Posted by
TheBean on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 1:22:51 PM
It's almost a truism in mainstream political discussion that "most Muslims are nice people." The problem with this assertion, simply put, is that it works from a Westernized, civilized assumption that people are basically nice and basically want to get along. This applies fairly well in a peaceful, reasonable, comfortable world of the North American or European kind. It does not automatically apply, though, to the vast swaths of the world that are not so fortunate and not so peaceful, including most of the Muslim world.
The great mass of Muslims are, of course, not terrorists. No one doubts this. But he great mass of Muslims do live in the Middle East and Indonesia, and the way people live in these places does not reflect Western softness. Poverty, ignorance, and subjugation make people harder than do education, wealth, and freedom.
Culture, we tell ourselves, is part of what makes us human and gives us identity. The kind of culture that average-Joe Egyptian experiences is not a celebration of heritage or a familiar song or an ornamental rug. It is fear of a brutal government, deep-rooted racial anger, and his faith as taught to him by fanatical priests.
Palestinian assaults on civilian targets are neither heroic nor morally ambiguous; they are the desperate, hateful flailings of a people unable to turn inward and build a stable society.