Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Arab Disease

9 Comments

Thoughts and some history on an obvious problem that too many want to ignore:

In the last decade, the world has learned what Israelis have known for a long time; Arabs and their governments tend to favor self-destructive policies. Western nations have generally ignored this madness, or excused each instance as a momentary lapse in good judgment. But this bad behavior has spawned Islamic terrorism, and sustains it. Many Arabs believe what al Qaeda preaches, that the world should be ruled by an Islamic religious dictatorship, and that this must be achieved by any means necessary (including force, against non-Moslems, and Moslems who don’t agree.) This sort of thinking has been popular with Islamic conservatives since Islam first appeared in the sixth century. Since then, it has periodically flared up into major outbreaks of religious inspired violence. But that’s not the only problem. Arabs, in particular, sustain these outbursts with their fondness for paranoid fantasies and an exaggerated sense of persecution and entitlement. For example, most Arabs believe that the September 11, 2001 attacks were not carried out by Arabs, but were a CIA scam, to provide an excuse for the West to make war on Islam. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. U.S. troops in Iraq were amazed at the number of fantastical beliefs that were accepted as reality there. Then there is the corruption and intense hatreds. It’s a very volatile and unpredictable part of the world, and always has been.

Many of the people may be wonderful individuals, but it’s a sick, sick culture. As one commenter notes, it’s lunacy to think that if there were no Israel, there would be peace in the Middle East.

[Update a few minutes later]

“Peace with Israel is not sacred…and can be changed.”

So how’s that “Arab Spring” working out again?

9 thoughts on “The Arab Disease”

  1. The ‘fantasy’ ‘paranoia’ thing is a well made point.

    I’m not sure if any of you watch Tony Bourdain’s show ‘No Reservations’, he’s too snarky for most people. I think that’s his TV / literary persona. Anyway, he’s done a number of shows in the Middle East and in Asian countries with large Muslim populations.

    He is ALWAYS asked if / why WE knocked down the WTC.

    They mostly believe the crap we yell ‘CRANK’ about. They believe the fringe crap. they are FED that crap AS fact both by their Arab speaking MSM and their leaders.

    Between seeing and hearing that, and reading Arab / Middle East history, there is nothing to make me believe that Israel gone means peace. With NO official Israel in sight, Arabs and Persians, and damned near every other empire in the world, have been fighting over that ground for 4 or 5 THOUSAND years.

    I don’t see Islam gathering them together even if Israel disappeared today.

    Just the Sunni and Shi’ite issue alone would come front and center if Israel wasn’t there as a lightning rod. That leaves out Syria, Jordan and Egypt, as countries, fighting over control of Israel’s current land AND Jerusalem.

  2. I was watching Salman Rushdie being interviewed by Bill Moyers on Netflix last night. There was a part where he talked about the disconnect between the West and the Middle East in terms of their perceptions of one another. If you looked at the MSM in the West you’d think that the problems of bigotry and racism were purely a western phenomenon with all the talk about how we have to temper and control our rhetoric in order to not offend anybody. But all the while you can go practically anywhere in the Middle East to find their MSM making sweeping over generalizations and assumptions about what westerners are like to the point of being offensive; and they do it openly so.

  3. Rev. Sensing has written several good, short pieces on the difference between the Judeo-Christian “honor” culture and the Arabic “shame” culture. I feel that this plays a significant role in explaining the issue.

  4. “Arabs, in particular, sustain these outbursts with their fondness for paranoid fantasies”

    How do you combat something like this?

    A good question for an Anthropologist is; are people who believe in outlandish conspiracy theories more likely to engage in actual elaborate conspiracies?

  5. “Arabs, in particular, sustain these outbursts with their fondness for paranoid fantasies”

    So do Democrats, at least when Republicans are in power. Of couse we can combat that by laughing at them. That course is far more dangerous to do to people who will riot and kill you. I favor concealed carry as one antidote.

  6. Wodun, you may want to flip that around: Are people prone to engage in elaborate conspiracies more likely to believe in outlandish conspiracy theories?

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