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MS wrote:
Finally, your words "once again" and "Get over it!" are impolite. seeking apology is a political norm, just as in the case of Mel Gibson's apology.

in light of earlier objections/criticisms in this post isnt it a bit insensitive to draw comparisons between the Pope and a hollywood actor?

Allright,nice folks,all these reactions and unger are good and show how mush we are proud of our religion.But could any muslim or muslima comment on the offensive images that we see everyday on TV,via NET and,worse, even in our daily life around our respectable muslim and arab world!!!!!!!!!i guess no comment at all could be add.!!!????

Zoroastrians in Iran(Persia) weren't, to my knowledge, attacked by Muslim armies and forced to convert or massacred

the following is from 'Why I am not a Muslim' by Ibn Warraq p235-236

Zoroastrians

According to the "Tarikh-i Bukhara," a history of Bukhara written in about A.D.. 944, Islam had to be enforced on the reluctant inhabitants of Bukhara. The Bukharans reverted to their original beliefs no less than four times: " The residents of Bukhara became Muslims . But they renounced [Islam} each time the Arabs turned back. Qutayba b. Muslim made them Muslim three times, [but] they renounced [Islam] again and became nonbelievers. The fourth time, qutayba waged war, seized the city, and established Islam after considerable strife. . . . They espoused Islam overtly but practiced idolatry in secret."
Many Zoroastrians were induced to convert by bribes, and later, out of economic necessity. Many of these "economic converts" were later executed for having adopted Islam to avoid paying the poll-tax and land tax. In Khurasan and Bukhara, the Muslims destroyed Zoroastrian fire temples and constructed mosques on these sites. The "Tarikh-i Bukhara" records that there was considerable outrage at these acts of sacrilege, and a concerted resistance to the spread of Islam. One scholar sums up the situation thus: "Indeed, coexistence between Muslims and Zoroastrians was rarely peaceful, cooperation was fleeting, and conflict remained the form of intercommunal contact from the initial Arab conquest of Transoxiana untile the late thirteenth century A.D." A similar situation existed in Khurasan: "The violent military conflicts between the forces of the Arab commander Abd Allah b. Amir and the local Iranian lords, combined later with the destruction of Zoroastrian religious institutions, produced lasting enmity between Muslims and Zoroastrian in Khurasan."
The early conquests of Zoroastrian Iran were punctuated with the usual massacres, as in Raiy. If the town put up brave resistance to the Muslims, then very few men were spared. For example, at Sarakh, only a hundred men were granted amnesty, and the women were taken into captivity; the children taken into captivity were brought up as Muslims. At Sus a similar situation emerged--about a hundred men were pardoned, the rest killed. At Manadhir, all the men were put to the sword, and the women and children enslaved. At the conquest of Istakhr, more than 40,000 Iranians were slaughtered. The Zoroastrians suffered sporadic persecution, when their fire temples and priests were destroyed, for example, at Kariyan, Kumm, and at Idhaj. In a deliberate act of provocation the caliph al-Mutawakkil had cut down a tree putatively planted by Zoroaster himself. Sometimes the fire temples were cnverted into mosques.
The fiscal oppression of the Zoroastrians led to a series of uprisings against the Muslims in the eight century. We might cite the revolts led by Bihafarid between 746 and 748 and the rising of Sinbadh in 755.
Forced conversions were also frequent, and the pressures for conversion often led to conflict and riots, as in Shiraz in 979. To escape persecution and the forced conversions many Zoroastrians emigrated to India, where, to this day, they form a much respected minority known as Parsis. Conditions for the Zoroastrians became worse from the seventeenth century onwards. In the eighteenth century, their numbers, to quote the [i]Encyclopaedia of Islam (2d ed.), "declined disastrously due to the combined effects of massacre, forced conversion and emigration." By the nineteenth century they were living in total insecurity and poverty and suffered increasing discrimination. Zoroastrian merchants were liable for extra taxes; houses were frequently looted; they had to wear distinctive clothing; and were forbidden to build new houses or repair old ones.[/i]

so its ww2, and the nazis have invaded poland. a group of nazi soliders attacks a village, but a young priest manages to escape. a nazi solider follows him. the priest soon comes to a dead end, and the solider has already caught up with him, so he knows his time has come, and he kneels on the ground and starts praying. the solider aims his gun at him, and is about to pull the trigger, when he hears a voice from the heavens...." stop! i am god. the man you are about to kill will be pope one day." so the nazi solider says, "but god, whats in it for me?"

god replies " you too, after him."

errtime wrote:so its ww2, and the nazis have invaded poland. a group of nazi soliders attacks a village, but a young priest manages to escape. a nazi solider follows him. the priest soon comes to a dead end, and the solider has already caught up with him, so he knows his time has come, and he kneels on the ground and starts praying. the solider aims his gun at him, and is about to pull the trigger, when he hears a voice from the heavens...." stop! i am god. the man you are about to kill will be pope one day." so the nazi solider says, "but god, whats in it for me?"

god replies " you too, after him."