Look how quickly we became close friends with Japan and Germany after the Second World War. We were able to quickly forgive those who we called enemy in the 1940s. I don't see any sign that the idea of forgive and forget exist in the Arab value system or the Muslim religion. In the Middle East they still teach their children the evils of the Crusades as if they occurred just a few years ago, even tho it has been around 740 years since the last Crusade. They stoke this fire of hate against the west and show no sign of changing. This is not a way to promote peace as the West understands it.
Another one is the idea of fair treatment. This is based upon the idea of the Golden Rule or do unto others as you would have them do upon you. The idea of honesty, our system of contracts, and fair dealing can be seen as having their roots in Judo/Christian values. Even many of the values that are professed by Atheist are based upon the lessons related in the religion that they hate.
One of the greatest dangers faced by the West is this misunderstanding of their own value system and what it is based upon. Too many seem to assume that our values are universal. They think that our ideas of peace, honesty, forgiveness, property, and fairness are the same world wide. They seem to think that all societies are based upon our values. Because we think peace means live and let live does not mean that other cultures believe the same thing. We must remember that when Adolf Hitler said he wanted peace, it only wanted it long enough for him to gather his forces.
Our values have served us well in our recent past. Our blending of peoples from around the world and their integration into our society has created a very strong and diverse nation. Our internal peace stand in contrast to the home countries from which many of our immigrates have come. Those who have come to this country with the intent to join our society must learn these values to succeed. Those who carry the baggage of the past have a much harder time. This is where many of those who have come here in recent years differ from the immigrates that helped build the nation.
We find ourselves at a dangerous time. There are well know stores of Americans who have forsaken their heritage and impressed the culture of other nations. Americans who now take up arms against the US. We find that our values and trusting nature is being used against us. We believe people when they tell us they only want peace without questioning the meaning of that statement. It is frightening to see how many people never question when told "Muslims don't lie" without knowing the truth behind that statement. Too many of us accept the view of foreign countries about this country and that our system is evil, when they have never been taught or bothered to read our governing documents. We expect all religious leaders to show the same values, without knowing their values.
We have been told that we are intolerant when we are the most tolerant nation in the world. Looking at the Middle East I don't see tolerance. I see hate in the Arab nations. For a people who say they don't lie and only want peace, they seem to only preach hate and genocide. They say one thing among themselves and another to us. This is not part of American values but is within their value system. We must understand our value system, but we also understand the value systems of others. We must also understand the goals of those who we deal with around the world.
©2010 Pedro Sykes - Some Rights Reserved
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