Powerman88 said:
Hey Saladin, first off very interesting read. It was really nice to hear your perspective. I think you hit some points right on the head and some points kind of fell flat.
I think my biggest problem with the Muslim community is that it seems to only demand respect from the west without doing much to earn said respect. From our perspective it is quite troubling to read about the recent riots in Iran over the elections and how the government handled it, or the laws in Saudi Arabia requiring women to all wear burkah's covering their entire bodies and faces, or reading about how the Taliban will kill a woman for leaving her house without being escorted by her man. It really seems to me that we in the west are expected to be tolerant of the Muslim community, but a lot of them seem to refuse to be tolerant of us.
It is really tough to be tolerant of Muslims and the middle east when basic civil rights of groups like women, gays, and Jews are not recognized.
And you think the Muslims from Saudi Arabia and the Muslims from Iran are the same? They share the same religion (or variation of it, wahhabhism (or w/e they call it) in SA, probably different types in Iran) , but their ideologies are different. Do I have any proof of that? Just wiki the ethnic/religious parties in Iran/Saudi Arabia for that. Germany and the countries it attacked, were Christians during WW2 and that doesn't make all Christians responsible for the holocaust considering Germany was Christian at the time, and Christianity always had a really bad relationship with Jews, while the Jewish-Muslim relationship was, at least during the dark ages not as bad as it is today, and having to be apologetic about it at every turn. Iraq/Iran had bad blood between them despite being Muslim countries.
I argued with a bigot over hours about this, there are a billion of Muslims, and the majority of them are not even in the middle-east. Muslims over the world DO NOT have to apologize over what the taliban are doing, over what al-quaida is doing or what iraqi insurgents were doing or what the despotic regime in underdeveloped countries are doing.
My point, the consumer of these products are most likely muslims living in developed countries, I have a hard time imagining some taliban playing MoH and rejoicing about finally killing some infidels.
RebelRising said:
Indeed, the Western media has a troubled relationship with the Middle East, and much of it can be a kneejerk reaction to Islam's rising presence in global politics. It would serve us well to try to reach a deeper understanding with the Middle East and understand how human they are, just as much as the rest of us.
On the other hand, keep in mind that Middle Easterns are sort of to blame too. A lot of Americans are calling it like they see it because, quite frankly, most of what they see isn't very pleasant. Since very few people are unwilling to recognize how much of a problem Israel is in relation to all this extremism. Since Islam has nothing much in the way of a centralized authority willing to declare what's right and wrong, the opportunity is always there for the message to be hijacked and presented as something it isn't necessarily. Americans tend to forget that the religious rhetoric and motivations of militants, extremists, terrorists, freedom fighters, or whatnot, are expressions so fundamentally immeshed with politics as to be rendered unrecognizable to Islamic orthodoxy. The Middle East is embroiled in confrontational politics in the form of Israel's continued racism, aggression, and expansionism, and since Islam, in all its forms, is basically the one commonl variable the Arabs and Palestinians have, it's their quickest, most digestible way to channel their political grievances. It's a mistake to equate Islam with the actions we Americans see, because they're ultimately expressions of earthly concerns that anyone in the position of a Middle Eastern, religious or not, would at least understand, if not condone.
Muslims and Middle Easterns in general have to put in more effort to clarify this to the West, and the West needs to take steps towards not being Israel's ***** and supporting Middle Eastern dictatorships. That's the only way we're truly going to get past this thick cultural barrier.
I hate having this conversation over internet forums, but I see it as my duty. I reference all my facts from the BBC news site (as flawed as it may be). My question would be to you is how many muslims live, vote, and earn a decent living and have a decent standard of life in Israel? Go check I'll wait. How many Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindu, or Shinto live, vote, and have a decent standard of living in Gaza? You can probably guess why. The problem with the palestinians and Gaza/Israel isn't the big bad jews that want to conquer the world, its that the Palestinians elect Hamas, a terrorist organization according to the US, EU, and UN, instead of electing the moderates in the Fatah party. Why is it even Egypt, a nice moderate state, has a closed border with Gaza? It's not because the Palestinians are a peace loving people who just want to live in perfect harmony. Their leaders have said time and time again they won't be happy until Israel is wiped off the map.
Thanks again Saladin and please write more interesting and well thought out articles!
Bullshit.
1. I'm pretty sure there are CHRISTIAN palestinians. Not all arabs are muslims.
2. When an arab muslim doctor can have his entire family blown to pieces by the same people he work his ass to save, then your entire point is moot. Arabs are known to live as second-class citizens in israel.
3. HAMAS are known to help palestinians, just like Hizballah helped lebanese considering they were a pivotal force to defend Lebanon. Israel/US refusing to acknowledge them (HAMAS) as a legitimate government when they were elected was a childish move.
4. Lebanon only recently allowed palestinians to work legally in their countries, I can't say anything about Egypt border though. Pretty much might be similar to why a certain country wants to protect its border from illegal immigrants.
5. The palestinians obviously are not peace loving, they totally don't mind being treated as cattle, killed and farmed for organs, having their kids sent to random dungeons never to be seen again, having to watch as their houses and land are destroyed by their peace-seeking neighbor, or having to live through another Israeli raid.
Also, I miss the 1-shot-2-kills pictures on Israeli-made shirts.
Bringing the Israeli-Palestinian argument in this thread is just a dick move. It has nothing to do with a Islam versus Judaism conflict, never was, never will be, as much as some people want it to be.
So FFS, stay on topic.