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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (146634)	4/29/2002 9:10:13 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571929

It's probably similar to the way we think a suicide bomber is a true representative of Islam. I would have agreed with you until last night. But the piece on 60 minutes was an eye-opener. Seven American students at an Islamic school in NY were interviewed. All seven unhesitatingly believed that suicide bombers received admission to paradise. One made the statement she would do it, "at a naval base" or somewhere -- which she later withdrew. This, in spite of the fact that the teachers of Islam at the school explicitly stated that it was a misinterpretation of the religion. I recognize it is a small sample, but one could easily conclude that suicide bombers ARE representative of the breed of Islam being learned by teenagers today. Watching this segment, for the first time, I saw how we are threatened in our country by this horrible mentality. I can readily see suicide bombings in NYC and other places in this country after watching this on TV.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (146634)	4/29/2002 2:21:36 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571929

Ted, <why they see us on one level as the home of pop culture and everything that epitomizes what's cool, and on another level, Satan. And its not just because we are rich and powerful.> Actually, at least where Muslim extremists are concerned, part of the reason why America is the "Great Satan" is indeed the pop culture. Muslims will think the scantily-clad girl dancing on MTV is a true representative of America. Then they'll look at the cross she is wearing and think she's a true representative of Christianity. It's probably similar to the way we think a suicide bomber is a true representative of Islam. Ten, actually I was talking about teenagers to early twenties....the typical ages of suicide bombers. They have a strong ambivalence when it comes to the US. On one hand, they think American pop culture is cool; on the other, they don't like our support of Israel. From what I have seen of interviews on tv and what I have read, the ambivalence is strongest in teenagers from Egypt or Kuwait; countries not directly affected by what's happening in Palestine. For Palestinians teenagers, its not as strong.......they hate the US along with Israel; and there is not much to offset it. Its many of their elders who uniformly hate the US for the reasons you cite above. As for being rich and powerful, I think that is indeed the core of all the anti-American sentiment. I think that's part of it but if we accept that as the whole truth we are doing everyone a disservice. Even some Koreans (hopefully a small minority) love Osama and think America got just what it deserved. It's a real sad view to take, especially since South Korea would have remained a 3rd-world nation without America's help. But it goes to show you just how anti-American the world can be. Its not only that we are rich and powerful but its how we wield that power. I think we do a better job than other powerful nations have in the past but we definitely have a tendency to support gov'ts that are friendly to us but may be dictatorships that oppress their people. And yet we turn around and preach to everyone how they should be more like us. You don't think our hypocrisy at times p*sses people off especially the ones who are being oppressed? ted