I agree on these,
* Fighting one enemy at a time is a sound proposition.
* It is true that the Islamists are the bigger threat.
* The Vatican has influence over their members who then lay pressure on their elected officials.

* Europe, India, Australia, USA, Japan and many others are going to need each other in the coming years for it is going to be ugly." No one can dispute these facts..But my point is all about collusion of Catholics with savagely violent types in India and indifference of EU, US, UK to these atrocities of muslims in and around India.

For Vatican to be seen in this evil nexus and purely onto "harvesting souls" appears to my Hindu friends as "reckless endangerment and criminal negligence." Pope wants no part of secularism at all but the Catholics of India fight for "secularism" that is like pushing aside all the Christians of USA or EU aside and having the islamist minority rule those countries: USA, France, Germany,..as "secular government". Does that make sense? That is what you have in India now.

Given the current "Catholic Government" is weak, uncaring and somewhat anti-democratically illegitimate, given there is no rule of law, the terrible consequences of street barbarism that is so frequent and so wide-spread make India seem like another Iraq..

Lets fight one enemy at a time shall we?  You may not like the Vatican or Christians...but you are going to need them if you consider the Islamist the bigger threat.

Who cares why the Vatican acts?  It may have taken them a while but the important thing is that they have awakened to the Islamist threat....try not to miss that point.  Why is that important?  Because they have influence over their members who then lay pressure on their elected officials.  All this takes time...to much time but it has to start somewhere.

And frankly, if you have freedom of religion in your country there is really nothing you can do about conversions....and I know for a fact that many Evangelicals (also Christians) go to your country as well.  The Vatican has no authority or power over these people.  If Hinduism is strong, they will not lose people to either Islam or Christianity....but if it isn't, you should hope that they turn to Christianity rather than Islam as one wants to hug you to death while the other wants to chop off your head.

The truth is...Europe, India, Australia, USA, Japan and many others are going to need each other in the coming years for it is going to be ugly.

To address Miriam's concerns in South Asia, let me say this. You cannot have the cake and eat it too. Giving Gospel to the islamists, if not others, is ok. That way, the islamists become ok, like one of us, peaceful citizens of the world!!..!

That the Holy See and other evangelists have the guts, gumption and moral courage to see this through and achieve religious freedom in Pakistan, S Arabia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Jordan, Malaysia and even China, is what is important.

The market for harvesting souls is really vast - one billion islamists and 1 bil chinese - more than 2 billion!!! Only you got to get the market opened. If you stop investing money for their economic development until they open their markets for our churches, they are sure to sit up and take the Gospel as it'd be in their economic interest to do so.

I assume Miriam is Jewish. She needs to know that though Malaysia has been secretly trading in the Nuclear black market in evil nexus with the pakkis and bashing the Jews, the investment of Jewish and Western companies has been far in excess of what the investment has been in India that has open market for soul harvesting!!!!

And the Western officials have been blind to the evil machinations of the Malaysians in actively helping the pakkis in the nuclear centrifuge technology. Besides, Malaysia is fast becoming the tourist mecca for the arabs who are boycotting previous spots. And Malays are becoming increasingly oppressive to their minority Tamils and Chinese. That 20% minority has far less than the 12% muslim minority of India that has many muslim universities, top film billionaire muslim movie actors and even the top-most job of President as a ***muslim***, one Mr Abdul Kalam!!! So, India deserves all the support in every way possible, as it is the moral super-power!!!

The Vatican Confronts Islam

"Danish cartoons crisis offered a typical example of Catholic disillusionment. Church leaders initially criticized the publication of the Muhammad cartoons. But when Muslims responded by murdering Catholic priests in Turkey and Nigeria, not to speak of scores of Christians killed during five days of riots in Nigeria, the Church responded with warnings to Muslims. “If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us, ” said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s Secretary of State. “We must always stress our demand for reciprocity in political contacts with authorities in Islamic countries and, even more, in cultural contacts,” added Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, its foreign minister."

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/012102.php#more

That American values are most exemplary and universal must be obvious. Two most important of these values are democracy [rule by the majority], freedom [no more bondage or slavery of any type].

Cold War was won by conservatism of Reagan and the Global War on terrorism can be won by the same values and precepts. The only democracy in Middle East is in Israel and only one rest of Asia is in India. Both are multi-party systems with leftists allowed. Former has only minimal amount of leftist power, latter is dominated by the most sinister version, enduring real barbaric communism of 21st century itself - with no pro-life element at all - yet supported by Catholics.

Former has been supported by all and sundry, the latter not only by Catholics but the entire Western Christendom. Sleeping with the communist and islamist devils is not a sound ethical basis for the Christians and yet even the Holy See claiming Polish historic victory sees no problem with it. Barbaric murders of innocent civilians go on and on in India and Nepal at a very large scale with virtually unlimited scope and intensity. That is both a cruel and wicked irony.

