10/25: Interfaith gathering on Islamophobia

[Brian]

Oct 26, 2009 20:02:46 GMT -8 Jeanne said:

I was impressed by Dr. Hathout's statement that torture and democracy are incompatible and that a country that practices torture will not be able to maintain democracy.

Yes! He said that it is a constant struggle to keep a democracy. Later Dr. Hathout added, "The wisdom of history teaches us that all dictatorships torture."

Paraphrasing his two ideas that struck me the hardest:

Torture should not be defined by the torturers. Only those being tortured can truly know what the word means.

When the torture stops, the survivors have a chance to heal. The real long-term victims are the torturers, who know they committed grievous crimes and now live outside of society.

[anni]

Oct 25, 2009 23:51:22 GMT -8 Brian said:

Here's the link to the nine-minute You Tube video, "Planet of the Arabs, that he mentioned:

I would not include it in my "episode". As Brian mentioned to me, "and it's pretty violent" and that's about all...Blechk. IMHO.