The way we change the dance of Codependence to the dance of Recovery, the way we tame the dragon inside, is through integration and balance.  One of the ways we do that is by stopping the dysfunctional behavior of looking for the Prince or Princess who is going to fix us and make us whole.

The Prince and the Princess exist within.  That Prince, the Masculine Energy of Manifestation and Action, and that Princess, the Feminine Energy of Creativity and Nurturing, exist within us in perfect balance and harmony.  They always have - and they always will.

As has been stated, we are not broken - we do not need fixing.  It is our relationship with ourselves which needs to be healed; it was our sense of self that was shattered and fractured and broken into pieces - not our True Self.  Recovery is a process of awakening to, of becoming conscious of, the perfect balance and harmony that has always been and always will be - of learning to accept a state of Grace - and integrating that Truth into our lives.

As has been stated there is some Truth in everything.  There is some Truth in the image of the Creative Force being masculine.  Masculine energy governs manifestation, and the Creation was an act of manifestation, so it was a Masculine act.  What the image of a masculine god ignores, however, is the Truth that, though the creative action is Masculine, the creative urge is Feminine.  Therefore, even though the act of Creation may have been a Masculine manifestation, a father thing if you will, prior to the creative act existed the urge, which means that the Feminine principle, mother or goddess energy if you will, preceded the masculine.

. . . . . . . This is what I believe is at the core of some Muslims male's fear and hatred of Western culture - their terror of having their women freed of bondage and subjugation.  They are willing to die to keep that from happening.

I stated earlier that the United States had some responsibility in creating the dynamic that culminated in the terrorist Attack on America.  That is true.   Our reaction to the Cold War that manifested in support of fascist regimes - most notably in this case the Shah of Iran (whom the CIA manipulated into control in 1953 and whose two decades plus of oppressing and terrorizing the Iranian people - with US support - led to the Ayatollah Khomeini coming to power) - caused Muslims to see the US as an enemy.  Of course, all of the Middle East had been plundered by Colonialism in one fashion or another by European powers - who share a bit of responsibility also - prior to the United States jumping into the Third World plundering mode as a relative late comer.  Our cold war black and white attitudes that relegated other countries into the category of either an ally or an enemy, left Arab countries in conflict with Israel nowhere to turn but to the Soviet Union for support - and is also a factor in the creation of this dynamic.

There are many different facets and levels to any issue as I have emphasized.  The factors I just listed played a part.  The conflict between Muslims and Christians has been going on for a very long time and included the Crusades against "infidels."  Black and white extremes in thinking, right and wrong polarization, caused both sides to view their religion - and concept of God - as the only True path.

The justified resentment and hostility on the part of Muslims, caused by these levels of political and economic exploitation, have become in recent history - I believe - very much a secondary level of cause in the desperate lengths that the extremist elements have felt themselves forced into.  A more important factor in magnifying and intensifying this adversarial dynamic is the clash of cultural values and how it has been exacerbated by the Feminist Movement in the United States.  To fundamentalist Muslims, American women had far too much power and freedom prior to the Women's Movement - imagine the horror they must have felt to see how the liberation of women unfolded in the US, to say nothing of the sexual revolution.  Long before anyone was burning bras or wearing mini-skirts, Muslims were horrified by the freedom of women in Western culture.

There are other factors involved - such as the Muslims view of American Society as being Spiritually bankrupt, which has some truth to it and I will address later - but I do not think it is possible to overstate the absolute terror that some Muslim men must feel at the thought of their women being liberating from the degrading, subservient position they have been relegated to in Muslim society.  The Taliban are a shining example of this terror manifested in their treatment of - and fear of the power of - women.

Of course fundamentalist Christians like Jerry Falwell are also scared of the power of women.

There are very complicated and complex issues at the core of this war that is unfolding.  When I referred to having some peace with the Muslim world, I certainly wasn't saying that there were not some fundamental issues involved, that it would be easy to resolve cultural differences - I was just referring to the ways our black and white, us vs them, thinking had exacerbated the situation.  I was referring to the possibility that maybe if the US was seen as not such an arrogant and intractable enemy, that perhaps a coexistence could occur while US society was evolving and growing - and hopefully Muslim society would get the opportunity to evolve also.  As long as we are in a fight for survival between us and them neither side is going to be able to address the core issues very effectively.