[QUOTE=Gozu]
Well, getting bad press is not the same as being victims of media bias. Palestinians get a bad press too.
This report seems to indicate media bias towards Israel (assuming it is factually correct). If it isn’t, then I don’t know, it’s hard to figure out who’s got an agenda and who’s trying to be impartial.
Well, Saudi Arabia as a whole is a disgrace to arabs in my opinion. Women aren’t allowed to go out alone or drive? <insert a dozen insane laws here>? That’s just crazy. I’m not defending them.
The pakistani Madrassas promoting hatred and dabbling in politics are a blight as well. I believe they are the exception to the rule though. The vast majority of Pakistani schools are probably normal.
I’m sure 99.9% of the pakistanis in the u.k were horrified by the event. I’m not saying you’re lying or even wrong, I just don’t find it significant. I’m sure there are plenty of american, european, israeli and japanese wackos, extremists or what have you that are shaming their respective populations. i remember the first thing I thought on 9/11 after the customary “this can’t possibly be happening” and “Did that guy just jump off a window? Oh god no…” was “that’s just great. This is just what I needed right before leaving for the U.S.”. My point is that terrorist attacks and murders benefit very few people (if any…) and they certainly harm anyone who has anything in common with those murderers simply by association.
I have no doubt of it. I’m sure I could walk in the streets of gaza shouting “I hate Israel” without anybody objecting to it. I would probably hate Israel if I was born and raised there just as I’d probably hate the U.S if I lived in Iraq and knew innocent people killed as collateral damage (and so on…). I’m sure I’d hate palestinians if I lived in Israel and some crazy bastard exploded himself killing my two children, or my parents, or brothers, and so on. There is a lot of hatred out there. That’s for sure.
Sigh. Bad things? And I’m sure Imams in the 99.99% of non-radical mosques tell boring things to their congregations. This is just common sense.
You know, that’s just wrong. Islamists , by which I’m guessing you’re referring to radical fundamentalist muslims (hereby referred to as fundies) can hate lots of things. Algerian islamists hated the algerian government. Nowadays, it’s “trendy” for fundies to hate Israel (and most muslims sympathize with palestinians and are not fond of Israel for sure) and many hate the U.S government for providing weapons to Israel (used to kill palestinians) and now, also because of the war in Iraq.
They don’t hate “the west”. They might think negatively of things such as western porn or homosexuality or any of those things christian fundies dislike but they don’t actually hate the west. A lot of them have family living in the west (I’ve got at least 20 family members living in the west). The vast, crushing majority of the muslim population in the west (We’re talking tens of millions) loves it there, enjoys the democratic, relatively non-corrupt governments, the freedom of speech, the standards of living and the decent economy among other things. Why wouldn’t they? Sure, they feel homesick sometimes and go to ye ole’ country to see their extended families on vacation but you can bet they’ll go back to France or Holland or the U.S or wherever it is they live.
And of course, for every fundy out there, there are a hundred guys who’d just love a chance to go live in the west. That’s why there are hard to obtain visas required for people to enter those countries. Remove that requirement and watch the floodgates open. Remember that most of those people under 40 grew up drinking coke, wearing Levy’s jeans, washing their clothes with Tide, watching the Disney channel, Dallas, Hollywood movies, fantasizing about Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz, eating at McDonalds and so on. Trust me, they love the west more than westerners do :). No kidding…
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You know, I would really like to believe that the Islamists are small in number, and that truly 99% of Pakistanis were horrified by the terror attacks. But that’s simply not the case.
Support for Bin Laden in Pakistan hovers around 50% of the population, and has been as high as 65%. It’s hard to imagine people supporting supporting someone who’s actions ‘horriified’ them.
This is one of the great opinion divides on the war on terror. Some believe that the problem is a handful of nutcases. Get bin Laden, arrest terrorists, root them out like criminals, and the problem can be contained. Other point to the widespread hatred for the west in many Middle Eastern countries, and the widespread support for Bin Laden, and say that there’s a deeper problem that needs to be fixed or the terrorist problem will continue to get worse, with or without Bin Laden.
I read a report a couple of days ago that the Taliban and al-Qaida were mustering an army of 200,000 men inside Pakistan. That’s a HUGE army. To be able to recruit that many men for what are almost certainly suicide missions against American troops is an indicator of a widespread acceptance of terrorism in Pakistan and a large pool of people who hate the west enough to be willing to die for it.