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Today and within this article and for the very first time I will discuss something I have always wanted to tackle and discuss but it never floated to the top of my mind. As well as my disappointment in how the world handles the matter.

Today I will discuss about “our” condemnation of being “Arabs” in general and “Muslims “in specific. To get to the bottom of this the world as we know it now as now calling out for “Globalization” which is the merge of all races, religions and ethnicities to become one small village where everyone lives happily, then can someone tell me how can this be done when no one can accept the other or even the differences between them.

For example because of acts of terror caused by Arabs during the past few years the entire world has neglected any other acts of terrorism or major crime that comes from western civilizations. Now every movie, game or theme on Arabs, he’s the bad guy! The concept that humans are split into two “Good” and “Evil” has now been replaced by “Good” and “Arab”!

In the United States girls get pregnant at 15 and 16 and half of them at least end up not having the father support the child and in the Middle East because intercourse is not legal before marriage we are considered behind civilization! What civilization calls out to the humiliation of mankind! I am not going to talk about the prisons but sadly the western civilization which regards itself as the savior of humanity as acting non-humanly! The word “Allah”, “Mohammed” and “Islam” are now taboo! And instead of people trying to understand the other side of the coin they just neglect! And “Ok, let’s go to war!”

Now what is that?

Simply acts of racism in countries which allegedly are fighting racism in everything! So I am therefore condemned of “Arabian-ism”.

The fact remains that humanity is not measured by how well you dress or your progress in science and technology and weaponry. But it is measured by how well we are to one another and how well can tolerate and try to understand the other party.

This is humanity. I proudly accept my sentence to Arabian-ism, the latest movie Iron-man depicted people from Afghanistan or the surrounding region speaking Egyptian Arabic! Well of course they’re the worst them Arabs! One of the latest games “Call of Duty 4 (Modern Warfare) also depicts Arab nations, funny enough they don’t look like that! How can people have such a low conscious? Another one in the movie “Kingdom of Heaven” they got the prayers all wrong in showing how the prayer is done as well as in the reciting! But at least the movie was over-all fair!

Why is being an Arab such a disease?

This question remains un-answered… as one party tends to attack and the other party just takes it and turn their face the other way.

Either way I’m proud to be an Arab and gladly condemned to Arabian-ism

Image: NFP Files

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iamme - Factually incorrect PublicPlus | 2008-07-13 05:27:29 I am sorry to say that your article is factually incorrect. Your main premise, that a human society should be judged by how it treats "others", is 100% correct, but all your other "facts" are not. For example, in any Western country, a part of the world you condemn in your article, freedom of religion is a basic human right. People can join any religion, or no religion is that is their conviction, and practise their religion publically without concern. However, in the "Arab" and "Muslim" countries, freedom of religion is absent. In countries like Saudi Arabia, no other religion is allowed by law. Non-Muslims cannot practise their religion (as a matter of fact several people have been arrested for holding non-Islamic prayer meetings in their homes), further the laws of Islamic Sharia are forced on all citizens (or foreign visitors for that matter), women are FORCED to "coverup" and the religious police enforces this. This is also the case in other countries where Sharia is law (Iran and certain parts of Sudan come to mind). In more "secural" Muslim countries, like, say, Egypt or Algeria, converting out of Islam is prevented BY LAW. Do you understand the intolerance of this situation? The law of the country prevents people from choosing their own "religious orientation". The West, that you condemn in your article, is the most liberal part of the globe, where people are treated with dignity and nobody imposes their religious beliefs on others. Muslims and Arabs are allowed to practise their religion freely. Have you ever heard of a Western country that prevents people from converting out of whatever religion happens to be the most popular in that country? Let us look at some of the other factual mistakes in this article. You claim that, in the US, "most" girls get pregnant at the age of 15 and 16 and that they end up being single parents. You obviously need to revise your statistics, teenage pregancies are not the norm in the US. Take a look at this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_pregnancy . If you look at the rates of teenage pregnancies in different countries, Bangladesh, a "Muslim" country, has the highest rate. Instead of becoming overly obssessed with the sexual practises of a community (and getting facts wrong), try to concentrate on the basic freedoms afforded and you will realise that the secular West is much better than the part of the world you are supporting.

iamme - addition PublicPlus | 2008-07-13 05:45:23 Oh, yes. Regarding the appearance of Muslim terrorists in Hollywood and other forms of entertainment. Surely, you do not deny that in the last couple of years the largest number of terrorist attacks, and the ones that caused the most loss of lives, where perpetrated by Islamic terrorists. Hollywood depicts what is happening in society and since Islamic terrorism introduced itself to the world so loudly, it is only natural that it should be depicted in the movies. Note, however, that only specific factions are depicted as "evil". Namely, those actively involved in terrorism. Surely that is a natural state of thing. I am not aware of the Arab entertainment industry, but I am sure that there must be movies about Islamic terrorists. It is the job of art to discuss current events.

