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Feb 24, 2004 Almost a year ago, the New York Post ran an article by Ralph Peters entitled, “Tragedy of the Arabs”. In that article, Mr. Peters said, “My advice is to ignore the Arabs…We cannot convince them and we cannot force them to change.” Now, Mr. Peters was referring to the Arab Media, or the “Arab Street”. Anti-Americanism is the prevalent thought among Arab nations. We read many times over how the Arab deserves respect and admiration for his history, his religion and his culture. Recently, American public schools have been inundated with programs to help American children better understand the culture of the Muslim and the religion of Islam. American children have been encouraged to learn about Islam; gather for Muslim prayer sessions; and take on new names of Islamic importance. This is all well and good if we are going to establish Islam as America’s chief religion. And that must certainly be the case, because I don’t see the ACLU screaming about church/state separation, or prayer, or Koran reading in the public schools. Let some poor kid pull out his Christian Bible though and WHAM! Shut that school down and decontaminate it! I believe if you are going to show anyone the blessings of any culture or religion, to be fair, you should also be ready to show the disadvantages and drawbacks. We do that so an individual becomes able to weigh the good with the bad and to be able to make informed decisions and formulate proper opinions. We always seem to see the good things concerning the Arab culture and the Muslim religion being stressed in the American Press. This is to make us all more understanding of the reasoning of the “Arab Street” in their desire to kill all Americans and Jewish People as infidels and minions of Satan. Mr. Peters pointed out that Arab nations and cultures do not “produce a single manufactured product of sufficient quality to sell on world markets.” This goes hand in hand with the quantity issue. He notes “Arab productivity is the lowest in the world.” Of all the Arab nations, none are sufficiently industrialized to aid their economies or to their prestige in world markets. Their chief production is in oil. Even this production is dependent upon foreign companies that are able to drill for and move the oil to markets on behalf of the owning Arab state. Mr. Peters noted that there is “not a single world-class university among the Arab nations.” We do not see droves of individual scholars rushing into the Middle East to acquire graduate degrees in any major discipline. Rather, Arabs seek their degrees from English, French and American universities. In the case of American (liberal) university thought, we can understand why there is an even greater sense of anti- Americanism among foreign student graduates of Harvard, Berkeley, and et.al. Mr. Peters wrote, “No Arab state is a true democracy.” Not knowing or understanding democracy is akin to not knowing or understanding basic freedom. If you don’t understand the true meaning of freedom, then these other observations bring truth to the obvious results. “No Arab state genuinely respects human rights.” And “No Arab society fully respects the rights of women or minorities.” No one can show us any tolerance for women or minority religions in Arab Islamic nations. This lack of tolerance and respect for anything not Islamic has led to all sorts of Human Rights violations. Not one Islamic state speaks against another unless it is to speak against a nation becoming more liberal in suddenly allowing freedoms to women or minority positions. Finally, Mr. Peters noted, “No Arab government has ever accepted public responsibility for its own shortcomings.” It is the fault of American interference, or Israel’s existence, or United Nation’s dictum. It is never because Arab nations harbor terrorists, or keep their populations in a perpetual state of poverty, or maintain goods and services and public education at Seventh Century levels, or fail almost completely to add the talent of women to their social structures. Iraq can be a success story as a truly Arabic democracy that permits true individual freedom and expression, or it can be a complete failure as another Islam repressed culture that insists everything to be subject to the whims of the Islamic Fundamentalist religionists. Potholes eventually have to be filled with something. ------------ About the Author: Independent, Conservative, Christian. Married 29 years with 5 children raised and one grandson being raised. 30 year Army Veteran and published poet with www.poetry.com since Y2K. Email Michael John McCrae: michael.mccrae@us.army.mil Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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