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Time to play make believe
Posted: 08 February 2012 12:37 PM   [ Ignore ]
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Let’s assume you, the reader, are NOT a muslim, and do NOT agree with their veiw, but are forced to live in a home with muslim radicals for exactly one year for the prize of 1 billion dollars. What would you do to cope with living with a radically differnet group?

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Posted: 08 February 2012 01:44 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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Anything I could to keep from getting my head lopped-off. Probably get used to bowing down five times a day, eating a lot of Al-Kabsa, Rijlah and Mansaf and smiling a lot while uttering habibi. Do I have a choice?

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Posted: 08 February 2012 01:49 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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A choice to participate? why the hell not? Live an let live, how bout. but your going for a billion dollars, remember that.

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Posted: 08 February 2012 02:03 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]
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Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 01:49 PM

A choice to participate? why the hell not? Live an let live, how bout. but your going for a billion dollars, remember that.

That’s why I asked, you said forced, but also for a prize. Yeah, that’s about what it would take, a billion dollars. A while back, I was seriously considering working for Halliburton in Afghanistan for a hundred grand for one year. Couldn’t bring myself to do it though. Halliburton for Pete’s sake.

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Posted: 08 February 2012 02:37 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]
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Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 12:37 PM

Let’s assume you, the reader, are NOT a muslim, and do NOT agree with their veiw, but are forced to live in a home with muslim radicals for exactly one year for the prize of 1 billion dollars. What would you do to cope with living with a radically differnet group?

I need to know better what the rules are.  Am I living in a house with muslim radicals in a foregin land, or am I merely living among muslim radicals along with others?  Am I at the mercy of the radicals and/or the foreign land, or am I free (protected from being killed)?

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Posted: 08 February 2012 03:44 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]
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Your last sentence would be the sticking point for me Mike. Do I merely have to tolerate their presence for a year for the billion (!) dollars, or is my life at risk if I offend them? Also, would I be forced to participate in radical activities? You know, like killing infidels or throwing acid into the faces of schoolgirls, that sort of stuff that radical Muslims sometimes do.

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Posted: 08 February 2012 07:58 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]
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ChaosRules - 08 February 2012 03:44 PM

Your last sentence would be the sticking point for me Mike. Do I merely have to tolerate their presence for a year for the billion (!) dollars, or is my life at risk if I offend them? Also, would I be forced to participate in radical activities? You know, like killing infidels or throwing acid into the faces of schoolgirls, that sort of stuff that radical Muslims sometimes do.

I guess I wasn’t clear enough: Ok, it’s like The Real World, or whatever. You’re filmed and you have to participate in their religious activities, and all their rules (like women cant show skin or be alone out of the house) and you can’t speak out against their religion. Have fun, 365 days

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Posted: 09 February 2012 05:58 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 7 ]
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I would do it for $100,000.  I’d sit in the house all day and read.  I’m allowed to read, right?  If not, I guess I would watch TV and try to learn the language.

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Posted: 09 February 2012 06:14 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 8 ]
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Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 07:58 PM
ChaosRules - 08 February 2012 03:44 PM

Your last sentence would be the sticking point for me Mike. Do I merely have to tolerate their presence for a year for the billion (!) dollars, or is my life at risk if I offend them? Also, would I be forced to participate in radical activities? You know, like killing infidels or throwing acid into the faces of schoolgirls, that sort of stuff that radical Muslims sometimes do.

I guess I wasn’t clear enough: Ok, it’s like The Real World, or whatever. You’re filmed and you have to participate in their religious activities, and all their rules (like women cant show skin or be alone out of the house) and you can’t speak out against their religion. Have fun, 365 days

Still not clear enough to me.  What are the limits to religious activity to a radical?  Am I praying 5 times a day and doing relatively harmless albeit stupid and offensive things, or am I under threat of receiving or being forced to dispense violence?

If all I have to do is live with radicals and participate in non-violent religious movements for a year in exchange for $1 billion, I think I can do this, especially if I’m allowed to remain myself.  Real World players don’t have to surrender their beliefs and personalities to become exactly like the other people in the house do they?

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Posted: 09 February 2012 06:35 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 9 ]
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I would have to draw the line where harming someone in the name of the religion were concerned.  Further, I would not want to be in peril for my life.
Otherwise I’d have no problem spending a year doing this for $1B.

