Posted on 01/02/2009 12:07:35 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Many Pakistanis now believe that the recent Islamic terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, was the work of the Israeli Mossad, or the American CIA. Such fantasies are a common explanation, in Moslem nations, for Islamic terrorist atrocities. Especially when women and children, and Moslems, are among the victims, other Moslems tend to accept fantastic explanations shifting the blame to infidels (non-Moslems).
Conspiracies are not unique to the Moslem world, but they are much more common there. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, many Moslems again blamed Israel. A favorite variation of this is that, before the attacks on the World Trade Center, a secret message went out to all Jews in the area to stay away. Another variation has it that the 19 attackers (all of them Arab, 15 from Saudi Arabia) were really not Arabs, but falsely identified as part of the Israeli deception. In the United States, some Americans insist that the attack was the work of the U.S. government, complete with the World Trade Center towers being brought down by prepositioned explosive charges. While few Americans accept this, the Moslem fantasies are widely accepted in the Moslem world. Even Western educated Arabs, speaking good English, will casually express, and accept, these tales of the Israeli Mossad staging the attacks, to trick the U.S. into attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans are shocked at this, but the Moslems expressing these beliefs just shrug.
American troops arriving in Iraq go through a real culture shock as they encounter these cultural difference. They also discover that the cause of this, and many other Arab problems, is the concept of "inshallah" ("If God wills it.") This is a basic tenet of Islam, although some scholars believe the attitude preceded that religion. In any event, "inshallah" is deadly when combined with modern technology. For this reason, Arab countries either have poorly maintained infrastructure and equipment (including military stuff), or import a lot of foreigners, possessing the right attitudes, to maintain everything. That minority of Arabs who do have the right attitude towards maintenance and personal responsibility are considered odd, but useful.
The "inshallah" thing is made worse by a stronger belief in the supernatural, and magic in general. This often extends to technology. Thus many Iraqis believe that American troops wear sunglasses that see through clothing, and armor vests that are actually air conditioned. When they first encounter these beliefs, U.S. troops thought the Arabs are putting them on. Then it sinks in that Arabs really believe this stuff. It's a scary moment.
However, many troops learn to live with, and even exploit, these odd beliefs. When troops at one base discovered that they weren't being attacked much, because many of the locals believed that the base was surrounded by a force field, the troops would casually make reference to their force field, when they were outside the wire and among the locals. This reinforced the force field myth, and made the base safer. Other troops would invent new fantasies, like a pretending that a handheld bit of military electronics was actually a mind reading device. That often made interrogations go a lot quicker. Not all Arabs believe in this stuff, and those that didn't and worked for the Americans, often as an interpreter, could only shrug their shoulders when asked about it.
This easy acceptance of fantasies is exploited by leaders throughout the Middle East, and the Moslem world in general. Leaders who know better, build on these fantasies as a way to maintain their control over the population. The problem is a dirty little secret in the Moslem world, that leaders and academics don't even like to discuss it openly, much less with infidels. But it is real, and you can read all about it in the local media, or overhear it in the coffee shops.
I can almost understand the folks who think we didn't go to the moon. The problem is at least partially NASA's fault because some of the shots they broadcast/published were shot on a stage, because there was political propaganda value in doing so. I got into some of the inconsistancies a long time ago, and found it to be intereststing, but ultimately of little use other than further confirmation that our government is staffed largely by people who, in a sane world, would not be allowed to do anything more complex than dig ditches.
As an example of exactly how dumb-as-a-post even some of our 'rocket scientists' are, consider the following: Most of the footage shot on the moon was not shot using standard video tech of the day. They had what was essentially high-def cameras. The signal that was broadcast back to earth had to be converted (downgraded) from its native format to a broadcast-quality signal.
After the lunar missions all the original high-quality footage (a hundred or so hours of footage IIRC) were simply stored in a warehouse somewhere. It was never copied for later archival and study. Keep in mind that our missions to the moon was basically the high-point of American achievement. Our voyages to the moon were quite arguably one of the most important events of the 20th century, yet no one at NASA ever thought to make the films available to the public. They never converted the signals into digital copies so they could be protected from the effects of time.They were never converted to Beta, VHS, or DVD.
In fact, they just lost them.
Yes, that's right. Our government is so incompetent that they simply lost some of the most important film ever taken by man.
It is exactly this kind of incompetence (and I'd argure malfeasance) that fuels conspiracy theorists.
So do physicists. It is called quantum mechanics.
Except you Texans.
Duly noted, and preemptively excepted as a matter of course.
Of course. :)
When did the muzzies contribute to math or science? Most of their “academic” achievements were stolen from India, China, and post-Reconquista Spain.
