Do you think that the Western world's 'reluctance' towards Islam is more to do with their lack of understanding of Arab culture?
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 25
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I think America is responding to the very small portion of Islamic people who are hell bent on killing Americans as well as using women and children as targets. Not all Islamic believers are this way though.
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I'm not sure you are trying to get at. Are you asking about Westerners converting to an "Islamic" way of life or just learning more about it and/or being more open to those who are?
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Absolutely no! First, it has to do with the fact that the Islamic world happens to be sitting on the largest oil deposits in the world. Second, the Western World is the proud owner of Christianity and we all know what's on their mind!
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Partly. I think that the biggest problem is that Islam was one of the more progressive religions until the medieval ages, when it apparently got stuck. We live in a society that, overall, values progress, although there are always anti-progressives. Interestingly these are frequently from the religious corners of our society, which is overwhelmingly Christian in the West. I think that the West, thankfully, is becoming more secular and that a massive shift to a different Abrahamic religion is unlikely to occur in this climate.
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I think the Western world has tasted Freedom, including choice of religion, for so long that it will not tolerate a religion which labels those who don't believe in Allah as infidels and whose holy book, the Quran calls for the extermination of all infidels. In short, the Western world will no more bow to an Islamic cleric than it would to rabbi, minister, cardinal, or even the pope.
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I think the Islamic terrorists scared the bejesus out of people..scared them out of their wits, to be perfectly frank about it. People tend to extrapolate their experience over a very wide swath..so, if Islamic Terrorists harmed us, all those of the Islamic faith have the potential to be terrorists. That is how they think..coupled with the fact that "they" look foreign.."they" don't look like us (whatever "us" looks like). Their brains are not given to much thought. They go from a specific/particular to the general without any thought at all.
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I think it has to do with Fundamental Muslims crashing airplanes into American buildings and killing innocent people
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The ones that are reluctant, not all "Westeners" are, they do not understand their religion, nor do they agree with it.
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I think lack of knowledge is the general reason for all prejudism.
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The western media tend to only potrait Islam as a bad thing. (not all media though)
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I think there is this demented definition of what it means to be 'American' to some people. If it doesn't fit into that definition then it falls on the 'bad scale' where to can be anything from strange, to evil. Thankfully people are becoming better educated from what I've seen.
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A woman called Gayle Williams was killed by the Taleban today in Kabul and they are reported to have said they killed her solely because she was working for a Christian organisation. So perhaps it may be that they see it in simpler terms than "Arab culture". I have no religion by the way. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7679212.stm
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no..i think it has to do with the fact we have functioning brains...
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Not really. I think Arab/Islamic culture is almost an antithesis of Western Culture. The 2 cultures have very different views on things like civil liberties, human rights, individual choice and freedom, equality etc. This means that both sides approach each other from an almost opposite view. The Wests view has also being tempered with increasing use of violence and intolerance shown by Muslims.
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Because they got a negative impression or connotation like a suicide bombers .. and poverty ..
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Mostly yes. Islam as a religion and Arabs in general need to work on their public image. Both groups need to hire professional public relations firms and rebuild their public persona.
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Maybe because only less than 1% of them are pathologist, who deal with culture, like salmonella, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis...; who else would bother about the AIDS to civilization passing itself as 'culture'? And now there are anti-terror... erm 'culture', squads all over the place!
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Both sides are drowning in a sea of ignorance.
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Partially. But more so, 1) Christian inoculation against a similar brand 2) Bad PR, blame fundamentalists (worst press agents ever), took them from Aladdin to terrorists, before the introduction of coordinated terrorism most Westerners understanding was barely rudimentary. (terrorism added the animosity) The terrorist fundamentalists are like Fire & Brimstone Preachers with bombs. I was more worried about crazy Christians before 9/11. The a-holes wanted the spotlight and now they got it.
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It has more to do with the fact Islam is an oppressive religion. Women are not allowed to do much of anything. Men are urged to kill the "infidels". And you have to pray like 30 times a day. It is about control. Like the catholic religion all control goes to the priests.
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No, I think it is due to the simple fact that any Muslim anywhere can suddenly be "radicalized" by any given cleric and decide to turn on friends and neighbors and murder them while shouting "Allahu akhbar!"
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No. It's not a problem with "Arab culture". It's a problem with extremism and terrorism. In fact, for a long time, the West was rather enthralled with Arab culture and thought highly of it. Many westerners still do. However, any faith can be perverted and corrupted by some of its members, and that has happened in Islam for a variety of reasons. I might also point out that a great many Muslims are not, in fact, Arabs.
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Not all adherents of Islam are Arabs. In fact, the largest Islamic country in the world is Indonesia.
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I can't speak for others, but I'd say its because the religion was hijacked by terrorists who attacked us. And I'm not particularly fond of the way they treat women. I'd be dead if I was born over there!
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I think it has most to do with the Islamist terrorism. If it was Christians killing thousands of people around the World every year with terrorist bombings and cross-border missiles and other sorts of violent attacks targeted intentionally against large numbers of civilians, we would be having "reluctance toward" Christianity. If it was Buddhism, the same. etc.
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