Absolutely, but none of that justifies or excuses anything, all it does is offer explanation. We *know* that people have different values than us. That doesn't mean their values are any good, though. And certainly doesn't mean we can't point out really crappy values when we see them.
I'm not disagreeing with your point that they are really crappy values. Nobody should be killed over ink and paper, there's no justification for it. People get killed over stupid crap all the time or for no reason at all. This is my opinion. With that being said, if you had a billion dollars and somebody set it on fire, you might just shoot that DonnyMost AK-47 at them in retalliation. To these people, those books and the words they stand for mean more than any amount of money in the world. Is it right? No. Are these people uneducated as hell? Yes. Are their goals in life inferior to ours? It would be shameful to believe so. Pissing off and uniting the the population against you is not a smart way to run an occupation. Obama was correct in apologizing.
I agree with everything but the underlined. I think that while their *goals* may not be different (i.e. endgame of happiness, at least I hope... except for the dudes who have goals to have their religion rule the world), their definitions for what happiness is and methods for achieving it suck. I'm not ashamed to say that someone who thinks that it is cool to have a goal in life that is achieved by oppressive or violent atrocity, etc has an inferior values system and goals to mine. If my goals and methods produce more happiness and reduce more suffering, then they are in fact better. We can prove this empirically. Science can determine the best human values. We have no reason to pretend that something that we know is wrong isn't wrong. There is no shame in that.
You know, hmm... maybe it could be that the number of US marines and soldiers killed is far less than the number of civilians being killed over there? At some point, people do realize that civilian after civilian dying for no reason is pretty sick and worth more attention that US marines dying much less frequently.
A supporter of the Human Rights Network group wears a mask of U.S President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck while holding the U.S flag during an anti-American rally in Karachi February 26
