1/25    How come a lot of Muslim countries hate America? I mean, what is it
        we did that offended them?
        \_ Interesting theory (not mine):  Arab culture, such as it is, grew
           up in the last 300 years as primarily a trading one, as opposed to
           western manufacturing/innovating cultures.  Combine this with a
           religion which has never undergone a serious widespread reformation
           or set of challenges, and you have the dangerous mix of a large,
           poor class of uneducated people and a very conservative, stick-in-
           the-mud clergy.  It's easy to whip people up against a simplistic
           the-mud clerggy.  It's easy to whip people up against a simplistic
           enemy (read 1984?) especially if your religion has the grass roots
           decentralized nature of islam.  Voila, instant foe.  Could happen
           anywhere with those criteria.  What I'd like to know is why so many
           Indonesian and Malay muslims I've spoken to think Arabs are such
           terrible boors.  -John
           \_ Because Indonesians and Malays have a deeper culture that pre-
              dates their religion.  They have plenty of other things to
              identify themselves with.  Outside of Egypt, the Arabs don't
              because all they can point to in their past is the Crusades
              which isn't much to hang an entire culture's hat on.
              \_ What I want to know is why there was such a regression.
                 In the middle ages, the arabs had a _wonderful_ culture, we
                 got a lot of mathematics, poetry, and other science from them.
                 Are we borrowing anything from the Arabs now?  (It's not a
                 rhetorical question, I really want to know).
                 Not to mention the Ottomans, the first successful
                 multicultural state (of course it could be argued the Ottoman
                 Empire was really a secular state, nor was it an arab state).
                 Something happened between then and now, and I don't know
           terrible boors.  -John
                 what it is. -- ilyas
                 \_ Islam happened in a big way.  When your entire educational
                    system turns into nothing more than studying the Koran it
                    isn't that hard to see how your people could be passed
                    over.  Big time slavery and the suppression of women
                    doesn't help either but I doubt those are major causes.
        \_ Countries don't hate anything or anyone.  People do.  Governments
           are distinct entities from the people in each country.  Before you
           ask why X hates Y, you must decide which X and Y you're talking
           about.  Once you have answered that, any of the following motd
           answers might be partially or fully correct.
        \_ US arrogance?  Support of Israel?
        \_ There was a time when Muslim countries were rational, even trying
           to be democratic. But we turned against them, establish Israel
           at the expense of Palestinian.  We supported 1967 war, and we
           overthrown Iran's democratic government for some puppet mainly
           for the oil.  These series of events made Muslim countries decided
           that democracy or human right or what not, ultimately, imperialism
           trumpt all other western preaches.  It is then Muslim countries
           turned Islam Fundamentalism for solution, as support of western
           values clearly didn't work.
           \_ Whoa. Back up. Insert the parts about the rise of Arab
              Nationalism and the oppressive right-wing regimes supported by
              the West to oppose the Soviets, and you'll be a lot closer to
              bringing your comments in line with the truth. Remember that
              the people in many Islamic countries would love to see a
              marriage between the democratic ideals of the West and the
              moral resolve of Islam (e.g., Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, and
              Indonesia).
              \_ ok, I was talking abou ARABS ISLAM. So, from that, you need
                 to drop Turkey, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia.
           \_ Are you completely insane?  Do you know any actual history, or
              just the sympathetic Palestinian line?
              \_ You forgot "Why do you hate America?"
                \_ And both of you guys forgot true history, too.
        \_ jealousy
        \_ The Imams would lose power if the contries democratized/secularized,
           hence they keep their position of power by focusing the poeples'
           hate on us.  The governments do the same thing by pointing to the
           'plight of the Palestinians' to distract the populace from the
           massive human rights violations in their own countries.