Dangerous theories on Arabs and Muslims

There aren't enough hours in the day to read, let alone individually respond to, all the recent offensive commentaries in the media pretending to analyze the mentality and psychology of Arabs or Muslims. At best, one can only attempt to counter an aggregate of condescending attitudes. These attitudes are composed of a "holier-than-thou" mind-set which seems to have made some commentators deem themselves capable of evaluating whole populations' thought processes, while ignoring obvious geopolitical and historical issues.

Trying to understand the causes of an act does not mean justifying the act. When a murder is committed, detectives look for a motive to guide them to the culprit. Mass murder, in all its horror and perversion, also has causes. Needless to say, they can never be a validation for committing despicable acts of terror.

As they embark on Operation Enduring Freedom, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as many other U.S. officials, are well aware of the issues, which may have influenced the horrendous terrorist attacks of September 11.

Far from being a sleeping giant, and perhaps unbeknownst to the majority of American people, the U.S. government has been extremely active in international affairs, putting American tax dollars to use in the most bewildering political scenarios and toward the most brutal injustices.

According to some commentaries, however, the terrorist attacks are in no way related to the U.S. government's actions over the past three decades. Apparently, this was really the result of Islam's jealousy of the West, of poor people's envy of rich America. In other words, innocent civilians supposedly died because they lived in a rich country; terrorists killed some 6,000 people because they were jealous of the American way of life. Even President George W. Bush, in a statement that went practically unchallenged by anyone, explained that those attackers "can't stand the freedom."

CBS anchor Dan Rather summed up this simplistic discourse in his recent appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, saying that people from the Middle East felt anger because they "see themselves as the world's losers. They would never admit that. They see us. We have everything. We win everything. They see themselves and think, 'We should be a great people but we're not'. It drives them batty. They hate us for who and what we are."

BATTY STATEMENTS
It is precisely because of batty statements like these that resentment develops, and certainly not because Americans are hated for who or what they are! The American people, still in shock and still in mourning, are being led into believing the most ridiculous claims by some prominent figures in the media and the establishment. They are further led to believe that a few terrorists speak for entire populations, that criminals are just enacting the wishes of whole ethnicities or religious groups. Nothing could be more untrue.

Very real attempts to fit this tragedy into a grandiose – and pre-existing - theory about a clash between cultures is not even naive: it is stupid, it is misleading, and it is dangerous. By spreading the hearsay that the American people as a whole are resented by the Arab/Muslim people as a whole, would-be analysts either demonstrate an astonishing ignorance of the world, or - even worse - a calculated effort to widen the gap of mistrust between different peoples.

Globalization indeed! If one could encapsulate the essence of resentment toward the United States, it would have to be the blatant double standards of successive U.S. administrations, with their active support of oppressors and occupiers when it suits their own political and geostrategic interests, and their violent repression of those who don't serve America's global interests. Hating American people has never come into the equation because there is no reason whatsoever to hate them. It's as simple as that.

In fact, typifying this tragedy as a mere hate crime is exactly what would breed hate from all sides. It is a practice that has been used ad nauseam by Israel for five decades, as the Jewish state has tried to convince the international community that the only reason for Arab animosity and attacks against Israel is plain, baseless hatred and racism.

Capitalizing on the rationale of the ultimate victim, Israel has justified its every revolting crime against humanity as self-defense against unfounded loathing. The custom-made claim of "anti-Semitism" has in this way become a vital tool in their peddling of the image of Israel as a victim of mythological proportions.

Never before has there been such a widespread misconstruction of events and such a flagrant dissemination of worthless propaganda. Unfortunately, too many people have been oblivious to the evidence, choosing the easier option of believing distorted claims.

Since the Israeli disinformation strategy has worked so well, some are now trying to apply it elsewhere to support their ultimate goals of dominance. Those who are relating this hate-crime reasoning to the attacks on America have hidden agendas; they are not looking to defuse terrorism, advance international understanding or achieve any kind of justice.