energizre - Thank you Columnist | 2008-07-14 00:32:12 Dear Iamme, Thank you for your comment it is most enlightening, but yet you have failed to see the obvious, that western countries such as the states have been waging war on countries which you named as axis of terror, and until now you have no resolved the problem ,and considering your the united states as the police of the world regardless of how many countries refused the entry of war, the basis to which the war started has never been justified till this very moment " Weapons of Mass destruction " which until this very day have not been found. By the way the amount of talk shows that depict american social problems reflect a lot of problems including pregnancy , and I watched a program once that was discussing the revision of pushing up the age of legal intercourse to 21. I Live in the middle east and I receive both types of media but you live on the other side of the hemisphere. its rather different , yes you do have freedoms more than we do in certain areas. but we have other things, According to what you say Hollywood only reflects facts we live in then i assume by the amount of crime programs being shown such as CSI etc.. the amount of atrocious crimes that occur in the states is wide and very sick. In comparison to the everday crimes we have i'd say the middle east is still in its baby steps in crime lands. Also reverting to the terrorists once more. Don't you have teenage gangsters ? isn't that terrorism ? also the Oklahoma bombing of the FBI building which occurred in the late 1990s if i am not mistaken , was said to be by an Arab,when it turned out to be an american pure person. in order to judge you need to be on both sides of the coin or try to read on both sides of the coin. Every country has its rules. We also do have movies about islamic terrorists but we also have about just about everything else. but in Hollywood now every evil is speaking arabic not to mention the amount of mistakes such as getting like in Ironman a guy who's in place that looks like pakistan speaking Egyptian.. what kind of message do you get out with that ? because by comparison i should due to this depict every american to rather the dumbest creature since they elected someone as smart as george bush and it is not my problem if he was elected legally or illegally. There was a BBC program released called " Why we fight " it asked the american nation why are they going to war in the middle east.. a large number replied " I don't know " " because the president said so " , " for freedom " people don't get what they're doing. i don't do my judgements from one side my dear sir Best of regards, Tarek Refaat

iamme - :) PublicPlus | 2008-07-14 05:03:48 I will try to address all of the points you raise. But before I do so, I want to make one point clear. I did not write my comment to your article because I believe that Arabs and Muslims are bad and that you should be ashamed to belong to either group. I wrote my comment because in your defense of your identity, you attacked everybody else and claim victimization when this is far from the truth. Now, let us discuss war. There are two wars in the Mid East right now. One in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan started because people from your area of the world attacked the US on 9/11, and then the Taliban refused to give them up. That is an act of war, and Afghanistan suffered the consequences. Not a single American, and most Non-Americans perhaps with the exception of Muslims and Arabs, support this war and believe the US is justified in its actions. The war in Iraq is another matter. You will find the nation, and most of the world, divided on this issue. The US went to war because it believed that Iraq had WMD. After 9/11, it could not afford to have rouge nations in the Mid East develop WMD. The information later turned out to be false. Personally, I supported the war on Iraq when it started and so did most Americans. However, now I want the troops withdrawn because of the death tolls suffered on both sides. Despite your claim that Americans are unaware of the details of the war effort, in my opinion, a large proportion is very aware of what is going on. Of course, the US is a huge country and if you ask a high school drop out about current affairs, you will not get a proper answer. The same is true everywhere, so, for example, if you go to a village in the countryside of Egypt and ask a farmer why Egypt was involved in the Yemen civil war, I doubt if he will even know what you are talking about. Again, you bring up the teenage pregnancy issue, and again I tell you that you are grossly mistaken. The statistics are there for everyone to see. Yes, the US has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the West, but that rate is very small and much lower than the rate in developing countries (including several Islamic countries). Next, lets discuss CSI type shows. Yes there is a lot of violent crime in the US (again, I believe we have the highest rates in the West), but again it is much less that what most developing countries have. Also, will entertainment reflects reality, it is not reality itself. So, for example, CSI way collect information from several different locations over a period of several years and then develop a show that contains that sequence of crimes over a matter of days (that is the nature of TV). So, again, entertainment is not reality, but is informed by reality. Which brings us back to Islamic terrorists in movies. Hollywood depicts them, because they exist. Moreover, Islamic terrorists are not the "only" villains in Hollywood (as you seem to suggest). Hollywood, continues to depict Nazi's, the KKK, corrupt police officers, gangsters and crime lords, and even American presidents as villains. The fact that you think that Islamic terrorists are the only villains depicted means one of two things. 1) You have not been watching a lot of movies lately and 2) you are overly sensitive to any depiction of Muslims in movies (I don't blame you for this emotion, but you need to keep things in perspective). Also, I do not see what your problem is with scenes from Pakistan with people speaking Egyptian (I assume you mean the Egyptian dialect of Arabic). How does that insult you in anyway? Sure it is inaccurate, but so are the languages used in the Passion of The Christ. Ok, let us turn to crime in the Mid East. Contrary to your believe, I have visited the Middle East and I have seen the amount of crime you have. Theft is the most common, but violent crimes also occur. Of course, given the police state in most countries in that region, it is no wonder that crime is not common. I am sure Hilter's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Mao's China where equally "crime free". Finally, claiming that George Bush is stupid is not very ingenious. The guy is an Ivy league graduate. The fact that you disagree with his politics, does not make him stupid. I do not agree with all of his policies, but I do not have the arrogance to call an Ivy league graduate who has risen to the top position in the US stupid. To conclude, you are free you feel as proud as you like about your religion and ethnicity, but if you insist on basing your pride on saying that everybody else is wrong, expect those "others" to reply by pointing out the problems in your society.

