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Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

nytimes.com

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Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#81

Post by jqm »

mbrock wrote: post #52
jqm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the conditions that beget such practices are a religion? Then what do we do?

The guidelines for commenting on Hacker News ask you to avoid bringing up flamebait topics without having anything new or interesting to say about them.

That's not intended as flamebait. I think it's a legitimate question. What if a religion is the root cause of this behavior? What are the appropriate steps to take at that point?

I'm not condemning Islam necessarily and certainly not Muslims but I think we need to stop dancing around and confront the issue of what an ideology is teaching. Is it appropriate for our world? If it isn't what do we do about it?

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#82

Post by tomjakubowski »

jqm wrote: post #35
vinceguidry wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can try to understand the conditions that beget such practices and work to alleviate them.

What if the conditions that beget such practices are a religion? Then what do we do?

There's not really a religious basis for FGM. The practice predates Islam in the Muslim countries where it's popular, and in certain places is more commonly practiced by Christians than Muslims.

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#83

Post by user_0001 »

vinceguidry wrote: post #19

I have to say, the quality of mainstream media coverage of the Middle East has gone up remarkably since 9-11. I think perhaps in the next fifty years or so we'll finally figure out how to handle the problems of the region with grace and magnanimity rather than hatred and endless warfare.

1) stop interfering

2) goto 1

Pretty much covers it I reckon

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#84

Post by LeoNatan25 »

mbrock wrote: post #52
jqm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the conditions that beget such practices are a religion? Then what do we do?

The guidelines for commenting on Hacker News ask you to avoid bringing up flamebait topics without having anything new or interesting to say about them.

So anything politically incorrect is "flamebait"?

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#85

Post by vezzy-fnord »

raverbashing wrote: post #63
jon-wood wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do not have Sharia Law areas in the UK. I have no idea where that story came from, but its not based on fact. Particularly amusing was the Fox News coverage of areas of Birmingham where apparently white people can't go - my white friends who've lived there for decades would like to dispute that.

Yes, but I think the Fox News thing was with Paris However: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3tkbpf/man_assaulted_...

I can also name a couple of Christian women who have drowned their children to inhibit alleged Satanic forces. Pointing out stories without confirming real trends is useless.

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#86

Post by raspasov »

api wrote: post #28
raspasov wrote: post #16

This is so on point. A prime example of the hypocrisy of western governments. Until we have leaders that truly do what they claim to believe, we deserve everything that comes upon us.

That hypocrisy is one of the legitimate reasons we are often hated around the world. We talk about freedom and justice but we work behind the scenes to prop up tyrannies that are every bit as bad as the "enemies of freedom." We've been doing this for decades and it's destroyed any moral authority we might have once had in the world. That sort of trust, once destroyed, is hard to earn back.

Yes. At best we're the better evil. Our government is driven by money - the military industrial complex , big pharmaceuticals, private interest. All stuff that Lawrence Lessig talks about.

Just look at our political debates. All of the talk is dumbed down, feel-good, wishy-washy moral statements about religion, God, pretentious ideologies about "freedom", "being the beacon of the world", etc.

Our leaders came from society. All of this is our collective fault. We all can and need to do better.

Don't get me wrong. I am sure Saudi Arabia is much worse. They don't even allow women to vote and treat them like objects. Well, we were there not that long ago.

So like I said, we're most likely better, but not angels.

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#87

Post by Jtsummers »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #71
jonesb6 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to a school in the North West with a large international program. A ton of students were Saudi Arabian. The new king actually raised their living stipend. Students are payed something like $1000 for every time they are published, regardless of the journal's reputation. I think at high levels they realize their reliance on oil will be their downfall. And they are making huge investments in education (in my expe…

Saudi Arabia has enormous potential for solar energy. Consider all the land they have, pretty close to the equator, that is otherwise unproductive.

But that's only useable within their country, and potentially exportable to neighboring countries (who have the same potential). Its utility will be in providing (relatively) cheap energy to other industries (whether manufacturing or intellectual or financial) within the country.

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#88

Post by krmmalik »

happyscrappy wrote: post #30
raspasov wrote: post #16

This is so on point. A prime example of the hypocrisy of western governments. Until we have leaders that truly do what they claim to believe, we deserve everything that comes upon us.

So hypocrisy justifies spraying random Frenchmen with machine guns? Think harder.

Does that in turn justify bombing innocent children in hospitals in Syria? France just nuked the whole country. Why are innocent children being roped into this?

And what about France's own colonial and terrorist in Africa that no one wants to talk about?

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#89

Post by ptaipale »

pearjuice wrote: post #25

This is a friendly reminder that the United States have sponsored ISIS when they were still considered freedom fighters against Assad. The United States also happily still do business with ISIS in that they are buying extremely cheap, under market value, oil and capital goods from Iraq exported by ISIS. Of course, none of this is officially documented, just like how not a dollar its whereabouts, of the 40 billion dol…

> This is a friendly reminder that the United States have sponsored ISIS when they were still considered freedom fighters against Assad.

Not really. United States sponsored other opponents to Assad, which were then sufficiently marginalized as to be either annihilated or convert to Daesh, but they clearly weren't Daesh at the time.

Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

#90

Post by lemevi »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #71
jonesb6 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to a school in the North West with a large international program. A ton of students were Saudi Arabian. The new king actually raised their living stipend. Students are payed something like $1000 for every time they are published, regardless of the journal's reputation. I think at high levels they realize their reliance on oil will be their downfall. And they are making huge investments in education (in my expe…

Saudi Arabia has enormous potential for solar energy. Consider all the land they have, pretty close to the equator, that is otherwise unproductive.

Useless for people, but I wonder what the environmental impact is of putting solar powered panels everywhere so we can satisfy our CandyCrush addictions.
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