[Jeff Higgins]

Islam is simply the religious branch of Arab culture. Mohamed did no more than add legitimacy (in their eyes) to the way they have behaved for eons, by claiming God instructs them to behave this way. Arab culture and Islam are so intertwined it is impossible to seperate the two. Folks that are Arab but not particularly devout Muslims have remarkably similar values to folks who are devout Muslims but are not Arab. Islam is the Arab vehicle for exporting Arab values just as the Roman Catholic Church is the vehicle for exporting (and perpetuating) Roman values. So to blame this behavior on whacked-out Muslims is functionally equivelent to blaming it on whacked out Arabs. You only have to be a member of one of these groups to justify this behavior to yourself and your peers.

So where does that leave us? We are not dealing with "just" a religion or "just" a culture. The two are inseperable. And they believe they are "right". Everything we see them as doing "wrong", by our standards, they see as "right" by theirs. They honestly believe we are the unenlightened ones in this relationship. We see their radical factions as violently trying to change us. They see our political factions as trying to change them by economic and political pressure. From the receiving end, both means must appear equally unsavory. We are at a stalemate. Culturally, economically, politically, religiously, and idealogically. We both want the other to change; we are both convinced we are "right".

This is way bigger than Duybya. Show me a Western leader who has dealt affectively with this. What would be "effectively" anyway? Getting them to change to our way of thinking, to our value system? That ain't gonna happen, kids. We need to realize that. Do they have to change, and if so how "much", for us to continue to have diplomatic and economic relations with them? I am sure they are struggling with the same questions. They are selling oil and maintaining diplomatic relations with countries that are vastly different than themselves, to the point of repugnancy. Just as we feel about them.

About the only way we can succesfully continue this relationship is to not look too deeply behind each others' borders. Physical borders as well as cultural. The old "you don't tell me what to do, and I won't tell you what to do" kind of relationship. Either side imposing its will on the other as a prerequiset for doing business is a recipe for disaster and ongoing strife. We cannot "win" that way. For either side to change, that change must come from within.

We see that "change" taking place on both sides. The Western world is increasingly cowing to Islamic factors within its own borders. All in the name of cultural acceptance and diversity. On the one hand, we want to accept Muslims here, but on the other, we want to "correct" their behavior in their own countries. We want Muslims, but we want them to be more like us. "Islam lite" so to speak.

The Arab world is changing from within as well. Cultural influences from the West are getting very pervasive in Arab countries. The old guard decries that as much as we decry their cultural invasion of our countries. Internet access, satelite radio and TV, free travel, etc. are slowly working to "westernize" their culture. Young Arabs are getting increasingly bold about demanding change. After all, "how ya gonna keep 'em on the farm after they seen this...?" They want Western freedoms. Who can blame them?

So what do we do? Wait. Just wait. I think in this great struggle, Western ideaologies will win. They make more sense. It is more of a "natural state" than the Arab ideologies. Nothing has to be hidden or oppressed to engender Western ideals; much has to be to perpetuate Arab. The time will come, as we become more and more "global", where Western culture will "win". Everyone who has ever had a taste of it likes it better than whatever they had before.