The Cube, the Cube and the Cathedral

George Weigel’s 2005 book about the culture war in Europe between secularists and Christians bears the title The Cube and the Cathedral. The cube refers to a symbol of secularism, the Great Arch of La Défense in Paris.

I have argued repeatedly that there is a three way culture war going on in Europe between secularists, Christians and Muslims. On some issues Christians and secularists team up against Muslims, on other issues secularists fight Christians and Muslims alike. Early this year George Weigel adopted my concept of the three way culture war, most notably in an article in Commentary last May.

Now, however, radical Muslims are also claiming the cube as their symbol. Islamists have taken offense at an Apple store in Manhattan because the building is cube-shaped as is the Ka’ba in Mecca. An Islamist website claims the Apple store “is meant to provoke Muslims.” However, as Professor Kemal Silay writes, “Islamists have been struggling to turn any Western object that they can imagine into a so-called ‘insult to Islam.’ As a Muslim myself, I see no insult to Islam in a computer store but I see plenty of it in Islamism itself.”

FOLLOW THE MONEY 2

AND YOU WILL PERHAPS FIND THE NEW AXIS
...based on New-Mercantilism

From : EURO FLOATS IN OIL

"...Euro and its primery objectives: To assume the common compulsory money unit in any way should reflect the real economic in EU, and serve the union we obvious have misunderstood. Corresponding to Spain’s fatal administration of the gold extracted in Latin America in 1500s it looks as if the euro in the best Mercantilistic way via trade settled in euro for example oil from the Middle East is meant to generate the moment that created change in a Europe with not less than 20% unemployed (official 9%) or expelled, and an enormous state-debt that you no longer can make an unambiguous sketch of. Jean Monnet - one of the founding fathers of project - exactly claimed in the 1950s that the compulsory monetary unit would be used to make the union real in full scale. It was the form, before the contents that counted, we can conclude. If for example one of the Maastricht claims of convergence about the magnitude of the state-debt that must not exeed 60% of GNP should have meant anything serious, between the half and two thirds of countries could not have met this claim without to accept crises of stability. So much can be extracted of those real informations that are released time after time. Apart from Mercantilism that according to history ended with the Napoleonic wars stability and development cannot be measured as an index of prices or some procent-figure..."

J. E. Vig, Denmark

FOLLOW THE MONEY

...AND YOU WILL FIND ONE POSSIBLE NEW AXIS

From: Euro floats in Oil

"...The US-world-reserve-role changing: From November 2000 Iraque began to settle its oil sale in euro, and at the same time it converted the reserve-foundation “Oil for Food” with $10 billions to euro after an agreement with UN. Between 2001 and February 2003 almost the entier Iraqi oil export was paid in euro, about $30 billions. In the same period the euro increased relatively compared with dollars with 30%. Saddam Hussein had already offered concessions of oil extration to France, China, Russia, Brasil, Italy and Malaysia. Saddam Hussein had until then only used European banks to the limited sanction program, “Food For Oil”. He awarded the Palestinians with 1 billion euros in 2000. A short time later EU awarded the Palestinians with 90 million euros as a subsidy to show its friendship with the Arabic World, if Israel canceled its payments at that time. A few days later the European Investment Bank made an agreement to lent Syria 75 million euros after eight year with sanctions of have been shut out from making businesses with this country. A little earlier, August 2000, EU donated 1.7 million euros as a subsidy to Eritreans, Etiopeans, Somalis and repatriated asylum seekers from Yemen after the war with Etiopia and famine..."

J. E. Vig, http://Danmark.wordpress.com

Alliances...

Actually, only Islam is truly consistent, in spite of the voices of 'moderate' Muslims; they are opposed to both Christianity and secularism. Islam is fundamentally against Western civilization in its totality, even when it engages in deception.

 

Rather, it is the West that is unable to present a united front. Some secularists are opposed to all forms of religious fundamentalism (even if weighing religions differently), while other secularists are using Islam against Christianity, and still others are confused and misguided.*

 

Some Christians seem to welcome some elements of Islam as it reinforces Abrahamic religion in a society with plummeting Church attendance. Others, however, are against Islam but seek no greater role for Christianity. However, there is a group of Christians that oppose Islam, but also advocate the resurgence of Christianity in socio-political life. Of course, there are the misguided and confused lot.*

 

*These groups incl. those who welcome immigration as some sort of social justice, and those who are pacifists.

allliances

Don't forget the alliance sometimes formed by Christians and Muslims against secularists.

That MEMRI cube story is over a month old - and they still haven't revealed the Islamist website which is the source of the outraged message. Much as I enjoy such stories, this one is highly dubious.

@MWW Tell me about those alliances...

