Islam incorporated in the West as Judeo-Christian "sect"

The difficulties that the "judeo-christian" West has with the Islamic world are more like family troubles than about a clash between fundamentally different cultures. As every mohammedan knows: Islam is based on the judeo-christian tradition. As Christianity is based on the Jewish religion with a flavour of Buddhism (Love), Islam is based on both these religious traditions incorporating Arabic (competing for scarce resources) and Persian idiosyncracies.

Problems with mohammedans wearing a head scarf? The head scarfs and veils that are now so much central in heated debates, were introduced in Islam when the Arab armies conquered Syria on the Orthodox-Christian Byzantines. In Orthodox Syria the veiling of women was part of a kind of sophisticated religious culture. So, when you see head-scarfed muslim women, think of them as copycats of "orthodox Syrians".

In the first mosques, the life of the prophet Jesus stood central. Only centuries later, the focus on the Koran and reverence of the prophet Mohamed was added to the Islamic cocktail. It is said that only in former Persia, the Koran was composed and the Islam took shape as a kind of state-religion, similar to how the Greek have composed the Bible during the rule of emperor Constatin of the East-Roman Empire (Byzanthium) and Christiantity served to keep the masses happy with poverty ("God is with the poor") and the empire together.

This does not mean that we shouldn't take Islam-inspired extremism and terrorism very serious. To the contrary. But, we should place it in the context of the violent Christian historical traditions as well. The current "clash of kins" - the Islamic world and the West - is in my opinion nothing but a sign that the Islamic world is now on the brink of being fully incorporated in the West. Democratization, rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, and the development of a healthy middle class, are all of part of that.

Stock rally indicates ends of bear market

Is it a bear market rally that we witness now, or is it a normal rally benefiting all those who had the money and the guts to sit out the stock crisis? I think the latter. And of course, I want to believe that, as I moved free money into the stock exchange from October 2008 on. On a relative low point, although not at the lowest point of March this year. I did not expect such a once in a century depression of the stock markets, to be honest. Now, my new investments are in balance. And I'm speculating on an ongoing stock rally bringing the stocks back to the level of Summer 2008. Let's say a doubling of the stock indices (e.g, an AEX of 500+, while it is now @ 260).

Never be to quick in declaring the open markets "dead". Also the financial markets seem to recover from their biggest shock since 1929 and the Great Depression of the early 1930s. Recovering financial markets will make lending easier, and I'm sure that the surviving banks will be able to return the tax payers money in a few years time.