@peasoupling said:
I'm sorry, this is a very long post, and I don't really feel like I can address all the points in it one by one. If I were you I'd reread the bit you wrote about feeling distant from snotty-nosed barefoot kids while complimenting the family with a castle and a piano. That does say something, but I don't think it's about the kids or the Arab world.
If that's what you took from that paragraph, you've completely missed the point. I tried to present many angles of my experiences to show that I don't see their world from only one perspective or prejudice. Instead you make it about me looking down on poverty. Wow. That's low.
That's why it was a long post, to show those many perspectives. I see that the effort was wasted.
This just shows how badly incapable you are at looking outside of the bubble of your preconceived notions. You would rather misinterpret someone's good intentions and honesty to the point of insult, than face an unpleasant reality. I lived there, you didn't. Go, live there. Tell me if you change your mind.
I will say that comparing Nazism and Islam the way you do in the latter paragraphs doesn't really seem to make much sense. Nazism is a pretty specific political ideology. Islam is a very diverse religion and, in fact, plenty of Muslims do denounce the kinds of Islam that support and justify terror attacks. It is possible to renounce radical and extremist varieties of Islam without renouncing other forms of Islam, or Islam as a whole, and many Muslims do so. It's kind of sucky to ignore the ones who have been persecuted and killed by extremists for being moderates and secular activists, while still considering themselves Muslims.
It's also possible to renounce radical forms of Christianity, or ignore the bad aspects of the religion, while still considering yourself Christian. Yet many people choose to renounce the religion entirely, and are able to without reprisal.
