I don't want to get too religious or political here, but there are a few things that need to be said. First, I spent over a year looking for claims made by Al Qaeda and quotes of Al Qaeda made by CIA agents stating that they were out to turn the world in to an Islamic state or punish us for freedom and so far, I have found neither. What I HAVE heard (and the CIA has reported the same thing) is that this whole thing is about revenge against the US for meddling in their business. There ARE some other Muslim groups who talk about turning the world in to an Islamic state and all that nonsense, but all they ever do is talk, and as far as I know, they have no connection to the Al Qaeda or any other terrorist network.
Secondly, I myself am a believer that all religions are man made therefor I am not at all concerned with the authenticity battle of belief systems, but looking at the historical outline of Islam, they have been one of the more tolerant religions around. For instance, Muslim territory was considered safe havens for Jews during the church Inquisitions in the middle ages due to there infrastructure that allowed freedom of religion while the religious wars of Islam historically have been directed at European governments and power circles (like the Vatican) while nearly, if not entirely non-aggressive towards religions that functioned like they do today in the US. Apart from some hard feelings between cultures and decisions made by governments of Muslim countries, the same is still true today even in the midst of this bloody conflict. One good example of this was the case with the Catholic Missionary: Margaret Hassan. When she was kidnapped and her plea for her life shown on video, the very people who were responsible for most of the beheadings that were going on actually spoke in her defense, telling her captors to prove that she was conspiring against them or let her go, in which her captors in stead just shot her in the head and upset allot of people on both sides. Even still, this is just an example of light in even the darkest side if Islam and the current conflict. For the most part, Muslims can be very sharp, respectful and wise people like anyone else. Sure, their religion has some differentiations, good and bad from our common western religions, but to each his own be that he's not causing trouble, which not too many Muslims do. I have had a number of Muslim friends over the years. None were terrorists, none seamed to have any attitude of religious domination. On the contrary, they were respectful people who went out of their way to make everyone comfortable around them and were always happy to have an intelligent conversation, and had a tendency to be well schooled in science, culture and many other things that todays thinking would lead you to think Muslims be ignorant of.
If you want to talk about Muslim weapons, the first thing that comes to mind is that from what I have seen so far, they do a darn good job of making them and I would not be so paranoid about seeing articles on them. Apart from just sheer knowledge of who is using what, I myself would be really fascinated to see what the newer weapons of the new Iraqi military are using. A couple years ago, I saw their military doing joint operations with the US military and noticed that the Iraqis were using a camo AK rifle and was interested to know what sort of goodies they might be using since many of the current production AK goodies that we like to put on our guns are undoubtedly finding their way in to the Iraqi army. Another really interesting country to see is Turkey. Every time I see guns made in Turkey, they are incredible and quite unique as well. This is all in addition to the former Soviet Unions arsenal and Middle Eastern made copies.
Secondly, I myself am a believer that all religions are man made therefor I am not at all concerned with the authenticity battle of belief systems, but looking at the historical outline of Islam, they have been one of the more tolerant religions around. For instance, Muslim territory was considered safe havens for Jews during the church Inquisitions in the middle ages due to there infrastructure that allowed freedom of religion while the religious wars of Islam historically have been directed at European governments and power circles (like the Vatican) while nearly, if not entirely non-aggressive towards religions that functioned like they do today in the US. Apart from some hard feelings between cultures and decisions made by governments of Muslim countries, the same is still true today even in the midst of this bloody conflict. One good example of this was the case with the Catholic Missionary: Margaret Hassan. When she was kidnapped and her plea for her life shown on video, the very people who were responsible for most of the beheadings that were going on actually spoke in her defense, telling her captors to prove that she was conspiring against them or let her go, in which her captors in stead just shot her in the head and upset allot of people on both sides. Even still, this is just an example of light in even the darkest side if Islam and the current conflict. For the most part, Muslims can be very sharp, respectful and wise people like anyone else. Sure, their religion has some differentiations, good and bad from our common western religions, but to each his own be that he's not causing trouble, which not too many Muslims do. I have had a number of Muslim friends over the years. None were terrorists, none seamed to have any attitude of religious domination. On the contrary, they were respectful people who went out of their way to make everyone comfortable around them and were always happy to have an intelligent conversation, and had a tendency to be well schooled in science, culture and many other things that todays thinking would lead you to think Muslims be ignorant of.
If you want to talk about Muslim weapons, the first thing that comes to mind is that from what I have seen so far, they do a darn good job of making them and I would not be so paranoid about seeing articles on them. Apart from just sheer knowledge of who is using what, I myself would be really fascinated to see what the newer weapons of the new Iraqi military are using. A couple years ago, I saw their military doing joint operations with the US military and noticed that the Iraqis were using a camo AK rifle and was interested to know what sort of goodies they might be using since many of the current production AK goodies that we like to put on our guns are undoubtedly finding their way in to the Iraqi army. Another really interesting country to see is Turkey. Every time I see guns made in Turkey, they are incredible and quite unique as well. This is all in addition to the former Soviet Unions arsenal and Middle Eastern made copies.
