Discussion today about getting on with each other

The very first distinction the Muslim girls made was the difference between Muslims and Arabs. One girl spoke of her best friend’s father being angry that she wanted to marry an Arab. Muslim does not equal Arab.

The second point made was that people are simply interested in other things here – making money, trips, buying cars and clothes, partying and so on. Very few are super-religious but this doesn’t mean they’d put up with insults to their native religion – they’d simply walk way from the fool who insulted them and not speak to them again.

To put it in Bill Clinton’s terms: the biggest problem confronting the world today is the illusion that our differences matter more than our common humanity. That's what's driving the terrorism.

The qualification is, of course, that these girls today were 1] educated 2] well fed 3] in no way poor. So the only basis for conflict was the same as in our own society, the usual things which the seven deadly sins bring on – you know – shopaholism, pc, narcotics and so on.

The next point was that not many here believe that it’s to do with the Jews, Muslims or Christians and this is where I was amazed to hear girls say what I’ve been saying on the website ad nauseam – that the problem comes from the 3rd and 4th players. Of course they didn’t use those words. They said it was the Chinese and the Money.

The next point is where the ladies and I differ. They equated ‘the Money’ with the US and Bush whereas I equate the Money with Paris, Bavaria and Zurich [plus a dozen other outstations] and see the US as being just as much used by the Money as any of the others. I didn’t get into that today, of course.

The next point was that because they’ve lived so long together in a cauldron here [in fact that’s what the name of the town means], they’ve intermarried and it’s difficult to find ‘pure’ Russians or other nationalities. Therefore there’s a sort of tolerance and when great issues like 911 and 7/7 come up, as one girl said, ‘It was difficult to get my head around what had been done. One thing I knew was that this was not Islam. It was pure evil calling itself Islam.’

Another girl [Christian] agreed that this was the problem with the Crusades – they had zilch to do with Christianity in its true form. Ditto the Inquisition. It’s like the Jews who practise and get on with everyone else and those who go the whole hog and get into the Dark Kabbala [Madonna’s great love which allows her to mock the Crucifixion].

What came through very clearly was that one will never do what one is not predisposed to do, unless under duress. Yes, there is permission to kill under certain circumstances in the texts but that doesn’t mean you have to zero in on these sura. There are equally peaceful passages there which do not exhort violence. It’s what you’re looking for in the first place. I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past.

So why the violence? Racial arrogance and an agent provocateur in the region highlighting the problem. Here, in this town, people are roughly of the same intermarried race but of different religions. It’s the racial difference which is usually the greater threat eg. Iran/Iraq and in Africa. The religious differences are of less consequence because most people do not naturally gravitate towards religious fervour. It has to be whipped up by someone.

Therefore even the young men are fairly easy-going with each other over here and I’ve certainly never seen religious militias of any form. The eyes of the young men are fairly and squarely on money and girls. You have to be in the room with these guys to see just how easy-going they are.

Now there has to be a lesson in here for the world, truly. I concluded by saying, ‘You all seem to basically get on together. How can we tell the world about you?’ One girl said, ‘Put it on your website.’

So I have.