chapotraphouse

Yeah I agree with you. To be fair, they could be a Mossad-front to any degree and I wouldn't be able to tell. So I won't claim anything with certainty on the subject. The world is a fucked up place and the Middle East particularly so.

Which is a shame because it's a beautiful part of the world with a beautiful cultural heritage. I myself have been having a lot of fun experimenting with Islamic geometry after reading a book (and guide) on it by Eric Broug. I also dived into some (extensive) Sufi poems like the Masnavi and the Conference of the Birds, and I feel like these taught me many things. What surprised me was that many of the wisdoms shared in them would appear to me as Buddhist rather than Islamic. Never ever heard of that side of Islam before, but I can highly recommend them. The latter poem I read in a publication that came with Persian miniature illustrations, which are of incredible beauty. I feel like in the West we often lack respect for the beauty of near-eastern culture. Here in the Netherlands the biggest political party is anti-islamic, and I feel like many people can only see the Near-East as a terrorist warzone, not the place of beauty and culture it is just as well. I'd be the first to admit that religion can be a horrible force of oppression in the world, and being an atheist myself I tend to encourage criticism of it. But when you criticize others without knowing the slightest thing about them I don't think that's particularly helpful.

(nothing that you said asked for the last paragraph, but I just felt like sharing it ;-)