Very true.  Most on the far left in the US are admirers of the European elitists.

There are cracks, however.  A lot of people, for instance are throwing down the bull shit flag on political correctness. 

Glenn Beck, a radio talk show host that you may be familiar with, has on occasion on his show a segment to show the stupidity of political correctness.  It is called the Rainbow Coalition.  He gets various minorites to all call in at the same time, then he will read something that should be benign like the old childrens poems, Mary Had a Little Lamb or Humpty Dumpty.  As he reads, the minority who is 'offended' pushes a button on his phone.  Beck will say, "Ok, who is it and why are you offended?"  The minority will say,  "Black guy!  I'm offended because Mary's sheep were white as snow!"  Beck will then read on until the next minority buzzes in.  It's quick paced and hilarious.  The overall theme is to see how ludicrus it can be when you take political correctness to far because somebody can be offended by almost anything at any time.

One may ask why he chose Mary Had A Little Lamb to read?  Because someone took it upon themselves to change the words of the age old poem.  "Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was the color of the rainbow."

Americans need to look back to the American founding values as well as Europeans.  All too many of us are working overtime to make the USA exactly the same as modern Europe.

continued... 

It was very interesting reading.  It appears to be quite balanced as it trys to give Muslim rulers credit when due, but I also saw some interesting similiarites of your history that Europeans could definately relate to today.  Such as:

"Islamic conquerors retained their Islamic identity and created new legal and administrative systems that challenged and usually superceded the existing systems of social conduct and ethics. They also introduced new cultural mores that in some ways were very different from the existing cultural codes. While these were a source of friction and conflict, it should also be noted that there were also Islamic rulers who in much of their secular practice absorbed or accommodated local traditions."     and........

"After independence(from Britian), similar fears (of fomenting needless divisions) often led to the quiet censorship of essays containing a critique of Islam. However, because, Hinduism was viewed as the faith of the 'dominant majority' there weren't the same fears of critically dissecting Hinduism. It was possible for the many weaknesses and failures of Hindu obscurantism to be exposed, but Islam, on the other hand was somewhat protected from critical analysis."

Europe:  Consider India your "Canary in the Coal Mine" and take heed.  While Hinduism and some of the Indian culture has been retained with the majority there, it has not been without much bloodshed and sacrifice over the centuries.

Thanks Miriam

I have read your comments over this past week or so with interest, noting your desperation in trying to warn the Europeans on this web site about the Islamic threat to their societies.

You are not the first Indian that I have heard this from. Months ago I was reading comments on Fjordman's blog when I came across another Indian who shared a bit of Indian history that I truely had never given much thought to...that of the Muslim/Hindu peoples. It intriqued me then so much that I even copied it, with the intention of pursuing more of that piece of history. Here are her comments in part:

"I am Indian. In India the Islamic Jihad against the Hindu-Buddhist civilization (openly declared - when the Koran talks about Polytheists it IS talking about us) has cost us tens of millions of lives.
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust/
Secondly the latest jihadi genocide was carried out in 1971 when the Pakistani army butchered 3 million Bengalis. Would this be an accurate definition if "genocide"?
Compare the experiences of the following sets of people when "interacting" with Islam
1. Hindus in India
2. Buddhists in Thailand
3. Christians in Eastern Europe
4. Animists/Tribals in Africa.
Explain how all four completely different races and religions have almost the same set of experiences when dealing with Islam?"

I did not follow through with researching that piece of history, sad to say, but you have reminded of me to follow through with that promise I made to myself. To that end I "Googled Muslim Indian History" and found an interesting resource at

http://india_resource.tripod.com/islam.html

to be continued on next posting

Given USA has been wrong in her foreign policy, there is no need to look to USA! She defined the Axis of Evil wrongly too!!..! Since Gen Colin Powell liked Gen Mussaruff, all the savage serial mass murders of that theocratic military dictatorship is being forgotten. Even serb Christians who were fighting terrorists like USA in Iraq (that drops 500 lb bomb and got a whole lot of collateral casualties) have been treated inhumanely harshly.

This theocracy is getting away with murder literally - including that of journalist Daniel Pearl.

Axis of Evis is the nexus of Sino-Pak secretive drama and dance with their proxy agents in Iran and N Korea. Nuke black market must have told us this. Isnt this obvious?

Six party talk should go on and on for the Chinese to reep tourism dollars and being the "honest" broker! Some honesty!??

Of course, the main reason why Europe must look at American roots is because of its founding on natural law principles: "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Alas, there is not much found of that anymore at both sides of the Ocean.

