The Muslim conflicts
Reader comment on item: A New Round of Anger and Humiliation: Islam after 9/11

Submitted by E. Nora Amrani (United States), Jun 9, 2002 at 16:48

Excellent piece of work. You covered the hidden feeling amongst Muslims - that of feeling badly because they are not up to par with the rest of the world, and the more overt feeling - the desire to conquer and be the sole world super power - a la Saladdin.

I tend to see it in terms of how people are treated within a society. Women and children in Muslim nations are, as you know, the lowest rung on the ladder. Why? I think it's because basically Muslim men are fearful, lazy, and don't want to give up on what they feel has worked for them for so long - having slave labor and feeling like kings, even if they live in a dung heap. Bullying women and children is easy for them,
and they made sure it is justified by their religion and culture, and it's a way to retain their idea of power and respect from other men. Democracy means that has to go. Coming up to par with the rest of the world, becoming civilized, means they lose that and have to see women and children as the human beings that they are, and they can no longer selfishly and apathically abuse them. They are conflicted, too. They want the best of all worlds, to keep abusing women and children and to employ Western music, movies, clothing, technology, weaponry, etc. It can't, won't, and doesn't work that way. You can't have the caveman mentality in an evolved world.
Spiritually speaking, it's impossible.

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