We are Allegra. For what it's worth (and I don't really think God listens much to the likes of me...) you're frequently the object of our prayers for your safety and success.
She was gallivanting around Baghdad during the worst days of the war in soft vehicles and no security detail. I cannot even imagine such stupidity.
That's because you most definetely are NOT stupid. Ms. Carroll is another matter entirely.
Thanks very much for your insight. I have a friend who is frequently sent to the ME (KSA, Kuwait..just returned from Turkey) and he says largely the same thing.
L
The first is the concept of the "Jinn", magic, witchcraft, good devil/bad devil.
The second is the Islamic concept of predestination which is driven by fatalism and a strong belief in the after-life, of resurrection.
What name are you giving to the civilization in question? "Arabic" or "Islamic"? But, I suppose that doesn't matter.
The numbering system we use (zero and a decimal positional notation) was originated by Hindus about 500 AD. As the concept passed through North Africa, it picked up the Arabic characters set for 0-9. And that's the pattern to look for.
Many things attributed to an Arabic Civilization should be more properly attributed to the remnants of the Zoroastrian, Hindu, Hellenic, or Roman civilizations they conquered, or to other civilizations nearby. The more Arabic the conquered areas became, the fewer contributions to knowledge they produced.
The one positive thing I've read about, is that there is usually a flowering in the conquered remnants for the first generation or so, as the Arab/Islamic conquerors usually reduced taxes quite a bit. Unfortunately, the penalties for not converting to Islam grow. And as the % of non-Islamics falls, the tax on the non-Islamics grow, and that eventually kills the golden goose.
Beat me to it
I stand corrected upon looking deeper they got the zero from India and most of their architecture achievement came from others. Just like the good old USA who got the A bomb from the Nazis and rocketry from the Nazi’s too.
Ah, but where is the Arabic Henry Ford? The Arabic Space Program? The Arabic Rock-N-Roll?
We might borrow, but we build too.
So very true and as with the Arabic and the Yankees of the civil war and the ww2 propaganda legends the spoils of writing history goes the the winner.
No, the Arabs were leaching off the Hellenic tradition that built the Library at Alexandria. The Library at Alexandria was there well before the Arabs came.
I don't know think the Arabs ever had a technological edge. Certainly in the early crusades, the heavy western cavalry had a definite technological edge, commonly winning over greatly superior numbers. They just couldn't be supplied in the numbers required.
Battles like Manzikert seem to be more about tactics, strategy, generalship and politics than about a scimitar being better than a broadsword.
So far, the Library at Alexandria and Arabic numerals have been mentioned, and both are clearly of other than Arabic origin. What other wonders of the Arabic world do you think were suppressed?
And for the earlier rocket and A-bomb thing, I don't believe there are any history books that fail to credit Werner Von Braun for his role in rockets, nor do they fail to mention that some of the folks on the Manhattan Project were European expatriates. The note from Einstein to FDR that started that effort is certainly well known.
If you think all is propaganda, why do you bother posting? And if all you present is a claim akin to 'the truth is out there, but hidden' you just end up sounding like one of the tin-foil hat brigade.
YEP the ‘water-car’ is a favorite of HYDE the conspirator kid in a hilarious old sitcom...’that 70’s show’ they’ve written it into a few of their episodes...
i must say i’m in love with the beautiful redhead though...
The Nazi had developed the bomb before us. Many thing came out after the fall of the Berlin wall.
You can follow these beliefs all the way back to the earliest times ~ (Check: Flying Garuda) ~
In our foray into Iraq there have been repeated events where one of the bad guys we've targeted is in a building or other location that gets bombed with massive amounts of explosives. Everybody turns into powder except the bad guy ~ and there he is trying to crawl away to do it all over again.
Just the other day the IDF/IAF used a 500lb, or 1000 pound bomb to blow up a Hamas' leaders home ~ ordinarily you can do a job on a house, even a concrete house, with far smaller munitions, but the IDF/IAF has this funny idea that to wipe 'em out you have to use the big stuff.
Ever wonder where they got that idea? Well, it's from experience. The leadership elite is harder to kill for some reason.
Eventually one of 'em is going to let us know what the secret is and then we can get rid of the whole nest.
Shortly before Trinity the Japanese managed to blow up their primary atomic bomb development team in fact. They also had half a dozen or so giant underwater submarines capable of launching a medium range bomber with atom bombs if they'd ever gotten that far, and they are reputed to have manufactured and made ready for battle about 12,000 jet planes.
Although part of the Axis, it would be incorrect to refer to the Japanese as "Nazis". BTW, the Germans shipped some yellow-cake (uranium ore) to the Japanese. It was transferred at sea into one of those giant submarines. That particular sub was finally found near Hawaii about 5 or 6 years ago.
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