energizre - A very interesting conversatio Columnist | 2008-07-14 07:03:55 Dear Iamme, I am very much happy with this conversation , but allow me to highlight and address each of your points as well. The war, when i mentioned the BBC interview it was not with high school children , but with working adults in the everyday life, also. On the other hand If my country sends me to war for a specific reason Claiming this is the major reason and then it turns out to be that my country is sending me to war to put its hand on certain riches, Yet it is not 100% proven but however the whole world sees it that way. Anyway however i will not say so but i will say i was sent to war for a reason that doesnt' exist. Exactly i would feel stabbed in the back. Also as you commented your only reason of wanting to withdraw the troops from there is the fact that the rising casulaties. Meaning that although you have verified that your country is fighting a war for a complete different reason what ever this maybe which is not the reason you went for then you would still go on fighting knowing you have been mis-lead. Which is the the typical response of an expansionist. 2nd, talking about movies and crime, you have mentioned in your first note that they reflect the actuals of life. now you mentioned it doesn't depict reality itself. i find this a bit contrary. By the way i learned a lot of things from the western civilization and i admire and respect a lot of things for example that a channel such as the history channel , after 9/11 actually gave a very well put serie of episodes on islam to explain Islam , although i wish it did have a better impact. The Question that I would ask is the following : Is because i had a bad american neighbour would this lead me to believe that all americans are bad ? and vice versa ? I personally believe that based on the wwestern civilization studies and researches the answer would be no. IF that is so then why doesn't that happen in real life. The middle east is a bit far from Stalin and Hitler, if you would like to put us under this category. But I simply am not able to find 15 year olds holding guns and shooting at one another. By the way there are gangsters and crimes in the middle east and most inhuman but not as sadistic as the ones I see on TV of course i do realize the fact that there's a certain level of fiction. The main goal of my article is not to victimize myself or my identity or say your side are all devils. But more importantly, us humans which is above being an american , being an arab, to sit and talk and try to understand one another. What we are doing right now is you are saying we have so and you don't , and vice versa I will reply back with others and we probably will never find a middle grey area, therefore i urge to have a trial of understanding and communication rather than seeing people just depicting us in every movie as you are an arab = terrorist. As much as when people talk to me about americans i say they're a very good nation. Freedom is great over freedom is dangerous. Thank you once more for taking the time to reply I am honored

iamme - addition PublicPlus | 2008-07-14 15:16:28 Thanks for clarifying your position. You are still misinterpreting my comments, though. Let us first consider the point about movies. In both my posts, I state that fiction reflects reality. What I point out in the next post is that while it reflects reality, it is not reality itself. Do you see the difference between these two statements? So for example, shows like CSI are based on violent crimes that happen in real life, however, the level of violence and the number of crimes are greatly increased in order to make the show interesting for the viewers. There is not contradiction here. Please let me know if you do not understand this point and I will try to clarify it further. Regarding your point about Iraq, again you misunderstood my post. The administration believed that Iraq had WMDs and that is why we went to war. It later turned out that the data that this decision was based on was incorrect. This does not change the fact that the decision was made when the administration believed that Iraq had WMDs. In my opinion, that was the correct decision to make. Currently we need to withdraw because of the death toll on both sides. Note that even if Iraq did not have WMDs and the US invasion ousted Saddam and then a democratic government was set up and the US left it would still have been a success. Unfortunately, the hatred among the Sunnis, Shiites and the Kurds makes this impossible. This has nothing to do with expansion. Regarding that BBC program you mentioned, I cannot judge it without having seen it. However, again you misunderstood my statement. I said high school drop outs, not high school students. Rural America, like rural places anywhere in the world, is not made up of college graduates, but of people who left school after high school with no further education. I hope you get the difference. Finally, as I mentioned before, I am not condemning Arabs or Muslims. The only reason I even wrote this is that your article comes off as stating that the US is terrible and is deliberately demonizing Arabs and Muslims in the media and mistreating them. This is far from the truth. US society is one of the most tolerant in the world. It is this statement that prompted me to mention that Arab and Muslim societies are a lot less tolerant. It is also your mention of teenage pregnancies in an attempt to show that Muslim and Arab society is somehow superior to the West that prompted me to poke holes in this myth. If your article had, instead, mentioned the merits of Arab society and stated that the terrorists are extremists who are not supported by the mainstream, I would have agreed with you without reservation. Also, no amount of freedom is dangerous, on the contrary any limits placed on freedom is dangerous. Of course, to paraphrase a former member of the US supreme court, "My right to stretch my hand ends where the nose of my neighbor begins". The only limit on freedom is that my freedom should not be allowed to rob another person of their freedom. Thanks for the discussion.

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