Quote:
Originally Posted by Craven Morehead
Thanks! I really do hope this is the beginning of a change. I'm not sure when it all went wrong. Probably decades ago. Backing the Shah of Iran while at the time was never questioned in the States, was not good for the US. Support of Israel undoubtedly has created a chasm. And there's dozens of other examples. In spite of all this I sincerely hope there will be peace and acceptance amongst the Islamic world and the US - from both sides. What you're doing here is just as important as Obama's speeches. You would be a credit to any religion. Thanks for doing this, my friend.
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thanks craven, i try and answer it as honest as possible. of course anyone is welcome to challenge my view. in fact, i want TFPers to do just that! its not a one way street here, and im not here to lecture nor convert. so ask away.
with regards to you statement, well you need to ask yourself when did the US actually come onto the radar of islamic fundamentalists?
i personally dont think the US played a major role in world political affairs where they asserted their presence until after the second world war. so up until 1945, they were never a target.
i think with their wanton support for the state of israel was what set it off, along with Britains double dealing when it came to the whole sykes picot agreement and the balfour declaration. the arabs and muslims felt short changed in favour of the more affluent jews who were more of an interest to both the US and the UK.
from there on in, i think the feelinsg of muslims world wide changed with the support of israel in the six day war, the yom kippur war as well as the military support and weapons training and aide that the US provided to Israel.
without this turning into a political discussion (but then again, its hard to seperate religion and politics - especially in the middle east), the arabs and muslims felt like they had been left out in the lurk.
obamas' olive branch has some hope. this may be the fresh change that we need, but arabs and muslims are weary purely because of the fact that base on history, things havent fallen their way when it came down to the question of israel or the question of a seperate homelad for the palestinians. i think if this is solves, we've come a long way to solving it. the rhetoric has changed, so arabs are more hopeful of a different light. i can see that in the daily newspapers and of the way people speak of Obama here. The arab street is gathering a more concilitory tone. an example of this would be the recent lebanese elections. the people voted against the more powerful hezbollah because they didnt want to go back through the days of civil war. they elected a pro-american candidate, so im seeing positive signs ahead
in saying this, lets not forget the nutjobs in all corners - the muslims, the arabs, the jews, the israelis, the americans that'd love to see this derail so they can say 'i told you so'.
OBL's gripe with the US was in the early ninties if i recall correctly. his call then wasnt that he wanted to slay the infidels. its was having the US based on islamic/holy lands which were propping and supporting an authotarian regime.
do i see a resolution to the animosity? yes and no. i think that if the americans can show they the arabs are being dealt a fair deal, then it would help. one thing that needs to happen is a grass roots change. education is key, as is aide and reduction in poverty. the lack of one, or all, will only breed resentment and ignorant behaviour towards anything western.