A Comment that is Factually Incorrect
Reader comment on item: The "New York Review of Books" Mangles Campus Watch
in response to reader comment: the real conspiracy

Submitted by K O (New Zealand), Jul 12, 2006 at 22:30

The comment by Bob that Islam means submission is factually incorrect. All Arabic words have a 3-letter root. The words Muslim and Islam have the same root, the letters 'slm' which mean 'Submission to God'. There is a big difference between 'submission' and 'Submission to God' and to ignore the difference is both arrogant and ignorant. Muslims submit to God because they are servants of noone but God. That includes not being a servant to their country. Nationalism comes second to their religious identity and this is not necessarily a good or a bad thing. I really believe that if you actually learn more about them, then you can learn to understand where they are coming from. Mutual understanding is the way forward.

Americans are kidding themselves if they think they can go around the world like Jacksonians and enforce their views and opinions on the world as if they are better than everyone else. What sheer global arrogance. As an agnostic and a citizen of a small Western nation, who doesn't consider herself alligned with the ridiculous PC nature of some Governments, I truly believe we have to get our heads out of the sand and realise people have differing views and accept them as such. That doesn't make other people wrong, just different.

This goes for both sides. By the way, in my small Western country, most people have a unfavourable view of American Foreign Policy, especially the part about Guantanamo Bay and the POW vs Enemy Combatants issue. Nice to see Americans finally going to practice what they preach and give people either a fair trial or free them. You CANNOT keep people in prison for years on end without a trial, without any rights and without a lawyer. It goes against everything you stand for. We should not trample liberty in pursuit of your goals, even if that means protecting your people.

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