11-18-2015, 01:37 PM
(11-18-2015, 01:20 PM)WychesWarrior Wrote: This right here......in this country, we say the Christians need to "get over it" when it comes to hot button topics involving their clashes with belief structure and civil liberties (as should be the case)....but we need to "understand" the culture of the many divisions of Islam, while they kill each other and other Christians over it. Seems like a double standard to me.....looks to me like they need to get over it, and sit down and talk and put an end to this centuries old pissing match.
I realize the way politics of recent times has further added to the destabilization, but lets not kid ourselves, they have been warring in this region since around the dawn of time.
I don't think anyone on this board, and most people in this country that knew anything about the situation over there, would disagree that there need to be changes over in the Middle East, and a movement towards secularism and a greater concern for human rights. However, the issue is that our involvement in the region has pushed them away from that. I've mentioned before that Muslim, Arabic women enjoyed greater freedoms and equality than their western counterparts until about 150 years ago. The colonial activities of the western world pushed the region away from our ideals as we were seen as oppressors, invaders, whatever other word you'd like to use.
We can't jump into the fray and force change on them. It will produce more animosity against the west. The change will have to take place internally. Sure, we can do things like helping them with problems (such as ISIS, disaster recovery, or economic issues) and this can generate good will with the region. This type of thing promotes a better view of the west among the people than they have been dealing with for decades. When we do things like saying we won't accept Muslim refugees and what not, it promotes the agenda of the extremist. It validates with ISIS is saying, which is that there is a war between Islam and the West. That narrative is what ISIS wants because it brings followers into their arms. The people that say we are at war with Islam are helping ISIS and organizations like them every day. We can destroy ISIS and at the same time be compassionate to the rest of the region. If we show compassion for these people then it will make it that much harder for ISIS to be like another phoenix of Islamic extremism.