I agree wholeheartedly with Belien's analysis. 

One of the fundamental differences between America and Europe remains the conviction among the people of the United States that rights come from God. Those who agree with the view that the state is the author of their rights are essentially entering into voluntary slavery. Americans take seriously the words of Thomas Jefferson and others who understood that no man has the power to give or take away the rights of another. Such authority belongs to God alone. As a result, Americans believe that government is always limited in its authority and must be subservient to the good of the people.

I know Europeans view American religiosity with suspicion, but many intellectuals here (including those who may have no affinity for evangelical Christianity) agree that a strong sense of the divine is the best defense against overreaching by the state. This is something that Europeans should try better to understand and appreciate, both for our sake and for theirs.

@ Onellion

Your comment is interesting AND intruiging.  Mr Belien's latest article suffers a bit from excessive hyperbole, but in essence he is right about the cultural underpinnings of succesful capitalism.  Why this leads you to question "economic theory" with regard to China and India remains for me a mystery?

There is no conflict between "economic theory" and contemporary economic developments in China and India.  In fact, many parts (and insights) of economic theory are being succesfully applied in those two massive countries, and many other parts are not.

While it is certainly possible that many bad things could happen in the future of both these two countries, and other countries as well, that has nothing to do with "economic theory".   The latter is not designed, and cannot be expected, to provide a comprehensive explanation of all human endeavours.

With regard to China's future, the big debate in the west is between (1) those who believe that economic growth will eventually bring gradual 'democratisation', i.e. the conventional wisdom that a market economy will eventually foster some kind of democratic polity, and (2) others who expect a 'revolution and collapse' due to an entrenched culture of corruption.   I adhere to a third view or possibility, i.e. I expect "resilient authoritarianism", because chinese scholars today are mostly "neoauthoritarians", and few are "democrats".   I also expect 'democratic' India to do much better economically than China in the medium term (despite India's terrible bureaucratic government).   Karl Marx was wrong.  It is not the economy that determines culture, but rather culture that trumps economics.      

Paul,
You will surely hear from the list of those that do not appreciate your learned candor on European politics. I throughly enjoy your writings and shared intuitive reporting, but, I must say, this will waken the dragons.
We are still fighting for American Independence, keeping large government at bay, for surely if allowed it would follow Europe in her descending endeavors.
May your enlightening gather momentum as you continue to fight the good fight.

One billion is not a small number! If you dump all your wealth and aid to the islamists who always want more and more with no gratitude or trust..it is all a total waste.

We are getting so burnt in KOSOVO, BOSNIA, TURKEY, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN...the list is endless.

We trust them, but they dont ever trust us. All the human cost, material cost, energy, efforts all are literally going to near total waste.

If we stop the cultural assault on Hindus, they can be our best friends. Let us stop converting them to our faith. Then, we would be more welcome to them.

They did help us in WW-I, II, BOXER REVOLT...etc.
We let them get weakend by the internal islamists who are becoming an awful Frankenstein of demonic proportions..

Let us treat pakki like the serbs with pre-condition to surrender binLaden, his Lt, to the Hague before they can get any dollars. AND OPEN THEIR FOLKS FOR CHURCH BLDG, AND CONVERSION - "religious freedom" which they dont have at all!!..! Indians have too much such freedom!!!!

Indians are also some of the smartest on earth. The decimal numbers is the basis of computers. Yoga, meditation, spices, silk making, jewelry making, plastic surgery, chess, advanced metalurgy all were given by them to the whole humanity.

I carefully read the article today (7/4/06) by Paul Belien, "Europe must find its roots in America." In discussing the comparative views on authority and government, there is an important matter, perhaps more important, not considered. The main problem in international economics, from what little I know, is that economic theory does not know how to handle the issues related to China and India, especially China. When economic theory does not know how to handle something new, unexpected developments, usually bad, can occur. This lack of understanding of how to handle the economic issues related to China have nothing to do with any malign intent by anyone, and everything to do with a new situation our economic theory is ill-equipped to deal with.

 As to Europe: the economic circumstances can improve, as witness Ireland and to an extent Britain. In the absence of a change, probably a major change, I have as grim a prognosis as Mr. Bawer and Ms. Berlinski come to: a return of fascism and internecine conflict. I surely hope I am wrong.

Where the Dark ages really Dark? Is our heritage so lost that we must seek it on the other side of the Atlantic ocean? Or should we simple remember our heritage. Should we stare at the US or rather break the power of those who have forgotten, who collaborate in its destruction?

I'm not confident that the Dark ages were dark. Heritage is among us, like a grain in all of us. Some see, others don't. Should we not help the blind to see rather than to see elswhere?
Currently they rule, but for how long? Their system will collapse, all we need to do is make sure that people see.