John B- Blaming the victim

Submitted by sara (United States), Mar 13, 2009 at 20:19

John B,

Thank you for your reply and your perspective. Who is making Muslims radicalized? Since when have we absolved ourselves of responsibility for our own actions? Each person is responsible for his own behavior unless he/she is brainwashed.

That said, Muslims are mostly radicalized by radical wahhabist imams who preach on TV and in sermons about the Jews being apes and pigs, the Jews being satan, Jews drain blood of children for their passover matza, Jews raping their women and slaughtering their children. Press reports routinely exaggerate and fabricate events in Gaza/WB to fan the flames of hatred. Look at the textbooks that demonize Jews in every Muslim classroom. I have spoken to and read comments from Muslims who sincerely believe complete fabrications about Israelis/Jews and do not have any idea that they are biased or misinformed.

I can give you specific actual examples of each of the above. Let's be honest John B, Muslim hatred for the Jews existed long before the state of Israel, long before any armed conflict. Israel has a right to live in peace, and if the muslims really wanted peace, as opposed to throwing the Jews into the sea, they could have made peace decades ago. They were offered opportunities on a platter in 1948 (partitions), in 1973 (Egypt), in 1993 (Oslo), in 2000 (Clinton-Barak-Arafat where 97% of the west bank and Jerusalem was offered). They have declined each and every time. The Muslims do not want peace, they want destruction and annhilation.

I do not argue that the arabs living in the west bank and Gaza are not victimized and made miserable by corrupt and ideological political Islamists. They are kept in camps in Lebanon as a political ploy instead of integrating them into normal society, This is truly shameful . Muslims around the world should focus on helping these people get established to live a decent life instead of focusing on their hatred and anger. These people should rise up and rebel against hamas, against PLO/Fatah and insist that they want to live in peace with Israel. Israel would offer them anything to have peace for their citizens, believe me.

So there is my perspective.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".