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From: raza@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk (Z. Raza Hussain)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Peace between Islam and Judaism
Message-ID: <1991Jun27.205622.2549@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 27 Jun 91 20:56:22 GMT
References: <1991Jun26.133014.29749@wpi.WPI.EDU>
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In article <1991Jun26.133014.29749@wpi.WPI.EDU> gristle@ucscb.ucsc.edu (66016000) writes:
>
>I have never heard opinions of any Middle-Eastern usenet users: how
>do you feel about these issues? Is it possible to reach peace between
>Jews, Moslems, and everyone else? Can we defeat these hate groups?

i hope i can get my point across with a little story...

recently, i was doing my revision (for final exams) in a reference
library. this library required users of the library to ask staff at a 
counter to order books for reading. within 15 or 20 minutes you
could come back and collect the books ordered previously.

usually the staff were quite polite, helpfull and offered this service in
a relaxed manner. there was however this one woman at the counter that i 
seemed to have a slight problem with. she did not at all like conversing
with me and in a way shunned me every time i encountered her at the
desk. she never smiled or looked me in the eye even though many times i
attempted to be friendly and act in as polite a manner as possible.
talking to her seemed to make her annoyed and perhaps a little bit
angry. there was one incident which due to either carelessness or
complacency she ordered the wrong book even though i stressed this book
was very important and i urgently needed it (it would be the last
opportunity to browse through it before the exam).

i began wondering why this was happening, but didn't consider it a
problem - in this big world you're going to meet many types of people
with many different backgrounds, habits, cultures, attitudes. i thought
possible this woman had some personal problems or just had some sort of
irrevocable personality, but anyway, as i said, i didn't give it much
attention. 
later on, after the exams had finished (yipee!) i had of course finished
going to this library. but i did see this woman again. i was passing by
in a car when i saw her walking with a man with a long beard, wearing a 
hat and dressed in traditional Jewish clothes. it was then i realised why
she had a grudge against me (it should be noted that my name is Hussain,
which was on the application form for the library books, so she
had obviously derived an impression or opinion about me).

the point i'm trying to make is that it's probably okay to get along
fine with people who you know personally, but there's this in built
hatred which has stemmed from very early on in history which makes
people on the opposite side traditionally hate each other. there have
been many religious battles between the Jews, Moslems and Christians and
are remembered bitterly to this day. even today, with the brutal harsh
treatment of the Muslim Palestinians by the Jewish Israelis (who are 
considered unjust occupiers of the land only by the will of the powerfull
West). there is general untrust between the groups of people which is
too difficult to resolve.

to ask to become friends and conspire to cooperate and happily mix in
with each other is desired but idealistic. there's nothing better than
peace, and i agree that other factions of society are forming against the
minorities in the West, but i think there's nothing we can do against
them. i don't think we can change the world and hope that the more
repulsive groups of people who live on this hatred can be transformed -
these types of people will always exist.