Hi,

I think we should be careful how we react to such things. There is no doubt that there are some Muslims that have, shall we say "interesting views" on the world, but as you yourself have said, we shouldn't judge every Muslim according to the acts and behaviour of some.

Take for instance the current stupidity of the cartoon controversy. No doubt that the images were offensive, and Muslims had very right to protest. And the fact is that over 99% of the protests demonstrations were entirely peaceful and constructive. But this is not what it seems when we watch the news or read the papers. Every time the news channels showed the demonstrations, it would be accompanied by clips and videos of flag burning, and violent scenes and offensive banners, and their like. Which is wholly irresponsible as less the 0.01% of the people involved in such demonstrations were actually involved in such things. But the damage was done by the media, whether intentionally or not, giving the impression that what they were showing represented what really went on. Many people started to then wonder why it was that a religion that preaches peace could end up being so violent. The media representation was the real reason behind this, not the actual truth.

Similarly, what we get to read and see in the news about the muslims, Islam, and the so-called war or terror, is just a very brief, and often skewed glimpse of what is really happening in the world. Like it or not, unfortunately, we do not live in an entirely free or civilised society, and more often that not, what we see is only what others, with certain agendas would like us to see. For instance, as you have said, why do Muslims hate the west when we help them so much. You are correct that we do appear to help them, in terms of trying to sort out the problems in the middle east, and giving aid in times of natural disasters. But again, things are not always as they seem. If we remember what happened in the eighties, especially with Ethiopia, where so many were starving and we gave very generously to them, and people were very proud of what we had achieved. But look now and we see that the African nations are still repaying back just the interest of what they owe. They have already paid back the original loans more than 4 times over! And the amount they are paying in interest alone about 5 times more than they spend on health and welfare in their country. You can see how in fact, the generous loans are now still being used to fatten our (and by 'our' I mean the corporate elites, and not the common people like you or me) pockets with no regard for what destruction they are causing to other people in the world.

It's no different with the recent natural disasters. And if you look at what our governments in the 60's did to Indonesia, we can see why there is so much hate for the west there. Back in the 60's Indonesia was seen as the jewel of the far east. It had the most resources, including gold, copper, bauxite, etc. The government of Indonesia had rejected the Western government's approaches for loans and for western help, because they had seen what it did to other countries in the world (i.e. mess them up financially and make them hugely indebted). But our governments did not like to take no for an answer and actually overthrew the original government (headed by a chap called sukarno) and replaced him with a not so nice guy called Suharto. As soon as Suharto came into power he immediately called a meeting with major corporations from our countries and systematically divided up the whole of the countries resources to each of our governments. So some of us were in control of the copper, others got the bauxite, etc. And for 30 years, Suharto ruled with an iron fist. He killed, again with western backing, over 1 million people. And NO ONE in the west would report it. Instead, Suharto was lauded by many in the west as being the model of rulers. Some even though he should receive a Nobel prize!! But then in the 90's when he started acting independently of the west, suddenly they discovered what a brute he was, and suddenly we started hearing about the million people he had murdered. By that time however, Indonesia’s economy had hit rock bottom. Even prior to the tsunami Indonesia was the most indebted county in the world.

The above is one example. The same is true also of other countries such as Iran, and Iraq. The parallels of saddam and suharto are very similar in fact. Both were installed by us and were our friends when they agreed to play by our economic terms (and their many atrocities, which they carried out with our help and blessings, were hidden), but as soon as they showed some independence, they suddenly became monsters and their atrocities suddenly came to light. Same with the Taliban. We actually helped the taliban gain power and take over kabul in 1996, because they promised they would help build an oil pipe from Tajikistan to Pakistan. No one cared about they treatment of women then. When they suddenly refused to do so, they became our enemies. And then they were monsters.

This is happening all over the world. That it seems to be mainly muslim countries is probably a coincidence. But the frustration that these people feel is entirely understandable. Many have had their entire livlihoods destroyed by us, their families massacred, their children left as orphans. Just imagine what we would do if that happened to us. Most of us go into fits of rage when someone cuts us up on the road. What would happen if our entire lives were destroyed?

Now that does not mean they it is right to kill innocent people. Absolutely not, as they had nothing to do with it. Understand that most people in the developing nations (not just muslims) do not hate the average american joe or the british Tim. But you cannot blame them for hating our governments. In truth, we ourselves are victims of our governments (although not in the same was as the people of other countries). They feed us crap about us being the most moral in the world, and the beacon of democracy and the champions of truth and justice, when in fact our countries have perpetrated some of the worst crimes against humanity imaginable. But we rarely hear about that. Only what THEY do to US. When we do it, its called morality. When they do it, its called terrorism.

I hope that this has shed some light as to why it is we (as in our governments) are hated by many muslims. Of course, these are just small examples. There is so much more that we have done. If you want to know more, read the excellent little book called "Media control: the spectacular achievements of propaganda", by Noam Chomsky. It is small but very well written. It will change the way you see our governments and their policies.

I don't blame anyone for feeling aggrieved at Muslims. It is also difficult not to for many of us who have some insight to the blatant lies and propaganda that emanates from our governments. The bottom line is that most (and I mean 99.999999999999%) Muslims are not crazy and hell bent on killing us all. They are just normal people with normal hopes and expectations of life. But we can't keep expecting them to take abuse and not get upset. It's like what a black man once said during the apartheid in South Africa. He said something along the lines of, "the white man, he doesn't just oppress us, he also tells us how we should react to being oppressed".