U.S. must reach out to young Muslims

Seattle Times via Baltimore Sun ^ | 3-26-2002 | By Fawaz A. Gerges

[schu]

It appears that neither the Sept. 11 attacks nor the Bush administration's public diplomacy have dented anti-American sentiments in Muslim countries. A majority of Muslims still harbor deep resentment toward the United States and its foreign policies, according to a recent Gallup Poll conducted in December and January in nine Muslim countries

[schu]

First post, interesting view about the need for Americans to reach out and understand our enemies.

[San Jacinto]

Maybe if we started bombing Israel they would like us more. That, and started wearing towels or table cloths on our heads.

[schu]

I have come to the conclusion that Islam is incapable of self-analysis. I have read so many articles of this nature: “its not our fault, Israel did it, America’s foreign policy, etc” that it is clear Muslims cannot deal with reality.

This is fundamental, you cannot get better unless you know where you are failing.

[TADSLOS]

I rather like the way we're reaching out and touching them now. It may not win their hearts but we will either decrease their population to irrelevant numbers or they will finally get the message not to srew with us. Either way is fine with me.

[cajun-jack]

i agree totally...i am not a hateful or prejudiced individual, but all these whiny babies that say we must understand islam can kiss my royal cajun a@@!!!!! We must get rid of all the "social worker" mentality...i think social workers have done more to harm this country than even the klintoons did. As a matter of fact, the social workers even helped to enable him in his misdeeds by placingthe blame on everyone but himself. All social workers should be tried for treason, placed against a wall and shot!!!! but that is just my opinion.

[Steve_Seattle]

If 60% of the people in the Muslim world believe that Israel was behind the 9/11 attack, then they are either insane or deliberately ignorant, and there is no reasoning with them. I think a better solution is for the Moslem countries to search THEIR souls and figure out why Americans have such a low opinion of THEM.

[Grampa Dave]

Handle these fanatics the same as we did the Nazi and Imperial Japanese Fanatics during WWII. Not a single fanatic killed by us or our allies ever hurt another innocent victim. Not a single killed fanatic ever harmed an American or America again!

They have been programmed to hate us and want us dead for decades. They have been programmed that we are weak willed and will not fight to eradicate terrorism. We can't do anything about programmed minds. We can follow the examples of WWII in dealing with fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our country!

[Britton J Wingfield]

I spent all weekend practicing how to reach out to young Muslims, from 300 yards.

Seriously, there's not much we can do to reach out while the vast majority of them adhere to goofball conspiracy theories.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

Why is it our job to fix their problems? They put those oppressive governments in power, they have to get them out.

[11B3]

Strange, I did the same practicing - one at 300 meters with a blue helmet, and one at 350 meters with a turban. All the "reaching out" we need to do with the muslim world starts with a whole bunch of Daisy Cutters for attitude adjustments. If that doesn't work, then screw 'em - time to reduce the nuclear stockpile anyway....(I wonder if Presidents Bush and Putin discussed that very method of stockpile reduction during their last meeting - Chechnya, Iraq, Iran, etc.)

[schu]

Yes, its like talking to your teenager: "you don't understand me" after they have pulled a ridiculous stunt. How do you communicate with this type of mentality?

Well if they keep doing the kinds of things they did on 911, then the real hammer will come down. Killing them all is not a good answer (but might be the only answer), so how do you get them to fix their own culture? Are we relegated to constantly defending ourselves from the threat of terrorism? Are they going to be “stuck” in the 12th century forever?

Can you imagine to repercussions if America was treated like Israel by these monsters?

[LouD]

U.S. must reach out to young Muslims

I agree, and here's the tool to do just that:

[Destructor]

"U.S. must reach out to young Muslims..."

...and kill them!!!"

[Honcho]

If only we had worked on understanding the Germans and the Japanese, we could have avoided WWII!

You miss the point here and here is the main point to be gotten from this: The more open Muslim societies are, the less anti-American they tend to be. Lebanon and Turkey, two of the freest countries in the Muslim world, had the highest number of respondents who viewed the United States favorably...


We can conclude from this that the answer to the Muslim problem is FREEDOM!!!!! Not Socialism, not pulling back, not placation but good old fashioned freedom. It's what I've been saying all along: Free the Muslim World from the tyrants who rule it and there will be peace there, and abroad.

[Polonius]

... the need for Americans to reach out and understand our enemies.

No, what we need to do is clearly state that we will not be suicide bombed into submission by Third World fanatics, and that if push comes to shove we can inflict horrors upon them that will make their current miserable existence seem like paradise on Earth in comparison.

[mikeIII]

They seem to be capable of simultaneously holding the beliefs that 9/11 was somehow justifiable and also that the Jews did it! How do you "reach out" and reason with minds like that?

It's not just reality that they can't deal with. They can't deal with truth, justice, liberty, tolerance - everything that identifies civilized behavior.

[Publius6961]

U.S. must reach out to young Muslims

Must?
Must?

What kind of arrogant, ignorant S.O.B. would presume to tell us what we must do?

What we must do is protect ourselves, our families, our community and our country.
If I need any help from the mentally deficient, I will ask for it thank you.
But don't call me, I'll call you.

[schu]

I understand, their freedom is the answer for them to leave us alone.

But, freedom is based upon views of people and your culture that are completely foreign to Islam, the individual, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc. Islam prevents these folks from being free.

If they are to be free, they must cast off the shackles of Islam. I do not believe they have the strength to cast away these Islamic beliefs internally; it must be an external force that instigates this change. Think of the cost and effort to “reset” their culture to achieve this goal.

It seems that it once again falls on America to get this done, but since we don’t even know what our culture is, how do we expect to show them the way?