From: Dehede011@aol.com
Date: Mon Jan 20 2003 - 06:56:08 MST
In a message dated 1/20/2003 2:51:23 AM Central Standard Time,
samantha@objectent.com writes: If they believed your own highly inflammatory
anti-Islamic rhetoric represented the political opinion of the West
generally, then the certainly would turn anti-Western -- in self defense.
Disowning an entire major religious group (the largest one) and its adherents
and cultures outright and declaring them en masse "the enemy" is a very ugly
thing as I am sure you are quite aware of.
Samantha,
You made some good points. But, they need some tweaking. The Islamic
world is truly anti-Western. True, a high percentage of Moslems are good and
decent people. The problem is that the fundamentalists are a violent group
and they rule the roost through fear.
The fundamentalists do not like the way our women dress, behave or
think. They consider the way our males dress to be indecent. They do not
like it that we have a secular government. A government in their eyes should
be Islamic. If you go through the middle east you won't find a single
government that is not either Islamic or a dictatorship -- there are no
democracies. They are totally against our banking system. They write
letters asking the religious scholars if it is okay to have intercourse with
their female captives or must they limit themselves to their wives? They ask
about the religious consequences of dressing as we do in order to blend in
and be employed? They ask if and under what conditions it is permissible to
speak to Western women in ordinary business conversations? Should they
permit their hand to be shook during an introduction by a woman?
If you remember a great deal of this turmoil was predicted several
years ago by Thomas L. Friedman in his book about The Olive Tree and the
Lexus. Modernity is placing a tremendous strain on the Middle Eastern
culture. What seems to be happening is that a culture war is occurring.
They see themselves as a great people and modernity is destroying their
world. A controlling percentage of them are lashing out violently to destroy
the culture that is destroying theirs.
Ron h
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