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I don't believe the US would "stagnate" or get "left behind" but frankly, having seen first hand what a native, impoverished and ignorant muslim culture is like, I don't want it in my country in any form whatsoever. So here comes Xeph's take on this issue.
First of all, the mistreatment of women is blatant and vast. The Pashto people, who make up the majority of Afghans, have a strict culture built on top of Islam. Women cannot wear hijabs, but rather must wear full burkhas after puberty. If they are caught going outside without one, for ANY reason (and I mean ANY) they can be and almost always are shot dead by the husband or father. For the patriarch of the family to not do so would dishonor his entire family and another male family member would then be required to kill her. After having talked to guards and terps who have a good grasp on Western culture (as best as they can be expected to) and having them tell us pointedly that they would, in fact, kill their wives for doing so, it was a real eye-opener.
In fact, their disdain for the female gender often leads some tribal subgroups to take girl babies form the mother's womb to the woods to die immediately. They just don't want girls. Women and girls of all ages are abused, mistreated and killed for no good reason (by any western standard at least).
We've been told specifically by Afghans that we work with that even the best relationships allow them only to "tolerate" us infidels. That because we do not believe the teachings of the Prophet Muhammed, we are damned things and don't truly deserve this life. WTF? And those are GOOD relations.
On the note of interpretation, keep this in mind. It is in violation of Islamic Law to translate the Koran (not that it isn't done). So, in the middle east and eastern asia, most people cannot read the Arabic scripts. First, most of the people are simply illiterate, even in their own tongue. Also, despite the fact that most of these cultures use langauges with the Arabic script the language itself is quite different (like German and English, for instance). So, even those that can read their own language still often cannot read the Koran. This prevents any discovery. In the mosques and madrasas people are only taught portions of the Koran often misinterpreted or purposefully altered to suit the conceptual beliefs of the talib (teacher). Thus most Muslims in this part of the world are not very well educated in their own religion, but they are almost always devout to the point of being zealots. Sound like a recipe for disaster? Well, it is. Obviously, look at the state of this region.
Now, let's extrapolate a bit more and look at the culture and modernization of most primarily Muslim countries. These countries are in the birthplace of modern man. All scientific and historical evidence points to the middle east being where recorded history of humanity began. They've been moving forward for THOUSANDS of years. The West, and especially North American countries have been around for only HUNDREDS of years. Yet we have moved forward far more rapidly than the Muslim countries. Why? Because they do not DESIRE a forward movement culturally. That doesn't mesh well in a melting pot society like the US.
In the end, it's not a matter of racism of xenophobia, but rather an oil and water scenario. If they are willing to educate themselves about their own religion and move forward into the 21st century, I don't care WHERE they live. If they want to beat their women to death (sometimes even stone them) or choke them to death for not following a TRULY misinterpreted portion of their religion, they can all burn in hell. *shrug*
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The prospect of achieving a peace agreement with the extremist group of MILF is almost impossible...
-- Emmanuel Pinol, Governor of Cotobato
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