Grow Up, Middle East!

Victor Davis Hanson

Radical Islamists love to scream about the "decadent" West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics.


As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family values and reverence for the past than crass modern Americans and Europeans do. But that is hardly true.


In Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, unforgiving sharia law administered by stern state clerics dictates the cutting off a hand for theft.


Is there less stealing then? Not at the highest levels at least. Sheiks from the ruling House of Saud are notorious for gambling and squandering abroad their nation's collective petro-wealth. But few such royals walk around Riyadh with missing limbs from "judicial amputation."

Click for the rest.

Victor Davis Hanson

Radical Islamists love to scream about the "decadent" West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics.


As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family values and reverence for the past than crass modern Americans and Europeans do. But that is hardly true.


In Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, unforgiving sharia law administered by stern state clerics dictates the cutting off a hand for theft.


Is there less stealing then? Not at the highest levels at least. Sheiks from the ruling House of Saud are notorious for gambling and squandering abroad their nation's collective petro-wealth. But few such royals walk around Riyadh with missing limbs from "judicial amputation."

Click for the rest.

IMO, Islam is a primitive, backward, inhuman religion and a purveyor of inhumanity. It is not the religion of a civilized people. It is both an expression of the uncivilized, and an active weapon against civilization. It can't be reasoned with, or expected to become that which it loathes and seeks to destroy -- civilization. We should not pin our hopes on the rise of a sophisticated variant of Islam. That will never happen. Ours is a relationship of continual warfare. In this instance, life sux.

the saudis are one of the most radical islamic country's,yet the US turns a blind eye,home of bin-laden,home of the majority of suicide bombers,and very close,to the bush family :thumbdown:

does this go for saudi arabia aswell pino ?

Absolutely. We only need its oil, as does most of the rest of the world. Other than that, we should turn it into glass next time it produces another 911.

Absolutely. We only need its oil, as does most of the rest of the world. Other than that, we should turn it into glass next time it produces another 911.

We don't need it, we want it. We could easily stop exporting and use it ourself, and supplement with other power resources. It's a self perpetuating scam that we are so in bed with the House of Saud, and yet so engulfed with the "War on Terrorism", when they are wholesale exporters of terrorism.

IMO, Islam is a primitive, backward, inhuman religion and a purveyor of inhumanity. It is not the religion of a civilized people. It is both an expression of the uncivilized, and an active weapon against civilization. It can't be reasoned with, or expected to become that which it loathes and seeks to destroy -- civilization. We should not pin our hopes on the rise of a sophisticated variant of Islam. That will never happen. Ours is a relationship of continual warfare. In this instance, life sux.

Oh you only wish if it was so, the same Islam u r talking about now, was responsible for most of the basics todays technology is based upon, during a time westerns call in thier history as (the dark ages) , Islam was the only nation worth to be called a civilization , mean while europe was but a barbaric continent, and barbarians r only good at destroying wonderfull civilizations (just like the moguls did before them) so started the crusades.

Sure, but what happened? It was overtaken by its own fanatical, fundamentalist sectarianism, and thrust back into darkness, where it remains today. Also, that was one heck of a long time ago. What has Islam done lately, that anyone could consider progressive? :ban: :ban:

What has christianity done? Nothing. Religions don't do anything, people do.

We don't need it, we want it. We could easily stop exporting and use it ourself, and supplement with other power resources. It's a self perpetuating scam that we are so in bed with the House of Saud, and yet so engulfed with the "War on Terrorism", when they are wholesale exporters of terrorism.

Oh you only wish if it was so, the same Islam u r talking about now, was responsible for most of the basics todays technology is based upon, during a time westerns call in thier history as (the dark ages) , Islam was the only nation worth to be called a civilization , mean while europe was but a barbaric continent, and barbarians r only good at destroying wonderfull civilizations (just like the moguls did before them) so started the crusades.

Nonsense. Christianity rebuilt Western Europe after the fall of Rome (AD 476), and therein laid the foundations of modern Western European civilization. Also, it was Christianity, much more than anything else, that bonded the American people in the early stages of their national development, into a strong, vibrant, culturally unified country with an enduring sense of mission. History clearly teaches all of this. :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

People rebuilt western Europe.