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Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?
Washington Post ^ | 09/15/2012 | Fouad Ajami

Posted on 09/15/2012 7:17:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Modernity requires the willingness to be offended. And as anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond shows, that willingness is something the Arab world, the heartland of Islam, still lacks.

Time and again in recent years, as the outside world has battered the walls of Muslim lands and as Muslims have left their places of birth in search of greater opportunities in the Western world, modernity — with its sometimes distasteful but ultimately benign criticism of Islam — has sparked fatal protests. To understand why violence keeps erupting and to seek to prevent it, we must discern what fuels this sense of grievance.

There is an Arab pain and a volatility in the face of judgment by outsiders that stem from a deep and enduring sense of humiliation. A vast chasm separates the poor standing of Arabs in the world today from their history of greatness. In this context, their injured pride is easy to understand.

In the narrative of history transmitted to schoolchildren throughout the Arab world and reinforced by the media, religious scholars and laymen alike, Arabs were favored by divine providence. They had come out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, carrying Islam from Morocco to faraway Indonesia. In the process, they overran the Byzantine and Persian empires, then crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia, and there they fashioned a brilliant civilization that stood as a rebuke to the intolerance of the European states to the north. Cordoba and Granada were adorned and exalted in the Arab imagination. Andalusia brought together all that the Arabs favored — poetry, glamorous courts, philosophers who debated the great issues of the day.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911ii; 911iiislammovie; islam; islammovie; muslims
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To: SeekAndFind

Mark Levin was just talking about this last night while on the way home from our football game. He simply stated that the reason that they are so violent is that they live in an uncivil society. He was rhetorically asking why Jews and Christian don’t rebel like that to hate videos. It is because we live in a civil society.

Nail, Head, Hammer.


21 posted on 09/15/2012 7:50:19 AM PDT by Cyclone59 (Obama is like Ron Burgundy - he will read ANYTHING that is on the teleprompter)
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To: SeekAndFind

Ancient curse/sins of the father?


22 posted on 09/15/2012 7:52:00 AM PDT by GBA
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To: SeekAndFind; All
Isaiah 41:6 ~ I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no God.

Ephesians 6:10-18 ~

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

23 posted on 09/15/2012 7:53:04 AM PDT by Pegita ('Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word ...)
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To: SeekAndFind
The blessing of God, seen at work in the ascent of the Muslims, now appeared to desert them. The ruling caliphate, with its base in Baghdad, was torn asunder by a Mongol invasion in the 13th century.

Hmmmm...shortly after some yahoo jumps up and claims to be God's mouthpiece, God's blessing disappears....and they still haven't figured it out.

The offending work, a 14-minute film trailer posted on YouTube in July, is offensive indeed. Billed as a trailer for “The Innocence of Muslims,” a longer movie to come, it is at once vulgar and laughable. Its primitiveness should have consigned it to oblivion.

Hmmmm again....I would agree that the video is amateurish, low budget. The reactions from the muslim and western worlds tell me this:

1) Anyone with moderate image/video editing skills can now set the world on fire. The US and Arab governments have declared this week that any 9 year old with basic computer cartooning skills has the power to bring the world to the brink of WWIII.

2) The Western progressives have no standing from this point on in their criticism and outright hostility towards Christianity. Artistic gems such as "Piss Christ" or "Black Madonna" (the painting of the virgin Mary covered in elephant poo) should enjoy the same governmental backlash that this anti-muslim video received. NEA funding of anti-Christian art should either cease or extend to anti-muslim art as well. In effect, the government in general and the left specifically has this week given Christians a great tool to use in the culture wars--why do you publicly criticize and persecute those that defame islam while turning a blind eye to Christian persecution?

24 posted on 09/15/2012 7:54:02 AM PDT by randog (Tap into America!)
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To: Irenic

They’re wired to kill, period.


25 posted on 09/15/2012 7:54:42 AM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (0bama's agenda—Divide and conquer. FREEDOM OR FREE STUFF- YOU GET ONE CHOICE, CHOOSE WISELY)
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To: SeekAndFind

Acting like spoiled brats.


26 posted on 09/15/2012 7:55:07 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: SeekAndFind

As directed by their god the devil.


