momgoingbroke said:FrugalFreak said: ...in my opinion, DUBAI, Saudi, other islam countries are on a mission to dethrone america as superpower and more. They act like our friend, but saudi is full blown enemy.I've never understood why America needs to be a superpower anyway! Can't we be satisfied with just being a power?? Must we have the biggest, baddest, bestest of everything to everyone? No wonder why so many countries see us as arrogant!

it does seem to make us arrogant I agree, but I don't want any nation or group of nation with the new found power to invade us and force other religions upon us.

scott alot of american companies are relocating there, so if dubai keeps building,improving, getting bigger, we may end up looking like a 3rd world to the world in 30 or 100 years.

FrugalFreak said:I don't want any nation or group of nation with the new found power to invade us and force other religions upon us. Christians have been doing that for generations now in third world countries.

FrugalFreak said: christians do not FORCE people to believe, that goes against the core beliefs to begin with. they just spread message far and wide as instructed to do.

witnessing and forcing are not the same.Not to take this thread where it shouldn't go, but there are pockets of Christians that do intimidate others to either abandon their own faith or to become Christian. There was a group in my city last year that went to a Jewish place of worship, while the service was going on, and put flyers on all the cars in the parking lot telling them that they will go to hell if they don't get saved (in a Christian church). I guess my point is that you can't generalize about any group of people, because there will always be some on the border of acceptable behavior.

Now, back to the topic (whatever it was) before this gets locked!

scott1961 said:momgoingbroke said: Not to take this thread where it shouldn't go, but there are pockets of Christians that do intimidate others to either abandon their own faith or to become Christian. There was a group in my city last year that went to a Jewish place of worship, while the service was going on, and put flyers on all the cars in the parking lot telling them that they will go to hell if they don't get saved (in a Christian church). I guess my point is that you can't generalize about any group of people, because there will always be some on the border of acceptable behavior. Oh no, Flyer's on your car But beats getting stoned or arrested. Thats just free speech and why America is greatSo you would be okay finding this on your car?? Sorry, but it contains a threat, and that is intimidation, not free speech.

momgoingbroke said:scott1961 said:momgoingbroke said: Not to take this thread where it shouldn't go, but there are pockets of Christians that do intimidate others to either abandon their own faith or to become Christian. There was a group in my city last year that went to a Jewish place of worship, while the service was going on, and put flyers on all the cars in the parking lot telling them that they will go to hell if they don't get saved (in a Christian church). I guess my point is that you can't generalize about any group of people, because there will always be some on the border of acceptable behavior. Oh no, Flyer's on your car But beats getting stoned or arrested. Thats just free speech and why America is greatSo you would be okay finding this on your car?? Sorry, but it contains a threat, and that is intimidation, not free speech.
No threat there. We had a hate group leaving some pretty bad literature late at night in my area, All cops could get them for was littering

lostdude said:FrugalFreak said:wrong.. having mention of God on money or elsewhere does not force you to worship that faith. christians do not FORCE people to believe,that goes against the core beliefs to begin with. they just spread message far and wide as instructed to do..Not at the moment.. but isn't history such a crude thing?

From the 1st crusade:, they proceeded to massacre the remaining Jewish and Muslim civilians and pillaged or destroyed mosques and the city itselfThe 3rd:The brutality of an outnumbered army in a hostile land could be seen again when the city surrendered and Richard proceeded to massacre everyone, despite his earlier promise.[25] From the Frankish point of view, an oath made to a non-Christian was no oath at all.
No one is doubting the mistakes made in the past, But all the major Religions now have learned to respect others, well we are still waiting for one to get on board

momgoingbroke said:
Ahhh....so now they are a hate group and a few posts ago you said it was free speech??

Whatever the case, I do have to say that as far as I know, America seems to be one of the more tolerant countries regarding differences, religious or otherwise, and that's not so bad at all.
Yes they are hate groups just like the ones you mentioned. But as long as they don't cross the line then they are protected. And that is why America is great and because of our tolerance it's best we stay the superpower

scott1961 said:No one is doubting the mistakes made in the past, But all the major Religions now have learned to respect others, well we are still waiting for one to get on boardAnd we have no idea what the future will bring. There are new fringe group formed all the time. During the time of Crusade, it was the islam nation-states that showed tolerance and rational thinking. Yes, how time has changed but what will tomorrow bring? Didn't we just have (in the 21th century, in the USA) one state want to label Evolution as "theory". I sure hope I'm wrong, but look around, we still got a foot in the Dark Age.

They don't call it the Dark Age because it was darkFrom Stargate SG1

lostdude said:scott1961 said:No one is doubting the mistakes made in the past, But all the major Religions now have learned to respect others, well we are still waiting for one to get on boardAnd we have no idea what the future will bring. There are new fringe group formed all the time. During the time of Crusade, it was the islam nation-states that showed tolerance and rational thinking. Yes, how time has changed but what will tomorrow bring? Didn't we just have (in the 21th century, in the USA) one state want to label Evolution as "theory". I sure hope I'm wrong, but look around, we still got a foot in the Dark Age.
They don't call it the Dark Age because it was darkFrom Stargate SG1

and evloutionist label GOD as spagetti monster, your point is..... I still feel safer, as do the MAJORITY of this country having "In GOD we trust" on money than "In no religion we trust". Dark Age???

Sorry folks, I'm going to go off-topic and get back on topic.

bridgeforsale said:SleazyBastard said:bridgeforsale said:I doubt very much these folks are interested in becoming citizens, otherwise they'd be adopting American values by (for instance) observing the same American holidays the rest of us celebrate. I'm sure there are Somali refugess who want to become Americans, but they don't seem to in the majority among those who voted to ditch Labor Day.
So which holiday should they have given up?
Birthday
New Year's Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day
Labor Day

No matter which holiday you choose to give up, someone's going to have a problem with it. Since 700 or the 1200 employees are Muslim, they could easily have voted to get rid of Christmas, since Christmas has the least significance for Muslims, but they didn't. They chose the holiday which most Americans celebrate on the weekend.

Goodwill gestures like this are more effective at ending terrorism than dropping bombs. Do you want to bet that there are now 700 Muslims who are less likely to support the terrorists? When the fanatics call for all Muslims to kill the evil Americans, I can think of 700 Muslims who will ignore the call.Rather than accomodate people who you fear might support terrorism, doesn't it make more sense to invite Muslims and others who are pro-American in the first place?
I see now. With you, nothing comes without strings and it's always "us" against "them".

To put it as simply as possible, it's not about fear, it's about winning hearts and minds, which is a strategy that works only if you truly believe in it.