I listened to some of the Dan Bongino show yesterday, and he said something many of us might be able to understand and relate to.
He decribed a trip to Jordan (I think) where he was working with special hand-picked liasions to the US State Department (from Middle Eastern countries) in order to plan events, and there were times when the “special” liasions would, in conversation talk about “Jews are dogs” and worse. They knew, of course, that he was an American, but for some reason, assumed he was one of the people in the US like so many State Department types who thought as they did, and they let their guard down and say things like that.
I liken it to being at a party or event in the US, where you find yourself in a group of people who just assume everyone there is “one of them” and they let their guard down. They motor their mouths, and say astonishing and unbelievable things when they think the “enemy” isn’t listening.
I am on a political committee in my town, and we are at an extreme minority in the bluest of blue states in the bluest of blue towns, with one of the highest tax rates in the state, if not the highest.
We had a town event a few weekends ago where they closed off the streets, etc. We set up a Republican tent, and it was gratifying (and wholly surprising) to see the interest passerby had in our tent.
Someone came to us (who we knew) and said “You guys should hear what they are saying about you at the Democrat tent up the street. They said the only thing missing from our tent were the swastikas.” He had sauntered over and was eavesdropping on their conversation when they didn’t think anyone was listening. That is who those people are.
To know how most Muslims in the Middle East are, read “Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America”, a book by Brigitte Gabriel. She was a Christian growing up in Lebanon in 1975, and lived for a long time in the cellar of her bombed out house, in exposed squalor, unable to safely go outside.
In it, she discusses how all the people in Lebanon, including the Christians, were simply bathed in anti-semitism. They all (including the Christians) believed the anti-semetic bile that people bathed in every day, all the time. The blood libel (Jews using the blood of slaughtered non-jewish children to make food) and every other nasty thing you could imagine.
She believed it too, as a young girl. She was afraid of Jews in general, and the Israelis in particular.
Her conversion happened when her mother was severely injured in an artillery barrage, fired, ironically, by Christians if I recall correctly.
Being a Christian, she couldn’t take her mother to any hospital in her area to get help. Her only recourse was to go over the Israelis, whose border was only a few miles away.
The Israelis took her and her mother in.
They gave her mother medical care, at no charge. They gave her money. They gave her food. They gave her clothes. Jews she met were uniformly compassionate, thoughtful, and extremely generous, asking for nothing in return. They let her and her mother stay as long as was needed, at no cost.
She realized then, as a young teenager, that all the vile, bilious vituperation that was spoon fed to everyone in the Arab world was all a complete lie.
And I do qualify the statement “most Muslims in the Middle East” with “many, but not all”.
That is the truth as well. And it is also a fact that many (but not all) Israelis have antipathy or hatred towards Muslims.
Humanity is never dead in everybody at any given time.
I did get to see Brigitte Gabriel speak at a small gathering some years ago, and it is easy to see why the radical Muslims hate this attractive, well dressed, and outspoken woman.
She was inspirational.
She had a giant, armed, muscular bodyguard just a few feet away from her as she spoke.
Close...all the time.