I had one in my family for 16 or 17 years. I met his family when they would come in from the middle east. They even stayed at my house. He even lived in my house for awhile. I met his friends from the middle east that lived in MS and Baton Rouge. They could have all been a part of this article, and it would not have surprised me. The problem when you do not know the language you just catch little pieces here and there, and for awhile you think it is just jealousy and paranoia about the relationship between Israel and the US so they figure we were against them. I would even almost get into fist fights with him when discussions between us would turn into him blaming the US for everything. I still got more angry at the whining than because I thought this was about a true deep hatred of the US. But when events like the first war in Iraq came up, the first WTC, and so on before 9-11 I realized that it was not jealousy but really was hate. There really is a public face and a behind closed door face. They may not all be killers themselves, but behind closed doors I would bet 50% or more of the arab muslims in the US that were born and raised in the middle east and still hang out with mostly other people from the middle east sound pretty close to these guys in the article when they get together. Some of the ones I knew would not have the balls to act on it (they would be the ones beating a dead body because they knew it could not fight back), but I know they probably cheered 9-11 and supported the reasons behind it.
The same old story applies here: The grandmother of two from wichita gets searched to the extreme before security...and three arabs walk right through without question. I am not saying EVERY one of those guys is a terrorist..I have good friends that of Arab decent and look very Arab...but we are in a world right now where politically correctness is thrown out the window in this case... I think that part in Airplane! aplies here. You know, where the security guards lets the cubans past security with huge missiles, but stops the old lady and gives her a hard time...
Well, BAT, you can believe what you want...and I'll do the same. That's the advantage to living in a free, non-theocratic state. In the final analysis, however, just how many of those "moderate" Moslems that you claim to know, if push came to shove, would side with us over their more radical brethren, whose core beliefs are closer to their own? If you think even a few of them would, then you show a gross misunderstanding of human nature.
Generally agreed, even though the "gross misunderstanding of human nature" comment was a little overstated. My simple point here is that it is very difficult for someone to be your friend or side with you if you already believe that they are the enemy and treat them the same. In my mind that is also an important part of the equation. Like many other religious ideologies Islam would like for the entire world to be believer in their particular religious sect. The only big "if" here is what ends will they go to to achieve that "final solution"?
i wonder how many of us would be islamic if we had been born as arabs. i know alot of us here let our tribalist birth culture and religion define us, so we probably would have been radical islamists if we were told to be from a young age. anways, i think it is clear that islam breeds violence.
I agree, Martin. It is interesting to note that dating back to the Crusades, that violence has been accepted as a way of life in the Muslim culture in their goal of promoting and "protecting" their expansion worldwide. Having said that I STILL don't think all are bad... We just notice the extreme ones the most....
I live and work around a number of Muslims, and as a middle school teacher, I teach Muslims, as well. One of my fellow community columnists at The Dallas Morning News is a Pakistani Muslim, and my family will be at his house for dinner next Friday. I know many good, moderate Muslims who decry the events of 9/11. But with that being said, in the 2001-02 school year, there were two Muslim girls at my school whose fathers (I would say parents, but the mothers never spoke to or dealt with the school and were likely not allowed to by their husbands) sent all of the teachers on my team e-mails and literature promoting Palestinian interests. When we read a Holocaust-based book, the fathers forbade their daughters from reading it, and then sent e-mails saying: "Why should American children study the lies of the Holocaust? The Jews cause all of their own problems because they are murderers." Eventually, we reported one of the fathers to local authorities because we were still living in the shadow of 9/11 and, frankly, he frightened us. He fit the profiles of some of the 9/11 hijackers--and those in the article posted here. By the next fall, when his daughter, Aseel, didn't return to school, we found out that the man had been deported and was again living in Palestine. The hatred is out there, and it is scary how much we are despised by others. One of my close friends is from India. She was living in the U.S., but returned home last summer. She visited me on Monday night, and she told me what the prevailing attitude is in India regarding Americans. We are apparently seen as big bullies, and they wish that Bill Clinton was still in office because he was such a "great diplomat." We are not loved.
They wish Bill Clinton was still in office because he did everything he could to weaken this country and thus bring us down to their level while he was President. They may have loved him, but you can bet the farm they didn't respect him.
I was just quoting my friend. I agree that Clinton allowed Bin Laden and his henchmen to tweak our noses repeatedly througout the 90's (the 1st WTC bombing, embassy bombings, the USS Cole.) Then, they became audacious enough to plan and carry out the 9/11 attacks. I feel it's a skewed vision of the U.S., but the perception is out there nonetheless.
