordan I was then sent to start a new office in Iran After that I worked in the UAE and Qatar, before moving to Work in the US, Canada and Mexico, I then chose to work in the Far East, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. I then went to work for myself and started business's in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

In every country i lived in I tried my best to learn the language and culture of the Locals, the saddest plight I heard was from the Palestinian refugees, driven by force and fear from their homes and their country, and now even today unable to return to their native homeland

That's an impressive list, Jos. I think anyone who has been to 40 countries is going to have a fantastic base for really understanding the world. And you have experienced a great range of cultures, there, too. Singapore, Zimbabwe and Beirut...that's some contrast!!