<p dir="ltr">This is simply wrong. Our countries aren't the ones that force women to wear cloth bags, or stone a woman for having the audacity to be raped. We don't throw people in jail for making fun of other people's religious views. We don't riot over it. We don't they to kill people for insulting our imaginary friends. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The West isn't perfect, and their are legitimate gripes to be had (like the installment of the Shah in Iran for example), but that doesn't mean these people are rioting for a legitimate reason, or the West is the bad guy. Only the grossest moral relativism could put the horrific civil rights abuses perpetrated in the Muslim world with high levels of public support by Muslims living there with the actions of Western states in those countries. The West is a superior culture, more supportive of human flourishing, than the cultures of Muslim countries.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If you disagree, please tell me how forbidding women to interact with men they are not related to is somehow superior to freedom of expressions and association.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As for the rioting--they should riot over the mistreatment by the West if that's their complaint. Not our making fun of their silly superstitions, but over the rape and murder of people, if that's what they are really mad about. Rioting over us making fun of them only plays into the hands of their enemies, as it makes them look backward and uncivilized. So, if they were forward-thinking and rational, they would as a rule not riot when people make fun of them. And yet they do so constantly. The reasonable conclusion is that much of the Muslim world is significantly less forward-thinking and rational than the West, at least at a culture-wide level.<br>
--Joshua Job.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sep 23, 2012 2:32 PM, "Jeff Davis" <<a href="mailto:jrd1415@gmail.com">jrd1415@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I've a slightly different take on this business.<br>
<br>
The last ten years of the West vs Islam has left the West with a<br>
default anti-Muslim bias. Muslim = bad has thus become the uncritical<br>
"neutral" view, and disparaging Muslims equivalent to just the<br>
enumeration of "neutral" data. Now why oh why do you suppose the<br>
Muslims are less than pleased with being branded as the new evil, to<br>
be enshrined and employed as the West's new global whipping boy<br>
(replacing the now-retired "commies")?<br>
<br>
But that's not the whole of the offense. You have to fill out the<br>
indictment with the record of the West's actual treatment of Muslim<br>
countries for say, the last hundred years. I won't list the details,<br>
but suffice it to say the treatment has been very abusive. So in<br>
addition to making Muslims the West's new "niggers", they have also<br>
been looted and brutalized. Yet the citizens of the Western nations<br>
hardly notice this historical context, because the MSM has effectively<br>
erased the truth and replaced it with the strategically,<br>
ideologically, and commercially more exploitable "Muslim = bad"<br>
mythology.<br>
<br>
Then some clown insults their most sacred cultural symbol, and some<br>
folk -- I won't name names -- say "Look at these uncivilized people!<br>
How backward and savage they are! How intolerant. They have no<br>
experience in our superior cultural values of democracy and freedom of<br>
speech."<br>
<br>
Give me a break.<br>
<br>
If someone invaded your home, killed your father and grandparents<br>
before your eyes, raped your mother and sister, threw the living and<br>
the corpses into the street, took over your home with the help of the<br>
police, covered their crimes with the help of the media, and declared<br>
your anger to be a genetic and cultural predisposition to terroristic<br>
savagery, and kept up this crap for generations, how pissy would you<br>
be? And if they added insult to all this injury by celebrating their<br>
freedom to violate you, by insulting that which is most sacred to you<br>
-- let's say in this case, your mother -- when does it become<br>
reasonable for you to indulge in a little rioting?<br>
<br>
I'm sorry. The West is engaged in a religious/cultural war against<br>
Muslims, and the West has been the bad guy for quite a while now.<br>
<br>
It's the same ***ATTITUDE*** as in the Athenians vs the Melosians: the<br>
primacy of naked power.<br>
<br>
"... the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."<br>
<br>
There are a billion and a half Muslims. The US is in decline. Payback<br>
is coming.<br>
<br>
Best, Jeff Davis<br>
<br>
"...short of genocide, it is not possible to attain a final military<br>
victory over a justified sense of grievance."<br>
Michael Breen<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 9:35 AM, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> I don't recall the name of the original thread, apologies, and no time to<br>
> look it up again now, but it was about hunger causing riots.<br>
><br>
> A thought occurred to me about Google shutting off the video of trailers to<br>
> The Innocence of Methodists (or something like that, the film that stirred<br>
> the ire of radical Presbyterians to rush out and burn embassies and murder<br>
> American diplomats.) So now, a video shows up that they don't like, Google<br>
> restricts access to the video in those countries where people riot. To me<br>
> that sends a clear message to the Episcopalian leadership: if you want to<br>
> get your way, whip up your followers to violence, get them to go burn and<br>
> murder, the infidel does as you wish, no problem.<br>
><br>
> Google-owned YouTube is in a tough spot here. If they leave the video up<br>
> there, the Mormons riot. If they take it down, they send the message to the<br>
> Mormons that rioting is the way to get things done. I don't know how to not<br>
> be evil in that case. Suggestions?<br>
><br>
> spike<br>
><br>
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