....... the persecution of Christians, 21st-century-style, as observed by the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ersecuted.html

Hardly news this, been going on for awhile now.

Where is Santa in the bible? I have yet to find him.

John 11:35

that's a bit early to have him around for lunch.

A lot of us forget or are ignorant of the fact that most of North Africa and significant chunks of the middle east were only 1400 years ago Christian majority non-Arabic speaking lands. The persecution of Christians in the third of Christendom annexed by the Islamic Empire is nothing new sadly, and the grounds made in scaring off and eradicating entire communities has stepped up in recent years. Once thriving and long standing Christian communities in Bethlethem are all but gone. The Copts - who are the descendants of the people who built the pyramids, are a often pressured minority and second class citizen in their own lands. The linked article touches on the Christians in Iraq too. Even further afield in Nigeria we saw dreadful and deliberate bombings of Christian civillians by Islamic terrorists yesterday as they attended Christmas day services.

Yet, the world remains quite silent. The "Christian" world, and especially the Western Christians (the only ones who have any power to really step in and help).

I'm a declared atheist but the fact that I grew up in a Christian influenced culture, and the fact that I stand against the 1400 year occupation, denigration and cultural "genocide" of many parts of this region makes me feel solidarity with these Christians...far more than solidarity for long term occupiers of other people's land hiding behind historical revision and religious and cultural hegemony of the last 1400 years.

I say shame on us for ignoring this.

N.

Pretty deep topic to be having..

What would be a suitable time frame for an invading culture to wipe out the existing culture and be accepted or assimilate the two, depending of course on the conquering cultures trait when occupying.

Look at history. The Saxons and other Germanic peoples managed to completely change the language and culture of most of mainland Britain within a couple of centuries, despite having small numbers. The Scots did a good and very quick number on the Picts too with a tiny fraction of the manpower. Completely assimilated them like the natives south of Hadrian's wall.

Ask the Iranians...1000 years later and there's little trace of the original Persian culture or religion left is there?

Or the Egyptians - the real Egyptians, who are now the Coptic minority. The Turks did a good job on the Anatolian natives. The Han in China took their time but now have the largest ethnic group on the planet.

In some cases it's very violent, and in others quite peaceful...sometimes it's beneficial (I think in the case of the Celtic and Germanic migrations to Britain for example - at least in pre-Christian times) and it others it's horrific literal and or/cultural genocide (the conquest of the Americas, the Islamic Empire).

World's not a nice place is it?

Not entirely, nature is cruel. But men who burn libraries are sick and should be put down like a lame horse. It seems however, an effective way to bring cultures into the darkages. Today we see both political and religious attempts to block some parts of our vast knowledge base, trying to impose artificially, values and morals. These measures however I find impede creative thought, and it's quite evident if you look at either the middle east or china per say in comparison to say Europe or Japan.

I completely agree on the book burning scum. Europe had the Dark Ages because of that mob running the show. China's still recovering from the Qing idiots and then the Cultural Revolution (or retardation to put it better) of Mao and the Marxist filth that is Communism.

Cuba also comes to mind, as does North Korea (compare how evil Capitalism is by looking at the South and how "terrible" life is there!).

Freedom works...not perfectly of course but it's a darn site better than the three big evils of this world: Religious governance, National Socialism and Communism.

N.