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Old 05-05-2011, 03:56 AM   #379 (permalink)
crash_override
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Everett, WA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MoonlitSunshine View Post
With respect to the comments that "America did not provoke 9/11", I think many of you, as I was, are unaware of the sheer amount of damage the western world has done to the Islamic world. I really wish Crukster were still around to argue this one, as he really opened my eyes to how threatened they feel by Western society, and if anything, the string of terrorist attacks which resulted were reactionary lashing out rather than an unprovoked attack. In the eyes of many muslims, every time the West takes an interest in a muslim country, there is war, and death, and suffering. Many of them are peaceful, intelligent people. Hell, the Arabic world has a far, far more civilised history than the Christian world. I don't blame them for being scared of a people whose actions they cannot understand, and I certainly don't blame them for the violent actions of the minority.

Finally, the only way terrorism is going to end, the only hope of ever reducing it to the point that it is containable, is by uniting the people of the world. So long as West and East refuse to understand one another, those of a militant mindset will be able to recruit, through white lies and propaganda. They can play on the fears and ignorance of both sides in order to achieve their goals. Killing one man, as has been said so many times in this thread, is not going to stop terrorism, or even reduce it in any way, and I know most of you agree with that statement.

What I would challenge you all to do, is to go and learn something you didn't know about Islam. Just one thing, and maybe next week, learn something else. Because I think we're as much to blame for the wall of animosity between our peoples as they are, and unless one of us makes the first step in trying to understand the other, then it's never going to happen, and we'll always have terrorism, and we'll always have war, and we'll always have an endless cycle of unnecessary death.
I'm responding to the part of your post about the U.S. understanding Islam here.

As a little background, I am in the U.S. Military, stationed in the middle-east currently. So I do have a first hand frame of reference on all the things I'm about to say.

While it may be true that most Americans do not make an effort to understand Islamic and middle-eastern culture, you cannot blame it on the U.S. Government or Military. I watch first hand everyday on the base on which I am stationed, thousands of US Citizens and Bahraini / Saudi Arabian citizens both civialian and military working hand in hand. They even took us to The Grand Mosque of The Kingdom of Bahrain when we first got out here as part of our indoctrination, as an effort to help us understand their culture and theirs understand ours.

I have met several very interesting people from this culture who are both religious, and some who are atheist (yes, middle-eastern atheists do exist) and we can easily co-exist. The government highly encourages us to get out and get involved in the community and to make an effort to interact with the local population. There is no hatred towards Americans from the locals and no hatred from the Americans (or joint coalition forces) towards the locals, which is exactly how it should and can someday be.

Believe me when I tell you, I don't believe the U.S. Military has any interest (from what I can see) of being violent towards any person in the middle-east who isn't out to harm us first.

While I agree with the core sentiment of your post that we must all make an effort to understand eachother in order to improve things between the two cultures, I take offense to you trying to put the blame on America for not making an attempt to do so.
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