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Posted: 09 February 2012 06:36 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 10 ]
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Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 12:37 PM

Let’s assume you, the reader, are NOT a muslim, and do NOT agree with their veiw, but are forced to live in a home with muslim radicals for exactly one year for the prize of 1 billion dollars. What would you do to cope with living with a radically differnet group?

Kill them all!

 

... sorry.

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Posted: 09 February 2012 06:43 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 11 ]
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SkepticX - 09 February 2012 06:36 AM
Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 12:37 PM

Let’s assume you, the reader, are NOT a muslim, and do NOT agree with their veiw, but are forced to live in a home with muslim radicals for exactly one year for the prize of 1 billion dollars. What would you do to cope with living with a radically differnet group?

Kill them all!

Infidel!  wink

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http://blueplanetrun.org/ - Clean Water for Everyone
http://www.qdrum.co.za/ - Getting the Water where it’s needed.

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Posted: 09 February 2012 09:20 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 12 ]
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Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 12:37 PM

Let’s assume you, the reader, are NOT a muslim, and do NOT agree with their veiw, but are forced to live in a home with muslim radicals for exactly one year for the prize of 1 billion dollars. What would you do to cope with living with a radically differnet group?

Great thought experiment, but allowing any discussion or argument about its details ruins it. Here’s how the deal might be presented:

A person who proves himself to be trustworthy contacts you and offers you a chance to earn $1,000,000,000.00. To receive this amount, you must be able to live as a visitor among a radical Muslim group (of the presenter’s choice) for one year. If you get beheaded at day 364, no relative will inherit your hoped for $billion. The group that would take you in would be paid a small stipend for having you among them for a year—not quite enough money to make your presence profitable for them. You will be introduced as a relative of some unknown family from a wet climate, recovering from bronchitis and in need of spending one year in a highly arid environment for the sake of your health. You and the trusted presenter sit down at a table and he asks you to give him a yes or a no. No discussion whatsoever is allowed.

As easy as the deal might sound, I would not take the offer. If I thought I could survive in such a group for one year, I might consider it, but even if I managed to survive, the entire experience could easily end up negatively warping my mental well-being, and no amount of money would make it worth needing to live the rest of my life impaired in this way.

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Posted: 09 February 2012 09:29 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 13 ]
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I have some familiarity with what happens to people and families when faced with that sort of windfall. I’m honestly not that tempted by the money. Especially if it were a television program and knowledge of the money were known to the audience.

But without sabotaging your scenario, I still wouldn’t do it. Its disrespectful to the family and disrespectful to myself. To pose as an adherent of some theology and culture that are not my own for money. That’s what I did for twenty years in a christian household. Never again. For any amount.

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Deepak, could we just dial it down?

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Posted: 09 February 2012 09:38 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 14 ]
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saralynn - 09 February 2012 05:58 AM

I would do it for $100,000.  I’d sit in the house all day and read.  I’m allowed to read, right?  If not, I guess I would watch TV and try to learn the language.

Selling yourself short again, Sara?

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Posted: 09 February 2012 09:43 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 15 ]
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nv - 09 February 2012 09:20 AM
Aleksander the Electric - 08 February 2012 12:37 PM

Let’s assume you, the reader, are NOT a muslim, and do NOT agree with their veiw, but are forced to live in a home with muslim radicals for exactly one year for the prize of 1 billion dollars. What would you do to cope with living with a radically differnet group?

Great thought experiment, but allowing any discussion or argument about its details ruins it. Here’s how the deal might be presented:

A person who proves himself to be trustworthy contacts you and offers you a chance to earn $1,000,000,000.00. To receive this amount, you must be able to live as a visitor among a radical Muslim group (of the presenter’s choice) for one year. If you get beheaded at day 364, no relative will inherit your hoped for $billion. The group that would take you in would be paid a small stipend for having you among them for a year—not quite enough money to make your presence profitable for them. You will be introduced as a relative of some unknown family from a wet climate, recovering from bronchitis and in need of spending one year in a highly arid environment for the sake of your health. You and the trusted presenter sit down at a table and he asks you to give him a yes or a no. No discussion whatsoever is allowed.

As easy as the deal might sound, I would not take the offer. If I thought I could survive in such a group for one year, I might consider it, but even if I managed to survive, the entire experience could easily end up negatively warping my mental well-being, and no amount of money would make it worth needing to live the rest of my life impaired in this way.

This, this is the deal, no discussion.

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