Agreed, as a matter of technical logic,
that:
Quote:
Praying five times a day in the direction of Mecca is a distinctly Muslim characteristic - this in no way implies that all Muslims pray five times a day in the direction of Mecca, does it?
But, those that don't are missing one of the five pillars of their faith - not cited for your benefit - you know this - but for others who may not.
And, agreed as a matter of baptism,
Quote:
Hitler was a Christian... [in fact a Roman Catholic]..
But, how often did he confess and commune in his adult life. These are simply argumentative - and move far off topic from the President's speech. Plus, this is beginning to sound like something from a Christian-Atheist board.
Might as well enter the fray...
I've so far stayed out of most of the discussions, but I was listening to a conversation between a few conservative pundits about Obama's speech, so this thread piqued my curiosity.
Arguing about one caliphate being more religious than another is pretty subjective. I agree with the earlier posters -- this separation of Church and State is a recent invention not universally accepted even today. Consider Hosni Mubarak's Egypt: a secular government, but can anyone say with a straight face that Islam doesn't play an enormous role in Egyptian society and therefore necessarily in Egyptian politics?
I would argue that the desire to pretend religion is just a personal private practice contributed -- to a large extent -- to the failure to understand what was going on in Iraq.