OFF Re: religion vs ethnicity ( Americans Support Cutting Aid to Israel)

[Anthony Nelson-Smith]

I doubt that Allen will support this discussion for much longer, as it's so
off-message;  but I think it's pushing things too far to regard 'Muslim
states' as being united by religion rather than ethnicity.  These states may
be overwhelmingly Muslim, observing Sharia law, but they are still occupied
almost entirely by people of defined, local ethnic origin(s).  I'm not aware
that any foreigner professing Islam has a specified 'right' to consider
himself (say) a Saudi or Afghan citizen.  There may be a tenuous ethnic link
between all people born into an orthodox Jewish family (which discounts
those who have married out, converted etc), but there will surely still be
enormous cultural differences between those from (say) the US east coast and
Ethiopia.  My main quibble is with the 'Right of Return'  (about as
misleading an expression as 'reclaiming' land from the sea?):  it inevitably
gives rise to pressure to colonise Palestinian land, an unpleasant reminder
of Hitler's 'Lebensraum'.                 Tony N-S.