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NorthernGent -> RE: Friend or Foe - American Jihad (3/10/2010 2:01:29 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: StrangerThan
The basic assumption is that most people will do the right thing. Yeah it's wrong sometimes, but is right more often than not.
I spent a couple of years in the Middle East, half of it was running guard on American interests and people, the other half wandering along streets in one city or another. For the most part, the experience was unique, interesting, gratifying in the sense that with all the media hype, people are mostly just people and a little time spent finds common ground. Here and there were moments of conflict, but rarely serious. Probably the worst was being robbed by the police. Three of us were in a taxi headed for the American Embassy when a pair of police cars forced it off the main highway and into an alley. The three of us spent the next 20 minutes or so plastered to a dusty brick wall with machine guns poking against backs and noggins while they emptied our wallets. The taxi driver scampered away at the first sight of a gun, so it was a long walk afterwards.
Overall though, the time was good. Open air spice markets, food cooking in the streets, places that reminded me of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. And overall, we bartered, dickered, spent our money among folks who were often as curious about us as we were about them. To be sure, there were extra precautions, things you could do elsewhere that wasn't exactly intelligent to do there, and the added wariness of not knowing if the next face was one you could trust or not.
Fast forward to about 3 years ago. Friend and neighbor heads off to Afghanistan. He comes back a different person, one that is bitter and angry. The anger stemmed from knowing when the day was going to hold surprises by the traffic on the street. When it was bustling, he noted the rarity of attacks. When it was empty or the traffic was sparse, it often meant trouble. I forget his rating, but he removed IED's. While he rarely felt threatened by the people he met on a daily basis, he considered many of them complicit by virtue of their silence, in the deaths and injuries he saw. They knew. He said.
I'm heading into Philadelphia in a couple of weeks. Yahoo has a story on the front page today about JihadJane, a philadelphia woman charged with conspiring with other terrorist types to kill a cartoonist who lampooned Muhammed.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_american_terror_plot
Muslims take a lot of heat and endure a lot of suspicion because of terrorists. For the most part, it is unwarranted. I spent many months walking among shia and sunni with no problems and a lot of good memories. Yet, at the same time, there is often much silence where there should be condemnation. There is more condemnation in the US over offense, than there often is from the Muslim community over murder. I'm mostly talking official condemnation, from governments, from those who are in power whether they be secular or religious.
The question is, why? Is it a sympathetic cause kind of thing where the actions aren't supported, but the reasons are? Is it the same fear of reprisals from within?
And is silence an act of complicity?
For me, there is a degree of yes to all three in the sense that we often charge those close to criminals for aiding and abetting even when all they did was remain silent.
Ah yes.....respectable stereotyping.
Translating your post in a rough fashion:
1) I've been there and I've enjoyed their company and this quite clearly adds credence to what I'm about to suggest.
2) I like them so much that I expect governments to apologise for things that have nothing to do with them because they're muslims - just like I would expect the US government to apologise for the actions of French citizens because they're all christians.
3) And I'm so fair with them that I couldn't be bothered to have a search round on the interent for evidence of condemnation from muslim governments - I've simply assumed they do not exist because beneath my thinly veiled veneer of fairness I'm actually about as fair as a Siberian winter
4) Coupe de grace - I'm so fair I've established that the US is far more apologetic than 'the muslims' on your behalf and I'm asking that you do not dispute this - you simply explain the small details i.e. why.
Very poor and you're the problem mate - as much of a problem as any government having a nosey around in some war-torn bombed out country looking for oil or waffles or something.
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