Perspectives

"Islam was accepted and welcomed all around the Mediterranean basin because it countered the rigid conformity of Roman rule by introducing the value of respecting each person's inherent human dignity and by implementing concrete precepts to make the achievement of universal human dignity a reality."

"The important question is why there is such indifference among Muslims to the destruction of the symbols and sites of Islam."

"A search of major media--print, radio and television--has virtually the same result: silence. The Internet is one of the few places where one can find thoughtful and candid examinations of Israel’s dominance of U.S. society."

"...both the Obama and the McCain campaigns are talking about investing a major policy-planning and staff-planning effort now, in parallel with their campaigns and with the November-January interregnum, with the objective of "hitting the ground running" at least with regard to the Middle East. If they succeed, this would end the current "between administrations" period sometime in early 2009 rather than in midyear."

"Regardless of how these next few months are viewed, however, the level of damage accumulated over the last seven years and the shortage of time left makes it unrealistic to expect any significant breakthroughs, especially since the weakness of the US administration coincides with the weakness of leadership in the region, including both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Significant achievements are possible only if other international powers, i.e., European countries and Russia, can enter and fill the vacuum that the US administration has already left."

"The Founding Fathers saw popular voting as endangering property ownership. Democracy was viewed by most the same way Washington viewed the “scum” who started the Revolution around Boston. It took about two hundred years of gradual changes for America to become anything that seriously could be called democratic. Even now, what sensible person would call it anything but a rough work still in progress."

"Will democracy take hold in modern Muslim societies? The next few months are poignant with agonizing fear and great hope, and the answer hinges on whether Malaysians and Turks will succumb to the intimidation of the power hungry or show the maturity and courage worthy of free and principled people."

"...Sarkozy called on Israel to stop settlement in the West Bank and said, “There cannot be peace without an immediate and complete halt to settlement. There cannot be peace without recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of two states and the guarantee of free access to the holy places for all religions.”