A culture of violence and bigotry

[plural]

this will probably piss some of you off but it has been brewing for sometime

I am literally fed up and appalled with the coddling by the liberal west of Arab and Muslim governments and militants

To quote Bill Maher

"I am not prejudiced against them, prejudiced means "pre-judging", I am judging"

Which is what I am doing here, looking at their actions, and practices and judging them according to our standards.

Take the prison situation; for Americans to be outraged makes sense such behavior is outside the norm and the boundaries of what is acceptable in Western civilization. For Arabs in middle eastern countries to be outraged is hypocritical bordering on humorous. You cannot honestly be outraged at behavior which is the culturally and societally accepted norm in your society. They are not appalled and outraged that such behavior occurred, they are appalled and outraged that it was done by Americans

When Saddam did the same, there was no Arab outcry.

When King Hussein of Jordan shelled Palestinian refugee camps for a month, slaughtering thousands, there was no Arab outcry

When Arafat has lynched, jailed, tortured or executed his political opponents, there was no Arab outcry

When the Saudis have summarily executed political activists, and dissentors, there was no Arab outcry

But if an American or Israeli does anything remotely similar, all hell breaks loose.

This isn't outrage, it is hypocrisy and racism

They say Islam is a religion of peace, and let us for a moment, assume that is true. Then the questions I must ask are:

Why is nearly every Islamic regime categorically famous for its violent human rights violations?
Why on a per capita basis does Islam produce vastly more extremist militants and terrorists than any other nation, race, or religion?

The answer I hear, is the old "Bad Apples" clause, a few rotten ones spoiling the bunch, but that simply doesn't cut it when you look and realize the extent to which their governments and societies not only approve and condone but carry out large scale human rights abuses. Lets look closely at Arab/Muslim culture, not in the western world where they function (peacefully and successfully) as a minority, but in those places where they are a majority and determine their own society:

Homosexuals are commonly killed or beaten for being homosexual
Women are second class citizens
Daughters are murdered as a result of being raped or having sex in the name of "protecting the family honor"
Wives are beaten at their husbands whim
Dismemberment and beheadings are commonly practiced forms of punishment
Democracy is unheard of
Corruption is commonplace
Censorship of both news and ideas is the rule
Terrorists who target civilians, women and children are lauded as heroes
Religious leaders give public and televised sermons espousing racism and urging the killing of women and children
State text books slander other races/religions with accusations of ritual murder and blood sacrifice
Mainstream politicians call for the destruction of sovereign countries and the extermination of their entire population
Political dissent is met with summary executions or long prison sentences
Militants use children as bombs or cover from which to launch attacks
Public figures routinely threaten the US (and other nations) with Terrorist attacks

I wonder how can any liberal westerner, who supports Human rights, Gay rights and Equality for Women. Who Fights against racism and intolerance, or advocate the Democratic Process, look themselves in the mirror and still support these regimes and this society?

When sermons like this are produced and aired on government television channels, how can we support those causes which so blatantly encourage racism, murder and gross violations of human rights?

I am honestly confused and befuddled, please explain this to me?

Comments

[plural.livejournal.com]

Again, I was not in anyway seeking to condone the actions of our soldiers in that matter, nor criticize those voices in america and other western countries who protest and express outrage over them.

yes, nearly every arab country is a dictatorship and yes there are those who would oppose them but the societies enmass accept and support the status quo, which makes them more than nominally complicit for the actions of their government, just as we are complicit in the actions of ours.

[jwgh]

Again, I was not in anyway seeking to condone the actions of our soldiers in that matter, nor criticize those voices in america and other western countries who protest and express outrage over them.

I didn't say you were. I will try to restate my point a little more clearly.

The soldiers were doing things to the prisoners specifically because these actions were supposed to be deeply offensive to Muslims. I don't think it is surprising that Muslim countries would therefore be particularly offended by these actions!

(To make an analogy, I think many Christians are more disturbed when a nun or priest is murdered then when a layperson is. Specifically I'm thinking of Argentina in 1977 here.)

This doesn't address the question of whether the countries would be hypocritical by being so offended, though, since I don't know whether or not Saddam Hussein (or whoever) also had his torturers do things to his prisoners that were specifically designed to be deeply offensive to Muslims. If you have any information on this, again, I would be interested in reading it.

yes, nearly every arab country is a dictatorship and yes there are those who would oppose them but the societies enmass accept and support the status quo, which makes them more than nominally complicit for the actions of their government, just as we are complicit in the actions of ours.

I guess you think that this is obvious, but I don't see it at all.

[plural.livejournal.com]

Ok, I can see your point about how the actions were more specifically designed to offend muslims.

as for the second.

every resident in a nation bears some complicity for the actions of their government, regardless of the form of governance. Obviously the degree of complicity scales based on the ability of the persons to effect changes in policy.

In a democracy where it is atleast theorhetically safe and easy, a citizen holds a much higher degree of complexity. But even in a dictatorship, by failing to protest or revolt, they consent to be governed and condone the policies of the administration, and thereby are complicit in its actions.

[jwgh]

Hmmm. So because I am not involved in an armed uprising against the current adminisration, I hold some culpability for its current policies?

[plural.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Of course, in a democratic society, there are many steps which should be taken to change government policy before resorting to violent resistance, the core culpability is the same.

Ultimately, every citizen of a country, allows their government to continue its policies, and thereby holds a degree of culpability for its actions.