Dear MWW:

You said, "Don't forget the alliance sometimes formed by Christians and Muslims against secularists".

Just what "alliances" are you talking about? How about some details? I think your statement is reckless and a pathetic attempt to sow dissension.

You should have no fear of the Christians, but it is the Islamists you should most definitely fear. YOU NEED the Christians in this war with Islam. Only a fool shoots his comrade in the same foxhole he finds himself as the enemy advances.

another one?

OK, as you ignored the link in my first post, here's another one to a lecture given by the Archbishop of York in September, in which he says

Indeed as a faith community Christians should recognise that one of the biggest contributions of the Muslim community in Britain has been its denial of the secularist call that faith should be privatised and should be regarded as a minority occupation.

It has often been Muslims, as well as leaders of other faiths, who have joined with Christians in refusing to accept the creeping secularisation that would replace ‘Christmas’ with ‘Winterval’, and remove references to faith from public noticeboards for fear of causing offence. It is both my view and my experience, that most British Muslims do not feel threatened by our Christian moral foundations but by the cynicism of secularised culture that denies its own foundations. What they object to is the attempt to build human society without God. And so given the choice between the two prefer a faith environment, even one which they do not share, to that of a secularist state.

That's not an Alliance

The Archbishop is just demonstrating that Christians and Muslims agree on certain points. An alliance is a formal partnership. No such animal with Muslims and Christians in reference to your point.

@MWW - Ok I now see the first link & appreciate the 2nd

Dear MWW:

Sorry I didn't notice the first link, but now having seen them both the "alliance" you referred is not as ominous as I imagined your "alliance" was alluding to.

As to the Muslims "teaming up" with Christians to keep Christ in Christmas, I see only as a tactic and ploy by Muslims for if Muslims get the chance they will not only do away with Christmas but Christians as well.

I am NOT pleased with SOME Christians, who enter into an alliance with a faith that does not worship the same god as Christians do. For me Christians aligning themselves with Muslims, is no different than Christians aligning themselves with Satan worshippers who worship and have FAITH in the god of this world, i.e. Satan.

I would rather take Christ out of Christmas then team up with the devil.

A secularlist who does not want to behead me is preferable to a FAITHFUL muslim who does.

Pagans..

@persian

I would be happy if you could write your sources in a
comment. It's  actually interesting  to know how much islam depends on the ancient  Arab cult that evolved around these relicts . Should give some people a hard time anyway to start thinking  in how far islam is more  a variation of that pagan cult polished up with a few crude references to Christian and Jewish elements. Here's a link about the moon god I found some time ago (always a good idea to check against other sources):

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm

Everything offends Islam if they choose to pick offense

“Islamists have been struggling to turn any Western object that they can imagine into a so-called ‘insult to Islam."

TRUE. They look to pick the fight, feigning insult, stirring violence in the streets, and then sit back laughing as Dhimmi politicians stumble all over themselves. The full face veil is working quite nice for them.

One can't negotiate with barbarians, whose false god "Allah" says lying is ok and violence being a way of life for them, one can only deal with them by "annihilating" them. They are leaving us with no other option. It is either kill or be killed and/or subjugated to their tyranny.

Borg is insult to Islam?

These radicals are not behaving in a manner consistent with a civilized society.

Belief in "holy places" makes every THING else UNHOLY.
Belief in "holy persons" makes every ONE else UNHOLY.
Belief in "holy acts" makes every OTHER act UNHOLY.

Therein lies a seed of many evils and sufferings that follow. When one comes to realize that all places are good, all people are divine, and all acts bear their fruit, one would find peace and harmony with all beings. The root cause of all evil and suffering is ignorance.

I can see their point -

I can see their point - Apple being malum in Latin Vulgate which also means evil and associated with the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil in Genesis.............it is hard to believe any Muslim wants to be reminded what an apple signifies...................so obviously they avoid right-angles wherever they appear

Interesting annecdote

sources please.

Come to think about it:  why Muslims claim they don't worship idols, they do worship a piece of meteorite.  Not just worshipping.  Many of them die in MACCA because they love each other so much they trample many under their feet.

this biggest black cube.

does any westerner know that this big black ugly worthless cube is only the biggest one in mecca that those barbaric illiterate bloodthirsty desert lizard eaters worshiped and its original name was ALLAT which was named ALLAT AKBAR(BIGGEST) later and does anybody also know at some point of early years of the EVIL ISLAMS INVASION of IRAN ,as part of their rejection and fight against this MONSTER some iranian fighters(BARMAKIES) took this worthless piece of black stone and carried it from MACCA to somewhere in YEMEN just to prove a point that it was worth nothing and they actually dumped it around some toilet area.

any body interested in the sources?