As a first step, they are hoping to convince the masses that there are irreconcilable differences between East and West, and between Islam and the Judeo-Christian world (ignoring the practically identical tenets of the respective holy scriptures), forgetting that people are people.

We have read over and over again about how some Arabs and Muslims have cheered the terrorist attacks of September 11; not only was this minority portrayed as being representative of over a billion people, but their celebrations were "analyzed" as being rooted in a deep hatred of the American people.

In fact, these miserable cheerers have many reasons indeed to resent not the people, but the U.S. government, which alone is responsible for arming their oppressors and allowing their agony to continue. It is simply their inability to differentiate between government and people that induced them to ignorantly celebrate the death of innocents.

BRASH CELEBRATION
Meanwhile, few commentaries have mentioned that some Americans have also at times brashly celebrated the mass killing of civilians. As CNN showed bombs raining on Baghdad's helpless population in 1991, it also showed American people loudly cheering in bars and streets across the country.

Those who have mentioned these examples were quickly put in their place: this was different, apparently, since it was a normal response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait!

I wonder how this "explanation" justifies the killing of innocents anywhere, or the accompanying cheering. I also wonder why this logic is not applied to Israel's invasion of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian lands, to Israel's decimation of refugee camps, to Israel's bulldozing of makeshift Palestinian homes by the thousand, or to Israel's continued mass murder of Palestinians under a brutal military occupation.

In the past couple of weeks, there have been many references to Pearl Harbor, but hardly any to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There have been numerous allusions to attacks on American forces and interests in various countries (the United States being present practically everywhere, whether with its own forces or by proxy), but hardly any to U.S.-led (or U.S.-backed) foreign incursions, coups, assassinations and bombings.

By showing only one side of the coin, by spreading the most ignorant theories, people in positions of influence are simply adding fuel to an already fiery situation and creating feelings of mutual resentment between different ethnicities. It remains to be proven how this will rid the world of terrorism.

Just as we must make a distinction between a few terrorists and the majority of their compatriots, we differentiate between the minority of Americans who dictate foreign policy, and the majority of Americans who are normal, peaceful human beings. While America is by no means a sleeping giant politically or in its global geostrategic activities, perhaps the American people have been dormant for too long, only to be awakened by tragedy at home.

Clearly, the American government is not going to come out and admit that it has been playing chess with people's lives for years. It is also not going to admit that the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil were most certainly instigated by its long tradition of unjust interference in world affairs, prolonging a vicious circle of violence, which has claimed countless innocent victims to which those of September 11 must sadly be added. It is up to the American people to seek the truth, and up to the media, which bears immense responsibility, to ensure that this truth is delivered.

Meanwhile, few commentaries have mentioned that some Americans have also at times brashly celebrated the mass killing of civilians. As CNN showed bombs raining on Baghdad's helpless population in 1991, it also showed American people loudly cheering in bars and streets across the country.

I was one of those cheering Americans in 1991 - and I wasn't cheering the deaths of Iraqi civilians. I was cheering the defeat of a "million-man" army whose leader said that he would utterly defeat us.

Nobody in the US street was saying: "Woo-hoo! Thousands of Iraqi non-combatants are dead!" But the ratty Muslim celebrators were cheering precisely because thousands of US noncombatants were dead.

Pretty ironic since that's exactly what this article does.

There's not one non-arab on the 22 most wanted terrorist list--yet this clown wants to point his finger at us.

It's in the works folks...the blame-Israel exit strategy.

First the Saudi Prince that Giulani rejected. He pointed at Israel, but that's a new gripe for Laden. About the only thing Laden has been consistent on is hating people like the Prince himself!

Now fellows like this author. Problem for him: Laden himself said this is a clash of "civilizations:" us v. them.

