Labyrinth said:
Therumancer said:
Really, that organization alone sort of disproves like 98% of the liberal "gay men are harmless" stuff out there.
No. It doesn't. Just because one select group of Muslims wish to legalise rape within the boundaries of marriage doesn't mean all Muslims wish to see it. Just because some priests are paedophiles doesn't mean the whole Church organisation is out to rape children.
Sorry, your bias is just too much to let by.
I'll respond here even though I'm trying to avoid responses to prevent this from turning into a huge flame war (I've made my statement, I do read people's answers, but I figure people who strongly disagree with me aren't going to change their mind and justify their opinion any way they can. This is the Internets after all).
"Muslim" covers a lot of ground. There are tons of differant sects, many of which spend times trying to annihilate each other when not united by their hatred of The West (an enemy of my enemy mentality). I am generally anti-Muslim because of the threat presented to the US and the common cultural messages than do to any specific, purely internal social problems within their society.
That said, your not dealing with a minority of people who believe in legalized rape. It's not a matter of "wish to" it's a matter of it already being that way. A properly run Islamic goverment uses a system of laws referred to as "Sharia" which is what The Taliban put into force. The practice is common enough where Mullah Omar was willing to stand trial for the "Crimes" of his regime but only before other Muslim leaders for it to be reviewed under thos standards.
In the US we like to believe we're dealing with tiny minorities of people down there that are "psycho" by our standards, but this is far from the truth. There is no heroic majority fighting minority oppression like we try and convince ourselves happened during World War II (and never really did as I've talked about in other threads). People are willing to perform suicide attacks because of the general support of their society.
THAT said, most "Muslims" who emigrate from The Middle East do so to get away from that. So as a result when your dealing with "My Arabic Friend" your generally dealing with an exception. Judging by populations outside of The Middle East the fanatics are a fairly small minority. This is why at my most extreme I talk about the mass destruction of the culture(s) in The Middle East, as opposed to creating prison camps domestically. I believe the insurgents present here can be dealt with over time with minimal damage (overall), and once the source is dealt with the problem will gradually be solved. Of course this leads to entirely differant discussions on what constitutes a war, wartime morality, and whether current standards are right, wrong, or viable.
Stories you get from people in The Middle East talking about how Muslims are people just like us, have to be tempered by the fact that we have a huge military force there. Also considered in light of the fact that if some dude fires an RPG at a passing jeep that friendly guy is likely to close in with the rest of the crowd to cover the sniper from retaliation. These guys operate the way they do BECAUSE of majority support. A terrorst/insurgent can pretty much rely on the support of the population wherever he goes.
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At any rate if your dealing with a parallel between Asians (mostly Chinese) and Muslims, it's somewhat differant. Asians are not personally homicidal or involved in a conflict based on religious reasons. They simply believe that they are inherantly better than white people with a better, longer-lasting civilization, and are intended to properly dominate the planet and other ethnicities but have been being held back unfairly from their rightful role.
To really find out much about it you have to look at the propaganda from places like China, especially as they are building up their military and economy. It's pretty bloody scary, but for whatever reason isn't covered by the mainstream media. I personally think it's because to cover it fairly would make the nessecity for a war obvious and a lot of the people in the media are on an anti-war/peace at any price kick even when others disagree.
To an extent your looking at not only returning to their rightful place, but also revenge for the trivialization/isolation they faced (which happened for a reason, it maintained the peace this long), as well as perceived slights over the Opium trade (which actually backfired on them as much as anything).
The big exceptions being South Korea and Japan (to some extent, though the Japanese can be very Anti-West). But in both of those cases the nations are effectively under occupation. We have substantial military forces (even with downsizing) in South Korea and they rely on us for a lot of their independance. Japan is currently one of our most major naval ports, and pretty much our major gateway into the Eastern World. Many Americans probably don't realize it, but even with the SSDF the Navy could flatten Japan instantly anytime they wanted to. Japan is acutely aware of this fact.
Never, ever confuse the attitudes people show when you have a gun to their head with their actual attitude. Always keep in mind why you put that gun to their head to begin with.
In The Middle East we have Iraq under occupation, while the goverments might talk tough, most of them realize we have a HUGE military there and it could in theory leave Iraq and come after them. Your typical person is going to be very friendly overtly when in theory you could drive a tank through his house any time you wanted to.
Any time I feel sympathy on that front, I think back to 9/11. Not some BS about planes hitting the twin towers on the news, but the fact that AFTER that happened Muslims took to the streets and started partying. It was genuine, region wide, nobody was holding them at gun point. Oh sure, if a news crew approached someone in paticular they would go "oh I'm so sorry" but when your dealing with their patriotic broadcasts (even if they had nothing to do with Al Queda directly) and the Mardi-Gras type celebrations... well... that was the end of any illusion on my part that the region is anything but full of enemies. They were ecstatic about it until the US actually retaliated.
>>>----Therumancer--->