Posted on 10/11/2006 6:24:12 PM PDT by Mike Darancette
Journalist Jill Carroll is back home now, and detailing her experiences as a captive of the jihadists in Iraq in the Christian Science Monitor. ( http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0814/p01s01-woiq.html ) I'm sure the details will prove fascinating, but the upshot of what she has learned is that the Islamists are - gasp! - different from us! Furthermore, I believe that she's beginning to suspect that they are really not very nice people. Oh whatever will this poor old world be FORCED to endure next?
Since the beginning of the Iraq phase of this conflict of civilizations, I've experienced the teeth-grinding frustration of watching both pro- and anti- Iraq sides make the exact same mistake - that of supposing that these people are bascially Americans in funny costumes. In this respect, George Bush and Michael Moore are equally clueless, as was Jill Carroll apparently.
Surprise, surprise Arabs are different. Good read
Arab does not equal Muslim.
Educate yourself.
Did that question make sense, even to you?
Most Arabs are Muslims, but there are many Christian Arabs. In fact, in the United States the majority of Arabs are Christians. Also, Arabs are only about 12% of Muslims in the world.
That was a very good read indeed, and most of it squares with other things I've heard about people who've worked over there. Particularly the ones about their treatment of the concept of Truth, and the lack of shame over the idea of stabbing a man in the back. Our honor system is entirely different from theirs.
Maybe that snipe should be directed at the writer not the poster.
I salute you for acquiring and reading the entire article in under 3 minutes.
In the old days (Crusades) many deals with the Arabs (and other Muslims) were cemented with the exchange of hostages. Many hostages on both sides were slaughtered but sometimes it worked.
Today's Arabs (and other Muslims) happily send their children out to be martyred. Who would they have to offer as hostage?
Not all Muslims are extremist either. I happen to know some very kind and decent people who are Muslims. So let's be fair ... and kind as well. We don't want people in the Middle East to hate all Americans just because we are Americans. Nothing good comes from prejudice and hate ...
I've known some nice ones too. But I'm afraid that if push ever comes to shove, their allegiance to their religion trumps all. I mean, there were really nice German people too, who turned Jews over to the Nazis. The fact that they might have pleasant personalities won't change the fact that they adhere to a philosophy that demands our obliteration, and it's not "prejudice" to be aware of that fact.
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