Originally Posted by rickair7777
I have spent enough time over there to have a reasonable feel for it. Pre-9/11 I had more freedom and opportunity to experince arab society than most westerners have today due to security issues. There are lots of things I like about it, and I have some friends also who are firmly in the good-guy camp.
I also hate to stereotype, but a VERY large percentage of folks over there have sympathies of varying degrees to the WRONG side in this conflict. How many exactly? Hard to say...it's not easy to quantify something like that, but it has to be around 50%, with a wide margin of error. We are NOT simply confronting a tiny handful of radicals, we are confronting an entire culture and an inseparable religion.
Whatever the solution or solutions to the problem are, we will never find them by sticking our collective head in the sand in regards to the underlying realities of this conflict.
Well said Rick!
I have also spent a fair amount of time in countries "over there" (some prior to shooting, some after) and yes, a LARGE percentage are NOT interested in getting along with anyone or following any peaceable tenets of their religion. This continued posting on the thread of "its just a few extremists" shows the total lack of understand by people who have obviously never had the experience to see first hand what is it to really "know" a culture. I am sure it’s easy to sit in a quiet middle class neighborhood and say "I know some Muslims and they are all great people, none of them could be or support terrorists". Do you know what one looks likes? Do you expect the extremists to stand up with knife and gun and announce it before they carry out their actions?
Take a trip to the Middle East and find out the true meaning of hatred within a culture. Do good and decent people exist within these countries and religion? Of course there are. No one on here has suggested all people of any religion or group are all bad. I have numerous friends who practice the faith and sure they are many on this site. I just read the post from “Grandpa” as I post this.
That being said however, how soon we forget as others have mentioned the actions after 9/11 or more recently the reaction of MILLIONS (yes, millions.. not those “few thousand” as some are confused about) to the publishing of a cartoon about Mohammed? Do you remember the riots in over 56 countries world wide? Does anyone really expect to explain those week of burning and killing as a normal reaction to a cartoon whether it’s offensive to you or not? Would you burn and kill over a cartoon?? If you’re a middle of road American and you act like that over your religious beliefs, we call you a “cult member”.
For all those on here who simply want to hide and think if we talk nice it will all get better, who want to say we caused the problems, who want to pretend ‘everyone can just get along”… Get real.. Take your butts on a tour and see how it is in the real world. Visit Iraq and tour the Shiite slums of Baghdad and announce proudly you’re a Sunni Muslim, let see how fast your attitude changes…