h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am very confused. I'm not an expert on Islam and the Koran but

1) I believe that that in the Koran suicide is a sin and someone who takes their own life will go to Hell.

2) Martyrs are those believers who are persecuted and killed by the "Infidel"

Therefore, how can any of the perpetrators of this this hideous crime (or act of war)justify their acts by calling themselves Muslims or invoking their God or the Koran. This is hypocracy in the extreme.

In addition I have heard on the TV "normal" Muslims saying that any attack on Osama Bin Laden is, in effect, an attack on all Muslims and therefore logically ALL muslims are fundamentalists who, openly or not, support the horendous attacks in America. And correpondingly all States or Nations who openly harbour, fund or support these terrorists are conspirators to the events.

I would dearly love somebody to prove my assumptions wrong but any evidence to convince me otherwise would have to be pretty strong.

Arathorn (In the UK, but who identifies with the Yanks in this one)

Muslim extremist=IRA extremist=Protestant extremist=Milita extremist= ????? extremist === CRAZY

My girlfriend spoke to her relatives in Pakistan, and they reported that people there were happy about the attacks on America. I, trying to understand how people can be happy when thousands have died, asked her why. Her response:
"They're ignorant."
She said they feel that the US is doing the same thing every day to their Muslim brothers and sisters. It has been made clear, and many people in this thread have testified to the effect, that the attacks were not about religion, that true Muslims don't condone killing. However, it seems this feeling of brotherhood felt particularly strongly among Islamics does have something to do with it. Afganistan has said, in anticipation of retaliatory action, "an attack against bin Laden is an attack against all Muslims." This seems to be a common sentiment, hurt one of us and you hurt all of us, that leads only to escalating violence.

I have one question maybe someone here can answer.

There are many nations who do not agree or even like american policy. This is always going to occur between differing ideologys.

Then there are a few that out right hate any thing american to the point of comparing america to satan or their evivalent. What I do not understand is these same countrys that spout anti american retoric have no problem accepting american aid.


Could not that be said to be selling ones soul to the devil?

Unfortunately Laden will be attacked. If Pakistan gets in the way then it will be a very hard decision since US and Pakistan are nuclear powers...

I believe the "Great Satan" reference is the equivalent of President Reagan's "Evil Empire" slur about the USSR.

If Afganistan is to be attacked, the Pakistani government has pledged its help. Please get the names of these countries straight. Now more than ever it is important not to think they are all the same just because they end in -istan.

This'll be fun to watch. NATO and a handful of other countries against the extremist parts of the Middle East, with everyone else watching on the sidelines. That is, of course, if it got to that big a war.

And hey, who says NATO would win? If Pakistan switched sides or if places like Iraq actually have weapons of mass destruction, this'll get very ugly indeed.

I really, really hope that it doesn't come to war. I hope that Afganistan can be convinced that it does their country no honor to house a man like bin Laden.

I fear on one hand that not retaliating will send the message that it is okay to use such brutal violence in making ones complaints. One the other hand I fear what kind of escalation could come from retaliation.

I don't want war with the Muslim nations. I don't hate Muslims. I don't hate anyone. Except maybe Bush. And Howard Stern.

Has anyone heard any direct evidence that these people are linked to bin Laden? All of these threats of attack and I've not heard one bit of eviednce that bin Laden is actually in any way involved. Shouldn't we have some sort of proof before we start threating other countries? Granted all I have access to is the American Propaganda Machine -- err --- American Media that is. Can anyone point me to some proof?

I'm not advocating war either. I just think that if politicans jump the gun and attack an innocent country, that that could be exactly what we wind up looking at. Scary idea, huh?

For any of the Americans that might be interested, I was just informed by a friend of mine that has a lot of connections in the middle east, that Israel has taken this opportunity to surround all Palistinian cities and restirct traffic into and out of them. Seems a very opportune time to inflinct more punishment on them while the attention of the world is else where. And this is done through the funding given to Israel by the U.S. Just gives you that warm patriotic feelings doesn't it?

It makes me want to vomit. And there is no way we can reach out to the Palestinians to let them know that we don't support such acts. Maybe we can write to the Isreali consulate?? Fat lot of good it would do, but at least its something.

Not to sound callous, but up until Tuesday a lot of Americans had the attitude of "if those people want to kill each other over a strip of land, let them. It ain't our problem." Now the attitude is "we've got a terrorist to hunt down. The middle east still ain't our problem until we have to do military action there." I still don't understand terrorism, or fanaticism, or bringing up generations-old grudges, so I, for one, am going to have to keep not worrying about people in another country while I've got my own life to deal with.

I understand that this is the attitude of Americans that annoys the rest of the world. But it still sums up the feelings of a lot of people who have no family or friend connection with the rest of the world, except for being a tourist and maybe importing some of their entertainment. I'm sorry, but I don't think that anyone can get the average American to think about things like that until it blows up in our faces. Anyone remember that the US funded Iraq against Iran, and now Iran is somewhat more in our favor and we have economic sanctions and military action over Iraq? This is the kind of thing I think'll have to happen first before your average Joe starts worrying about who the politicans are funding. Even for US issues, my Biology test next Wednesday and my Chemistry test next Thursday are still more important than the really big issues out there right now. There's nothing I can do for the big issues, just what I can do that directly affects myself.

But it was the attitude of "I have my own life to deal with" while continuing to let our politicos send money for acts of war in other countries that has got us to this impasse.

That's supposedly why we elect these politicos - to do what we want them to do, while we go on with what we've got to do.

On another note... (C# maybe)

I don't want war. But it's definitely a moral dilemna - we can't allow anybody to continue practicing terrorism on this scale. I think the U.S. will find out who was responsible, eventually, and I have faith that they'll get the right guy. But what do we do then? Afghanistan can't afford a full-scale war. They'll probably ally with Iraq, and then the fit hits the shan, if you know what I mean. So our only options are to hope that the criminal mastermind responsible is turned over to the proper authorities, because the only other option is to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq. Then we have to worry about the nuclear capabilities of Iraq. Eeek!

I'm going to quit watching the news for a while - I'll still read the paper, but at least I won't see those awful images of people falling from the WTC towers.

- Lentilla

If being founded under God were that big a deal to the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, they'd be blowing up the Vatican, not the World Trade Center. And please note, this is not their first try at the WTC.

But as the declared enemy of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, I find it heartening how the world is responding. It seems it wasn't a New York Trade Center or an American Trade Center, but a World Trade Center after all.

I didn't see many people with Middle Eastern features at the anti-globalisation riots in Melbourne, Seattle, Sweden and Italy.

If my memory serves me right, and my TV wasn't playing tricks, as a group, they looked more like WASPs.

And of course the WTC would be a mecca for anti-globalisation zealots.

(thinking about George Carlin...)

As everybody's already said, the World Trade Center towers were the monument to capitalism. And they were the largest in the world, and were built in a mainly Christian country. The visual way of saying "My God's d*** [phallus] is bigger than your God's d***."

I find it difficult to believe that anybody would have a problem with globalization. It's the only way to prevent horrible things like this from happening again. Groups like the Taliban are fighting against the future; same with those WASPs.