The key question to ask

Submitted by Anon (United States), Jan 13, 2016 at 12:48

From experience I have seen that the question that zeroes in most quickly on the barbarians is "what do you think of Israel?". Ignoring Palestinians (since they are directly involved in the conflict and their situation is more complicated) you will notice that most Islamist muslims even from as far away as Malaysia or Brunei will quickly denounce Israel in a way that makes no sense. A few more probing questions and you can quickly assess that most of these people are actually implying Israel shouldn't exist.

If you probe even deeper you will see most such people also believe in all kinds of conspiracy theories (9/11 was the work of Mossad etc) and at their best have a very soft corner for shariah. The disturbing aspect of this is that many Israel haters in places like Pakistan have never met a Jew in their life. From personal anecdotal experience I notice that the number of such people is disturbingly high - and even more tellingly my sample consists largely of Western born muslims (people we expect to be less radicalized not more).

However there is one honorable exception - Iran. I have not come across an Iranian yet who has expressed hate for Israel even though Iran is commonly cast as the big villain in the Middle East. For this reason alone Americans and Israelis need to forge better ties with Iran and severely punish those countries that have substantially radicalized populations (think Saudi Arabia or Pakistan). Thankfully Obama and Kerry seem to be a lot more aware of this than the simplistic "axis of evil" world created by the previous administration.

In a globalized world it is time we latch on to the concept that real allies are people on the ground and you can never be at real peace with a nation full of radical muslims no matter how friendly the rulers at the top seem. This is why mending ties with Iran is so important to bring peace in the world. Its a pity most Republicans and neocons don't seem to appreciate this fact.

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