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I don't think there's any question that the Islamic world hates America because of the values/behaviors cherished by the cultural left. Shortly before the fall of the Shah of Iran, thousands of Iranian students fled to the US and enrolled in American colleges. My school admitted hundreds of them, few of whom could even speak English. As these students experienced American life, they grew increasingly hostile--and learned enough of the language to make that hostility known.

It wasn't our democracy they despised. It was our very casual, recreational approach to sex and sexuality. They described us as decadent beyond anything they had imagined possible, and they were horrified that the Shah was bringing our depraved ways back to their own country. If they had not returned to Iran to help create the Islamic state there, I have no doubt that some of them would have started murdering Americans at random.

I don't think there's any question that the Islamic world hates America because of the values/behaviors cherished by the cultural left.

I think there's plenty of question about it. The Islamic world hates America because America is not part of the Islamic world. Simple as that. Several reviewers of D'Souza's book have pointed out that Sayid Qutb, the spiritual father of today's jihadi mindset, was appalled by the US of the '40s - long before the values/behaviors cherished by the cultural left had been adopted.

They'd have no more regard for an America that met with Pat Robertson's complete approval. The only America that would meet with their approval would be one that practiced shari'a law and included fealty to Islam in it's Constitution.

Immoral sex has been in Islamic society for longer than the United States has existed. From selling young girls into temporary arranged marriages or forced prostitution, to wealthy Muslims keeping sex slaves locked in their palaces, to gangs of thugs assaulting not only young female but also young male tourists, they have had plenty of decadence of their own.

D'Souza gives the Islamic nihilists way too much credit. Conservatives should not fall into the Jerry Falwell/D'Souza trap.

It was our very casual, recreational approach to sex and sexuality. They described us as decadent beyond anything they had imagined possible, and they were horrified that the Shah was bringing our depraved ways back to their own country. If they had not returned to Iran to help create the Islamic state there, I have no doubt that some of them would have started murdering Americans at random.

I read somewhere that among the first things the Iranian revolutionaries did was to ransack the Tehren offices of Planned Parenthood. Food for thought.

Shortly before the fall of the Shah of Iran, thousands of Iranian students fled to the US and enrolled in American colleges.

Not so. Iran had been sending students to the US for a long time under the Shah. At one point, they had nearly 50,000 students in the US, the largest number from any country.

It wasn't our democracy they despised. It was our very casual, recreational approach to sex and sexuality. They described us as decadent beyond anything they had imagined possible, and they were horrified that the Shah was bringing our depraved ways back to their own country. If they had not returned to Iran to help create the Islamic state there, I have no doubt that some of them would have started murdering Americans at random.

The students in the US were part of the coalition of forces outside and within Iran that formed the revolution. The mullahs, led by Khomeini, hijacked the revolution away from the intelligentsia and the bazaaries. The Shah was not liked by many because of the corruption, Western ways, and Savak, the secret police. I don't think sex and sexuality played that big a role except among the poor and illiterate. It is too simplistic an explanation. At one time, there were more women in the Iranian parliament than in the US Congress.

I don't think there's any question that the Islamic world hates America because of the values/behaviors cherished by the cultural left. Shortly before the fall of the Shah of Iran, thousands of Iranian students fled to the US and enrolled in American colleges. My school admitted hundreds of them, few of whom could even speak English. As these students experienced American life, they grew increasingly hostile--and learned enough of the language to make that hostility known.

It wasn't our democracy they despised. It was our very casual, recreational approach to sex and sexuality.

That's funny: I too know a number of Iranians who fled the revolution, came to Arizona - and embraced American sexuality and "decadence". This was true even for those who were politically leftist.

The Islamic world does not "hate America". Just like Hitler, it has found a military tactic that works, and they will keep on using it to conquer new lands until we find a way of putting a stop to it.