He adds the imported-from-America lefty obsession of Hiroshima--like it was not justified or even relevant to this current situation. Yep, it is all America's fault. This author is a slick, well-spoken victim of victimology. I'd like to hear his explanation how America is aiding "Hindus in Kashmir", Laden latest gripe against America. Methinks it will be ignored. An inconvenient fact.

No clash of civilizations here. No look to the REAL causes of the terrorism. Just accept the self-serving arab elite version. No look to cultures, fundamentalism, islamic unitarianism, world wide battle fronts, sheer criminality, etc. etc.

The time is coming. The pointing at Jerusalem game is starting.

Behind all the "root cause" sophistry going on is one irreducible fact. Classic Islamic thought divides the world in two. Believers and non-believers. Non-believers are to be converted or killed.

In a few years we will look back on our lack of sophistication about the true nature of Islam and just shake our heads, ruefully. For the last ten years, since the collapse of the bi-polarization of the world, I've been quietly pointing out the fact that the next issue we would face is exactly what we are facing now. Paranoid is the least offensive thing I have been called.

We have to be in this for the long haul people. It is going to be nasty, brutish and long. Calls for an "even handed, foreign policy" are just naive. Foreign policy is self interest. And, it is in our self interest to prevail, absolutely, over these forces of nihilism and darkness.

Absolutely. I'm unclear whether "liberal larry" means by "good propaganda" the author or the supposed American beliefs. I think the latter.

Most of these sorts credulously believe anything that comes from any "third world" mouth, and ignores these people's own interests, own prejudices, own faults. They credulously believe anything that sounds like something like they would say. Funny thing is, they are listening to their echo--from the West is where these arab "itellectuals" learn much of their jargon, or "discourse."

"All I hear are clicking sounds."

It's not what you hear. It's what the Arabs hear - and they've been fed a lifetime of this stuff.
So when they hear our news or read our newspapers they think they know where we've gone wrong.
It's "good" propaganda because it's what's not said that skews the interpretation. What is said is not far from the truth.

Huh?

Our involvement in Yugoslavia, helping the Muslims didn't
count at all? Our help in driving Iraq out of Muslim Kuwait,
stopping the murder, pillage and rape, doesn't count?

Why are the Russians having a problem with the same
terrorists? Did they get involved using "double standards"
at some point in history?

Why are countries like Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Saudi
Arabia and Egypt having problems with terrorist activities
of the same groups?

How come this author gets paid for writing trash and I don't?

(that's what really pees me off)

I formerly worked with a guy who was in the United Arab Emirates for 3 years as a field representative for a major US corporation. He always said not to use ones' right hand to shake hands with an Arab, but never told us why?

Does anyone know why?

It is precisely because of batty statements like these that resentment develops, and certainly not because Americans are hated for who or what they are!

Well, of course, if he watches Dan Rather all the time, I understand his concern about batty statements.

Liberal larry: I'm still unclear where you are coming from, but if you take an overall view, good for you. OBL looks at the larger picture, unclear and fickle as it is. This author, in a sense, is out of touch with his people in one fashion, in touch in the way his response to a crisis retreats into a familiar and comfortable structure: Israel's to blame for everything.

But many all around have retreated into their familiar, inadequate and irrelevant worldviews in this crisis: Falwell is a prime example.

The United States has sent soldiers into harm's way three times in the past decade: Kuwait, Bosnia and Kosovo. In each case, we went to the aid of Muslims.

Drudge says next issue of New Yorker magazine will present evidense that the CIA obtained stating that Saudi Arabia (the country AND the royal family) has been a primary supporter of world-wide terrorism since 1996.

One of theories as to "why they hate us" that this writer inadvertently proves is that they think we are all-powerful and rule there lives, principally by supporting their corrupt rulers. They don't want to admit any responsibility for their countries ending up with the governments they have. We do support the liberal democratic opposition forces in these countries, and I think we dearly wish they would come to power. Forgive us, Middle-Easterners, if we don't support the fascistic authoritarian anti-Western and currently mostly Islamist opposition forces in your countries.

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