Posted on 03/15/2006 5:30:19 AM PST by butternut_squash_bisque
As the West enters the twilight hours of its civilization it demonstrates a desperate desire to recapture the glories of a past when the world meant the “West” and the only value system was that dictated by Western powers. According to this way of thinking, modern history started at the Renaissance and Western sciences were the sum of all knowledge.
America, of course, is the most glaring example of this Western malaise as manifested by its refusal to abide by international pacts and agreements or by its savage assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, let us not forget the horror film the world has been forced to watch of torture and abuse of the so-called terrorists in American gulags spread across the planet.
However, Europe also shows signs of stress given the hysteria with which it views the Muslim world. Europe feels both fear and a sort of wounded indignation toward the Muslims. On the one hand it is trying to force the Muslims to abandon Islam as a universal value system claiming it is nothing more than a primitive and archaic religion incapable of dealing with the complex issues of the modern way of life; on the other it feels threatened by this very same culture which it regards beneath its own. One sees and hears an irrational logic in the West today where for some reason it thinks that Islam will overwhelm it and wipe out its own civilization, yet simultaneously it regards it as primitive. So, we get behavior like France deciding that a few hundred Muslim girls wearing their veil to school are a threat to the identity of secular France and might well destroy the French way of life. Then we witness the caricatures in Denmark insulting the Prophet (peace be upon him) and its reproduction in many European newspapers and magazines. There are also books and articles and films and shows made by Westerners depicting Islam as a savage and primitive religion that should be fought and uprooted from this world. If Muslims want to live by their own value system where is the threat in that to the West?
For too long the world has lived with one dominant culture imposing its view on everyone else, where all human experience, be it negative or positive, was seen through Western eyes only. However, recent developments show it is no longer the case. In other parts of the world where people who until recently could never control their own destiny or the fate of their nations a new sense of independence and defiance is evident. Like in Palestine where the people voted into power the Hamas party by an astounding majority.
People might say Israel is not Western; however I say Israel has nothing Jewish about it but its name. Zionism is nothing but an offspring of the Western civilization and since its inception it has been nurtured and protected by its parents, the West. In the days of the Cold War the Soviet Union and America could always agree on one thing and that was the necessity of the continued existence of the Israeli entity, and every other Western power, be it near or far, helped and abetted the crimes of the Zionist nation and still does it to this very day. Israelis themselves see their country as an outpost of Western civilization amid a sea of savages who need to be trained and broken in like wild animals. The tragedy of the Jews is that to survive the European carnage they turned into a copy of what they themselves suffered bitterly from — a racist, colonizer. Or that was the only option given them by Western powers and those Jews who believed in the superiority of their race over the Arabs. However the biggest losers in all this will be the Jews who have always had a safe haven in the Muslim world throughout their long persecution in Europe.
Look back on the short and bloody history of the Israeli nation and ask yourselves who have been the greatest beneficiaries of its creation?
The answer is a few Jews who would never have been allowed to become leaders in their community were it not for the existence of Israel and the great markets of arms in the West. All the rest have lost bitterly. The Palestinians their lands, the Arabs their youth and wealth spent on never-ending wars for the past 50 years and the Jews in Israel who end up living in nothing more than a heavily fortified ghetto. Meanwhile, the rest of the Jews in the world are either held for ransom by Israel and forced to support it blindly through money and effort or held accountable by others for Israel’s criminal behavior. So, in sum, the creation of Israel only benefited those who trade in blood and carnage; they have surely made handsome gains in the past 50 years.
Though we are witnessing the end of a world system which has dominated this planet for over two centuries one should expect a bitter resistance from the West to their slow but inevitable decline. As human beings most of us have difficulty accepting our mortality and many of us never do even to the last minute. The West can’t for the moment come to grips with the fact that they occupy this planet with other individuals who have a different set of values which are as true as theirs. Muslims are not the only ones who feel the intrusive and high-handed behavior of the West. We see examples of this kind of attitude all around the world from Latin America to Africa and Asia.
However the West should be careful for they might be mighty but they are no longer the only kid on the block. The block is getting mighty crowded and we the rest of humanity no longer accept their dictates nor do we regard our civilization as any less.
— Reem Al-Faisal is a Saudi photographer. She is based in Jeddah.
let us not forget the horror film the world has been forced to watch of torture and abuse of the so-called terrorists in American gulags spread across the planet.
As opposed to the snuff flicks the jihadis play on the Internet as recruiting drives during the hadj. How about watching prisoners getting their throats sawn open and pleading with their killers, begging them not to die?
If Muslims want to live by their own value system where is the threat in that to the West?
When you behead those who oppose you, and tax the survivors into squalor, like your Socialist brothers, you think we're going to submit, with our asses in the air, like you?
All the rest have lost bitterly. The Palestinians their lands, the Arabs their youth and wealth spent on never-ending wars for the past 50 years.
So, accept the fact you're losers, and submit.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Jews in the world are either held for ransom by Israel and forced to support it blindly through money and effort or held accountable by others for Israel’s criminal behavior.
Just as the rest of the Muslims are held hostage by international Jihad, but instead, they willingly support it through money and efforts - and you can't ever be held accountable due to PC and your Socialist brothers being in charge of two-thirds of the planet.
Can a Value System Supposedly Primitive Pose a Threat to West?
Not if it's armed with only sticks & stones.
They invented the zero. And have been stuck on it, ever since.
I've always wanted to post a 'barf alert' article...
LOL!
Fair enoughh!
They didn't eve invent that!
But the rest of your sentence is correct...
Hence, the 'barf alert' warning...
"One sees and hears an irrational logic in the West today where for some reason it thinks that Islam will overwhelm it and wipe out its own civilization, yet simultaneously it regards it as primitive."
What's irrational about taking the Islamists' openly stated intentions at face value? And given their preference for beheading opponents, oppressing women, and blowing up 'blasphemous' works of art, how can we NOT see them as primitives?
Enemy of islam bump
The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 millions, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion.They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe.
These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone.
The man who wrote this is my blood enemy.
Not really; the concentration of more attention on each individual produces countervaling (and more) gains in technology and productivity. One man with a gun beats ten men with pointy sticks.
Thanks!
Here's an allegorical tale that even the author can understand. Imagine a bucket of pure, clean, civilized water. Now, add some primitive camel dung to it. Is it irrational to think that the formerly civilized water should be concerned over the threat from the primitive camel dung?
(I will freely admit that there may be some cultural bias inherent in that tale that will make the point of the story all but unintelligible to the author - for all that I know, camel dung may be revered and worshipped in the author's society - after all, weren't we told that combining a statue of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung was actually a very high honor because of the cultural significance of elephant dung in parts of Africa? This multiculturism thing is a pain in the butt, isn't it? Oops, maybe the author regards a pain in the butt as a thing of rare beauty, never mind...)
OK it has to be some female....disgusting worthless POS muslim...may she blind herself in a photolab accident...Absolutely disgusting primative and boring -of Lord , How BORING these people are....
islam is the problem, IMO.
I agree with your analysis, but... barbarians can destroy decadent societies, e.g., Rome, and it is possible that they will destroy our way of life and lead to a new dark age. But mostly I think the article is projection, their 7th century moon cult is the one that is in twilight, the only question being whether they can take the rest of us down with them.
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