# Would Our Problems With Muslims Cease If We Got Away From The ME? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 30, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571 "2015-07-30T12:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/21 "2015-07-30T20:55:03Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Suppose we stopped all our meddling in the ME? By that I mean: > -stop actively interfering in wars > -stop supporting regimes (like SA , Pakistan) > -stop supplying weapons to ME governments > Now, I suppose that we would wind up allowing other interests to gain power in the region (like Russia). But, who cares? The main thing is to stop active involvement. Let the Sunni-Shia wars continue. > Would such a policy work? Are we still selling weapons to Israel? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/22 "2015-07-30T21:13:35Z")
You’d also have to cease all business there: no trade or exports, physical or cultural, at all. You think that’s possible? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/23 "2015-07-30T21:22:44Z")
Since the op confuses the South Asia with the middle east and the Muslims globally with arabes of the ME and mistakes them for being all muslim, it is a question that has no sense nor answer. It does provide the Rorschach test for empty answers and use of political slogans without thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/24 "2015-07-30T21:55:36Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > As long as we are allied with Israel, we are going to be hated by the Islamo-fascists. If we break our alliance with Israel, the chances of war in the ME go way up. If war breaks out, that threatens the flow of oil from the ME to the US, Japan, Europe, etc. > > There was war in the Middle East long before the US existed. > > Regards, > Shodan What the hell is an Islamo-fascist? ---
**Author:** ![Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/aca169/32.png) [@Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inbred_Mm_domesticus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/25 "2015-07-30T22:05:57Z")
I guess we could just up and decide to step aside, but we are already part of the region so we better make sure we don’t do things like over-simplify our problems like saying it’s just with “Muslims” or calling civil wars with multiple factions motivated by a wide variety of goals the “Sunni-Shia Wars”. I think we should learn more and more about the ME and get ourselves more and more involved so that the average American can avoid conflating Saddam Hussein with Al-Qaeda and terrorist organizations with governments and violent barbarians with peaceful villagers and South Asia with the Middle East. Yet perhaps the most important thing ever is to have stupid semantic arguments over the term “Islamo-fascist”. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/26 "2015-07-30T22:41:23Z")
> [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > What the hell is an Islamo-fascist? The cousins of Zionist Communists. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/27 "2015-08-01T14:25:47Z")
It just strikes me that the USA can never deal with muslim countries in any way , that will not cause hatred for us. For example, the USA is an ally of SA-which is bombing Yemen-they have killed thousands of people. The victims of this violence are muslim-and they see “Made in USA” on the bombs and weapons-so they think the USA is to blame. I argue that there is no way to avoid this, as long as we are so deeply involved in the ME. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/28 "2015-08-01T15:33:55Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > It just strikes me that the USA can never deal with muslim countries in any way , that will not cause hatred for us. For example, the USA is an ally of SA-which is bombing Yemen-they have killed thousands of people. The victims of this violence are muslim-and they see “Made in USA” on the bombs and weapons-so they think the USA is to blame. I argue that there is no way to avoid this, as long as we are so deeply involved in the ME. You do realized that most of the countries in the ME don’t make their own weapons, right? The only ones who do, on a limited basis are Turkey, Iran and Israel, with Israel being the most developed in this respect. And countries buy weapons from more than the US…the French (and several other European countries), Russia and China also sell weapons there. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/29 "2015-08-01T15:44:16Z")
> [@XT](#): > > You do realized that most of the countries in the ME don’t make their own weapons, right? The only ones who do, on a limited basis are Turkey, Iran and Israel, with Israel being the most developed in this respect. And countries buy weapons from more than the US…the French (and several other European countries), Russia and China also sell weapons there. He does have a bit of a point. There are quite a few bombs falling in that region with Cyrillic writing on them, and a significant but smaller amount with Chinese, but I really don’t see much “it’s all Russia’s fault” hatred in the region and no “it’s all China’s fault” at all. Maybe I am just missing it or reading wrong sources. There seems to be particular hate to the “made in USA” label on weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/30 "2015-08-01T15:51:54Z")
If you define it as “our problems with Muslims,” you’re never going to figure out the solution because you’re asking a nonsense question. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/31 "2015-08-01T21:42:22Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > If you define it as “our problems with Muslims,” you’re never going to figure out the solution because you’re asking a nonsense question. No, the question is very practical: American Muslims have planted bombs,shot people, and committed acts of terrorism-in each and every case, they have stated that they committed these crimes in revenge over what Americans have done (in the ME) and elsewhere in Muslim areas. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/32 "2015-08-01T22:30:19Z")
Once oil is removed from the equation the Middle East can descend into its proper place as an inconsequential shit hole on par with some places in Africa. Or some places of the ME would probably do a little better. I think Iran and perhaps Lebanon, Jordan might rise above. In any case, they’ll sink or soar without it being much of an issue for the USA. Oil will remain important for a few decades still. But the end is in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571/33 "2015-08-01T23:22:27Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > No, the question is very practical: American Muslims have planted bombs,shot people, and committed acts of terrorism-in each and every case, they have stated that they committed these crimes in revenge over what Americans have done (in the ME) and elsewhere in Muslim areas. Americans of every description, Muslim or not, have planted bombs, shot people, and committed acts of terrorism, and in much larger numbers than American Muslims have. If you identify “Muslim” as the critical factor, you are missing the mark, being both vastly overinclusive and vastly underinclusive. Really, if your concern is terrorism, you should be looking at what we need to do about white, Christian conservatives. Addressing that problem is going to bring you much more tangible results than talking about a “Muslim problem.” Comparatively, the Muslim problem is pretty much non-existant. And even then, you’re not going to get anywhere, because the acts of terrorism perpetrated by white, Christian conservatives is not a “white, Christian conservative problem,” any more than the acts of terrorism perpetrated by American Muslims is an “American Muslim problem.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-our-problems-with-muslims-cease-if-we-got-away-from-the-me/726571.md?page=1)