05-14-2004, 09:23 PM
Quote:<i>Originally posted by Khairan </i><b>I agree with you, but this is a problem that goes both ways. There are plenty of Americans that complain that if Muslims really didn't support terror, they should do something about it -- completely ignoring the fact that they do and continually dismissing these efforts as \"just talk\" or \"not enough.\" </b>And I fully agree.
I think the reason, in fact I pretty much KNOW the reason, that many people look for a condemnation is because in this day and age we have no clue which countries are our friends or not.
People are looking for a way to say "It's just terrorist, not muslims". We need someone to say "That's not us doing that!!" when we watch images of Palestinians burning our flag.
BEfore the war, you'd NEVER hear an American talk down about the Iraqi people, just Saddam and how bad he is (when I say before, I mean gulf war I until this war). There was a clear distinction that Saddam is bad, Iraqis are good but oppressed people.
After the war, and after watching the bodies of 4 Americans get mutilated, burnt, and hung for all to see, things started to change. Still, we were told how this is Saddam's friends doing it. Just terrorist.
The more the lines are blurred between regular muslims and terrorist who claim to be muslims, the harder it is to be able to say "We hate terrorist, but you guys are just normal people like us". We are having trouble making a distinction, when we've got things like al jazeera (let's be honest, they are skewed as well!!) preaching about how all Arabs and Muslims hate us and want our blood.