> "One has to live in the Muslim world to understand the immense transformative influence of religious television channels on society"
Ahem, Fox News
Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
141–150 of 287 posts
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess you are imagining wrong then. Either way, the US southwest desert is quite a bit different than the Saudi Arabian desert.
Watching Lawrence of Arabia I kept trying to identify the geologic layers in the familiar rock formations. Then I realized that it was actually filmed in Arabia. It only looked like Arizona. So no, I don't expect that a non-geologist would find the American southwest so very novel compared to Saudi. But I've never, ever been bored in the American southwest in tens of thousands of hours of travel there.
I don't doubt that rocks have similar compositions throughout the world, but even a cursory examination of the areas from a distance reveals many differences. For one, the US southwest doesn't have huge swaths of fine sand.
US southwest vs Saudi Arabia @ same scale http://imgur.com/a/OkRuI
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#143You can handle female genital mutilation with grace and magnanimity?
Female genital mutilation doesn't actually have anything to do with Islam, as Reza Aslan points out in this video.
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
As Iranian (I am commenting from Tehran) I completely approve your point of view.I even explained in long comment in this post(you can find it in bottom).Iranian regime nightmare is liberal people( because they are the most effective opposition to current regime, all of other opposition's dismantled by regime very easily they don't even exist in society). you know why? Because they are only threat to nature of this u…
From the perspective of a Western government, Iran's international relations are the problem.[1] The fact that Iran's society is relatively advanced does little to console the families of the 1100 American soldiers killed by Iranian proxies in Iraq; nor does it console the families of the hundreds (if not thousands) of Israeli civilians killed by (Iranian government supported) Hamas. State support for the Assad regim…
I approve your point , but you are not going to beat a regime which has effective - and clever - regional - and domestic - policy with a bunch of sanction. Iran and its proxies are fighting against USA.That is truth. But the question is how we can solve Iran -regime- problem?
What is the solution ?
I personally believe there is no answer to this question other than Iran's own population.
You cannot believe me , but I can see with my own eye. Every time USA or international community interfere in something all people are suspicious and whole community turn to regime supporters (you may know , being against foreign powers in middle east is one of the effective way to stay in power , and Iran's supreme leader does this in extremely effective way).
If you want to fight you can only throw this regime with only academia and liberal people through a push for reform. There is no other alternative.They cleverly managed to stop and destroy every other opposition in country.Even parties which was more than 100 years old.
I will guarantee you other way of fighting against this regime is not effective and will not effective.You want military invasion ? hell no , they will harm your military very badly , they will turn Iran worse than Vietnam and Germany in second WW.Even after changing regime they will remain active force like Al-Quada , suicidal force in society, which can change or throw government very easily.
But the increasing liberal force in Iran want reform more than ever , they pushing even badly. I am not saying it is going to be successful.No , not yet, but I am saying it can be if west does not provoke people against reform and provide platform for free information flow (which is regime nightmare)
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#145One frustrating thing that the author gets wrong is labelling Iran the "Gray Daesh." Iran has geopolitical conflict with the West, but it's a false equivalent of Saudi Arabia. Iran is a theocracy trying to control a population that growingly wants to be secular. Women in Iran go to university at higher rates than men, can drive, hold office, and vote. Life in Iran for a women is not perfect but is heaven compared to…
Nitpick: they are not "growingly" wanting ... They are fucking oppressed!!
Source: four generations in the state department. With a majority of my father's familiar peers living in Tehran in the late 60s, fluent in Farsi...
Iranians are amazing people. Fuck that, people are amazing people... Some People are horrid humans.
I have no mercy for said horrid humans...
What people lack is a true measure of what makes a sound or terrible human in an objective way...
