You ever been to Saudi Arabia? For some reason I remember having this convo with you 5 years ago.... :/
I was not referring to the entire group of more than a billion people. Those who do not force their women to wear a veil or burka and who do not oppress them in any other way are exempt.
I had little interest in going to Germany, after speaking to Holocaust survivors... However, I ended up going, and guess what, it was not so bad. Same thing applies to Saudi Arabia. There are no mobile jails, the major cities are just as modernized as any city in the west. Its not backwards. Yes there is a religious flavor to the cities, but that change is given in any country which has a Muslim majority. The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, all have this "religious" flavor, all while having laws based off of Islam.
Wait wait...you are saying that Saudi Arabia is not backward? Just want to make sure that this is where you stand before I get started.
Fortunately I'm Irish and there's nothing in our history but the utmost respect for other human beings, peace and goodwill to all mankind.
I agree that oppression of women and gays is one of the worst things about how Islam is practiced in most places. I think these are largely cultural, rather than religious, though (at least with women). I'm not aware of anyplace in the Qur'an that states that women should be oppressed. In fact, there are several passages that state that women are equal to men in the eyes of God. Oppression of women and gays is certainly not unique to Muslim countries either. People are just really effed up sometimes.
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The Major cities... Riyadh, Jeddah, Dahran, Dammam.... Stop picking out segments of a sentence... It has failed you and your intelligence before... The English language is best understood when you read a paragraph or a succession of sentences together. The SAT and the GMAT call it "Reading Comprehension"
So you are saying the major cities are not backwards? So does that mean you agree with the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia?
Not in most aspects. If we are discussing incidents of individuals, I am sure you can find backwards incidents, but then again, you can do so in any society. I did not say that. Also, you have an outsiders view... I don't think it is fair for you to comment on the treatment of any women in Saudi until you yourself go see how it is.
While they are Islamic you are making a broad generalization in regard to the topic of this thread, attacking foreign aid, by bringing up those groups. Keep in mind that Hamas hasn't threatened to attack foreigners providing aid. In fact they welcome it. The Islamic Rebels of Aceh laid down the arms when the tsunami struck. Islamic groups in Thailand welcomed foreign aid after the tsunami struck too. There was one extremist group that did what the Taliban are threatening to do after the tsunami. That group was the very non-Islamic Tamil Tigers who closed off their territory and threatened both the Sri Lankan government and foreign aid groups if they tried to distribute aid.
On the face of this this is terrible news but something good might actually come from this. If it is known that the Taliban are attacking people providing aid it might help to further undermine their support among the tribal population of Pakistan. As I said in another thread the image of US helicopters rescuing people might do far more than all of the drone attacks could ever do in terms of fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. If the Taliban and Al Qaeda are going to take the opposite approach that could help us even more.
If it helps to undermine the support for extremist and improve goodwill towards the US yes we should. Isn't that something that you support?