27 posted on 09/15/2012 7:56:24 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: SeekAndFind
western culture offends muslims

islam means “submission” - to a strict cold collectivist medieval moral code

modern western culture has become a synonym for “free-willed individualistic hedonism” ... that's why the 9-11 hijackers partied in Vegas before going to collect their holy reward of 72 virgins

Conflict much?

28 posted on 09/15/2012 7:56:30 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: SeekAndFind

Why are they offended? Because many of them are cretins with the emotional level of an infant. Only exceptionally stupid and emotionally immature people react in such ways.


29 posted on 09/15/2012 7:57:55 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: PGR88

What brought them into the 20-21 centuries is what is called the “black gold”, oil.


30 posted on 09/15/2012 7:59:44 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: silverleaf

Well the Islam east has been at war with the Judeo/Christian west since Islam began.


31 posted on 09/15/2012 8:05:24 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: SeekAndFind

They cannot take a joke.


32 posted on 09/15/2012 8:06:12 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: SeekAndFind
Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?

Schooled with hate and victimization for years, they have allowed themselves,to be manipulated into a group mentality,thinking not as an individual but as a collective to whoever holds the most power at any given time.

33 posted on 09/15/2012 8:08:04 AM PDT by tapatio (In memory of my Dad 5-27-26 2-4-2010)
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To: Biggirl

islam also at war as well with the Hindu and Buddhist east, if you are paying attention to Kashmir, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand etc

islam is the big bully kid what doesnt want to
place nice with anyone, even the ones who give him their lunch money and try to suck up


34 posted on 09/15/2012 8:09:59 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Irenic

That’s like describing death as “metabolically challenged”.

Sure, any believer will be offended when offense is given with intent. There is a huge gap between “poor soul, let me show him the true way” and “die vile scum”. Yes, both views exist in all religions, but most hold the former as a core value, while Islam seems to build on the latter.


35 posted on 09/15/2012 8:17:52 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com)
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To: SeekAndFind

Ignorance - they are easily whupped up by the jihadis for their own purposes.


36 posted on 09/15/2012 8:20:05 AM PDT by bboop (does not suffer fools gladly)
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To: mosaicwolf

Exactly, they are weak and insecure. Their actions are not those of someone who is strong and self confident, confident in their God. For another example, just look at the obama white house. They similarly over react and lash out at every little perceived slight...


37 posted on 09/15/2012 8:20:25 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obama now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: SeekAndFind

There is passive aggressive power in being aggrieved. Manipulators do it all the time, this is a whole culture seeking to be offended in order to justify hostility and complaint and murder.

Anyone who has been around violent career criminals has seen a similar chip on their shoulders. It is to justify hostility and violence.


38 posted on 09/15/2012 8:21:30 AM PDT by Psalm 144 (Where would Christianity be if the early believers put their hopes and trust in the Roman empire?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Worrying about this is a waste of time.
We don’t need to avoid offending them. We don’t need them to like us.
What we need to do instill absolute terror of the West in them.

I think a few radioactive craters, formerly Benghazi, Tripoli, Cairo and Tehran would the trick.

After that, whenever they get “offended” we can say “Do you know who are? Do you want us to do that again?”

Doesn’t necessarily have to be nukes, but the body count needs to be in the tens of thousands. Just enough remind that we don’t like them, and that they mean no more to us alive than they do dead.


39 posted on 09/15/2012 8:27:56 AM PDT by Little Ray (AGAINST Obama in the General.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Because the West now lets them!
In the “Bad old Colonial Days” there would have been harsh retaliation. Carter rewarded Islamic barbarity, Western Europe lost its nerve during 1970s oil crisis (Last time Europe had nerve in that part of the world was 1956!) and never recovered it and we keep rewarding the behavior by being “fair & reasonable” and they keep pushing the threshold. When I look at the Muslim world I am reminded as to what Tacitus said about the Germanic tribes. In a nutshell you can only deal with them when you have your foot on their neck. UBL told us as much in one of his propaganda speeches, the Arba world respects strength only, 'fastest race horse, etc'. Unfortunately we continue to put in office in decision making positions fools and weaklings.
40 posted on 09/15/2012 8:28:03 AM PDT by Reily (l)
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