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
As Iranian (I am commenting from Tehran) I completely approve your point of view.I even explained in long comment in this post(you can find it in bottom).Iranian regime nightmare is liberal people( because they are the most effective opposition to current regime, all of other opposition's dismantled by regime very easily they don't even exist in society). you know why? Because they are only threat to nature of this u…
From the perspective of a Western government, Iran's international relations are the problem.[1] The fact that Iran's society is relatively advanced does little to console the families of the 1100 American soldiers killed by Iranian proxies in Iraq; nor does it console the families of the hundreds (if not thousands) of Israeli civilians killed by (Iranian government supported) Hamas. State support for the Assad regim…
I'll bet way more than 1100 Iranian soldiers were killed by American proxies, umm I mean, allies in Iraq back when Hussein was a friend of America. So, call it even?
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#147The author has a point. Most of the 9/11 attackers were Saudis. Bin Laden was a Saudi. Saudi Arabia is a dysfunctional country propped up by oil money. It's even more insular than it used to be. Saudis used to send their kids to the US to go to college, with Government funding. Now Saudi Arabia has enough educational institutions that they don't do that. Years ago, I met a Saudi girl finishing Stanford who mentioned…
One thing it does miss is that Al Qaeda is also Wahabbist in its theology. The problem isn't Islam so much as it is Saudi Arabia's "denomination" of Islam, Wahabbism.
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is simple politics and history American was at war with Japan and Germany not to long before as well. Now we are best buddies. Things can change if the money's right.
There was a fairly complete turnaround in the politics of both Germany and Japan after they lost the Second World War, in case you didn't notice. The "money's right" came as a consequence of that.
Nothing rules out Iran having such a complete turnaround. Plenty of people there remember the days of the Shah, they also remember the days of the SAVAK.
Neither of those solutions was 'all good' so at some point the people will say 'enough'. It can take a while.
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
As Iranian (I am commenting from Tehran) I completely approve your point of view.I even explained in long comment in this post(you can find it in bottom).Iranian regime nightmare is liberal people( because they are the most effective opposition to current regime, all of other opposition's dismantled by regime very easily they don't even exist in society). you know why? Because they are only threat to nature of this u…
From the perspective of a Western government, Iran's international relations are the problem.[1] The fact that Iran's society is relatively advanced does little to console the families of the 1100 American soldiers killed by Iranian proxies in Iraq; nor does it console the families of the hundreds (if not thousands) of Israeli civilians killed by (Iranian government supported) Hamas. State support for the Assad regim…
I think those are rationalizations for the larger reason: The U.S. and the West are the status quo powers; that is, we support the status quo power structure in the Mideast, with Sunnis and Saudi Arabia in particular dominating the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. Iran is challenging that status quo.
Speaking generally, in any such situation the challengers appear to be behaving badly because they are disruptive - they have to disrupt the status quo to bring change. In the end, neither side necessarily has a more legitimate claim to power and both would do the same in the other's shoes.
I'm also not sure either side behaves better. Remember the U.S. played a major role in overthrowing a (mostly) democratic Iranian government in the 1950s, then supported a dictator who brutally oppressed the people of Iran for decades. The U.S. supports insurgent groups in and near Iran, sabotages their infrastructure (the nuclear program), imposes crippling economic sanctions, and very likely participated in the assassination of Iranian scientists. I happen to think the actions against Iran's nuclear weapons program are necessary, and Iran's government is generally a danger to many people's lives in the Mideast, but the West can hardly complain about Iran behaving badly. (And don't forget the U.S. misleading the world and invading a neighboring Mideast country for no good reason.)
Re: Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the perspective of a Western government, Iran's international relations are the problem.[1] The fact that Iran's society is relatively advanced does little to console the families of the 1100 American soldiers killed by Iranian proxies in Iraq; nor does it console the families of the hundreds (if not thousands) of Israeli civilians killed by (Iranian government supported) Hamas. State support for the Assad regim…
I think the US/Iran resentment goes back a bit further, roughly to the time that Iran took a whole pile of US hostages that were held for more than a year. That's not the sort of thing that is easily forgotten and it is one of the cornerstones of West/Islam conflict. After that it was mostly a downward spiral, with some recent relaxation on both sides of the line.
That was a while after we deposed their democratically elected leader.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...