Post
by Wollychop » 31 Oct 2011, 11:42
I'm not trying to piss anyone off (really), but I think I need to say a few things.
I don't think it has to do with political correctness, at least in my view. Just speaking in general, when someone makes a statement specifying "Arabs" or the like, they are just broadcasting the extent of their own ignorance.
The threat is not Arabs any more than it is Slavs or Germanics or Angloids. It is an ideology; that ideology is pretty much blind to ethnicity, in case you haven't noticed. Who are some of the biggest threats out there within the nebulous structures that are extremist Islamic organizations? Oh yes, a bunch of corn fed, white American converts. Just as in Britain some of the most threatening personalities are native Britons sucked into the social, religious and political webs that are extremist Islamic ideologies. And as far as "Arabs" go? Well, what is the largest Islamic nation which is experiencing a lethal insurgency? I'll give you a hint, it isn't an Arabic country. What's the nation that poses the biggest potential conventional threat to us and also has a fundamentalist Islamic government? Iran. And Iran ain't Arab.
Followers of these same murderous ideologies slaughter countless Muslims every week around the world, Muslims whom they regard as Takfiri (apostates) precisely because they don't follow the same grain of Islam. The monolithic Islam that many fear is a boogey man; Islam is a fractured and divided family of religions, which does include a large number of followers who want to kill you. But they also want to kill many other Muslims.
And all the extremist elements aren't even all compatible; twelver Shi'ia groups hunt Al Qaeda groups and vice versa; groups like Al Qaeda and subsidiaries (like Islamic State of Iraq) murder Shi'ia children at soccer games and bomb Iraqi convoys and police stations.
And, not to piss anybody off, but most folks who talk about "Arab" this or "Muslim" don't know the first thing about that which they are talking. Would you deny service to a Muslim Kurd? They tend to be very pro American. How about a Chaldean Christian? They "look" Arab, after all (they even have an accent!). Or to get really obscure, a Yezidi?
Right now in Thailand, a lethal insurgency is being fought in the south against Islamists. Do you think they are Arabs? How about in Chechnya? In China?
If you fear a sudden rise of a Caliphate, understand that what would occur fist is a massive civil war between not only internal sunni and shi'ia groups (among others), but between the Shi'ia Persians and the Sunni Arabs. The Saudis, you may not know, used to call Iraq "the keeper of the eastern gate" despite it's majority Shi'ia population, because the Sunni government of Sadam Hussein was perceived as keeping Iran at bay. These are not "denominations" which will unite under one tent to lead the Islamic world.
What I am saying is that someone who makes a statement along the lines of "I ain't servin' no Arabs" is just proving two things: they are ignorant, and they are bigoted. I am painting with a broad brush here, not merely in reference to the ad, but a general statement.
And yes, we are a Republic. So is North Korea. So is China. So was the USSR. It is the mechanism of our Republic which sets us apart, a representative system based on the democratic election of Representatives and, since the early 20th century, Senators, and the votes cast for an electoral college to select the President. It *is* a sort of Democracy, albeit not a pure democracy wherein each individual citizen votes directly on laws and measures as his own representative. It is, however, far closer to "democracy" than was ever envisioned by the founders (universal suffrage is new, folks). Saying "this is a republic, not a democracy" could just as easily be said by Kim Jong Il as by you to validate his position. It is a hand wave with little meaning without context.