[Crescens]

What do you think causes countries in the Middle East to feel resentment toward the United States and Europe? I'll post my opinions once others decide to post theirs...

[Baseballl]

Well, If I could, I would like to add an opinion. This won't answer your question, I don't want to support my opinion on that note, but this can add to the thinking.

The people that come and knock our buildings down and kill us, we see them as terrorists. If we were the Iraqi's, what would the Americans look like? They think we are terrorists also, and we have no right to control their cultures and life style.

[CongressJon]

For resentment toward Israel, which leads toward resentment towards the US, when the state of Israel was created, the Arabs there became greedy, and demanded all of the land, despite the generous proportion given to them. Ever since there has been hatred towards the Israelis and the Americans.

[Kowboy]

Im still not sure I fully understand your question, Cress.

[Neraphym]

Umm, just fyi there has always been violence in the middle east. If you look in the bible (somewhere in revalations i think), it says that if there ever is a long period of peace in the middle east, its a sure sign of rapture. Personally, I'd like to get 99 in all my stats before that happens, so I'm all for violence in the middle east.

It all started in 1947 with the collapse of the British Empire. When Britain secceeded its colonies back to its people, they were unpleased with the state of Israel. Since we helped creat this state, they blame us and hate us for having done so. Personally, I think we have been more than fair with Israel and the Arab states, but all (or most, I'm not too familiar with them) of the Arab states are led by tyranical dictators bent on domination. If we were to take over all of the middle east, reestablish colonies there, forcefully implement our ways upon them, and 'Americanize' them in every way, this violence would stop. Violence origionates from ignorance and greed. By drastically reducing these traits which are quite common in some middle easterners, tendency to hate America and her allies will drop. Just my theory.

Hades

[Crescens]

The US's support of Israel is definitely one of the reasons for Arab resentment toward the US, but it wasn't really the reason I was thinking of when I started this. I think part of the resentment comes from the fact that at one point, the Middle East was the center of the civilized world. Being right between Asia and Europe, the Arab world was placed ideally for trade, having access to China via the Silk Road. The Arab world was able to prosper and grow very wealthy.

Way back during the crusades, the Arabs almost always had more mobility than the European countries. They constantly harassed the European knights with mounted archers while the Europeans were marching in the desert, and had an insane advantage over the Europeans due to the desert terrain. Though the Europeans were sometimes able to win battles through pure force, the Arabs always conducted constant harassment of the European forces. In its "jihad," or "holy war," the Arab world was able to maintain its land.

Nowadays, most countries in the Middle East are considered "third world" or "undeveloped." At one point, they were the center of the civilized world. They were at the peak of the world at one point, and now feel that they are on the bottom of it. In my opinion, this is one of the main causes of Arab resentment toward other areas of the world.

[Kowboy]

Well like you said Cres, the middle east was the place that connected everything. It was the center of attention. Now that the U.S. has come into play, with our better laws, more human rights, better government, etc... The middle east is .... jealous of us. They, right now, I feel, are in a position of "rebuilding" they have all that warfare and terrorists, they have just restarted building a new government and all.

[Muler]

The "origins" of the resentment includes Our Support of Israel, America not being an Islamic country, different rights (like freedom), equal rights for women, and stuff like that.

[Matayahhu]

Read "What Went Wrong" by Benard Lewis. I'm not done reading it yet but it answered alot of my questions. If you don't have the attention span PM me so I can send you a summary....

[Crescens]

* Bump *

The Middle East, once atop the world, is now considered an undeveloped part of the world. In my opinion, that is what leads them to resent countries that are now prospering. They proudly cling to their idea of religion being involved in government, despite that idea being a symbol of the past. Change is inevitable; there is a level of continuity that cannot be maintained, and several countries in the middle east have not yet realized that the world has changed since the years when the middle east dominated.

This debate didn't spark as much as I'd hoped it would, and I think there are a lot more reasons than we tend to think about on this. I'm interested in what everyone has to say when they think a bit more deeply, so I thought I'd give this a nice bump back up.

[Muler]

Good idea Crescens...

Not to sound racist, or Anti-Arab, but it seems like much of the Arab nations tend to have radicals as their citizens. Its not so much that the Arabs truely hate, but they are TAUGHT to hate. In Palestinian text books it is said that it is a good deed to blow yourself up and kill other Jews. Saddam Hussein actually payed $20,000 to each suicide bomber's family (true fact).

[Crescens]

Trying to spark an interest in this topic one last time. If it fails, I'll forget about it.

[Killerconvic]

I don't know too much about this topic, and I was not here when it started, so I am going to stay out of it.