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July 6, 2004 Some say that the Jihadists and Arab world, in general, hate us because we're free. That's a bit simplistic, but, in a real sense, it's true. Rather, it's our freedom that permits our society to be viewed by the world--warts and all. Parts of that picture are not really very pleasant..even to us. We are a society that, at least tacitly, condones pornography, homosexuality, recreational drug use, all sorts of deviant sexual practices, blasphemous "art," Satan-worship, child sexual abuse and laciviousness. In short, decadence. At least, decadence from the perspective of many parts of the world--especially the Arab world, which is steeped in religiosity to one degree or another. Unlike most of today's western cultures, Islam is the fundamental basis for much of the Middle East's law and legal systems, though to varying degrees, dependent upon the country. Islam preaches chastity in women until marriage and, in fact, seeks to hide their femininity from everyone but their own, immediate families and later, their spouse. It presupposes that men are all ruled by testosterone and are helpless in the throes of lust. Far from celebrating femininity, Islam suppresses its manifestations in every way possible--at least publicly. Western cultures, and especially American culture, is very attractive to the youth of these countries and is seductive. Arab youths look upon something like Playboy magazine, American movies which blatantly display sexuality and the dubious joys of sexual pursuits and conquests and envy westerners the freedom to engage in such activities. Arab girls see the same sort of things and begin to question their own culture's prohibitions against showing their faces in public or, in less restrictive societies, against swimming or enjoying any such public activities. They see American girls driving, smoking, dressing provocatively and playing the endless game of seduction and sexual pursuit and wonder why they can't do the same. In short, in many Arab countries, western culture seems to almost overwhelm their own, which, by comparison, comes out second-best in terms of the freedoms it allows its citizens. Osama bin Laden, quite literally, HATES the differences and sees his own culture being overwhelmed by ours and views the United States as actively SEEKING to displace his more restrictive culture and hates US for it. It's one of the reason he views the United States as "The Great Satan" as did (and do) the Iranian Ayatollahs. In order to accommodate OBL and others like him, we'd have to alter our own culture to one less decadent (from his viewpoint) and that simply isn't going to happen. He sees the alternative as killing us and stamping out any vestiges of our culture that seep into his insular world-view. That's the primary rationale behind his fatwah urging Muslims to kill Americans wherever and whenever they can...period. Israel and our presence in Saudi Arabia are merely excuses for public consumption. What he (and others like him) really hate about us is that our culture is displacing his own and he sees that as evil and can see destroying us as his only course of action, as impractical as that may be. Since he knows that there are a billion Muslims in the world, he believes that they can defeat us by mere attrition. The American left had better take of the blinders and understand that this is a war for our very survival in which we're engaged and join us. Otherwise, all they've worked so hard for will disappear forever--along with their dreams of world dominance of their leftist ideologies. Instead of AIDING them, they'd better join in defeating them. ------------ Email David Allen Jared: Pappadave@sbcglobal.net Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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