Does anyone really believe terrorists hate us because they hate freedom?

Question

I could spend this entire page explaining the history of other reasons they have to hate us but I am going to keep this simple.

Even if you are pro-Bush, pro-war and don't like democrats, still... do you believe this?... could someone explain to me why they believe this?

Everytime I hear that statement, it just baffles me... seeming utterly ridiculous.

Is it just a propaganda statement?

Is it just a soundbite?

Is it lack of a better reason?

I mean seriously... were the terrorists sitting around one day saying, "... I hate those FREE ppl... let's go kill them because they are FREE...' ?

When you think about it, the terrorists are free in a sense that they don't answer to anyone. They live hidden lives I guess but overall they don't pay taxes, etc...

Just thinking...




Best answer will be given to any person explaining the rationale even if I don't agree and no matter what your politics are.

Answer 1

The reason why they hate is because is not because they hate freedom, its because of US policies that threaten them. seriously, which human being, regardless of culture/religion doesn't enjoy being free. Its when others ideas and beliefs are forced upon you, you begin to fight back. The media never gives the whole picture, claiming to be "free press", and instead dissolves these details. Like the question said, why would Muslims decide one day, "oh we hate the western way of life. lets kill their people and cause problems for other muslims around the world as well. yay!". gimme a break. And responding to other people who wrote, Islam was the first religion to give women an equal right as men. if you study the Qur'an, NOT TRANSLATION, but in detail what it exactly means, you would understand that women are even given a greater right than men. Men have greater responsibility, to take care of the wife and children, but as far as status, both are equal. Women cover them selves as a way of respect and in order to be thought of intellectually and not by how big their chest is. In this society where women are "free", how many times have women been respected for their minds rather than their bodies. Very few. The covering of their face and walking behind the men is not a way to show women are inferior, rather it is a way for men to protect their eyes and respect the woman. This is the tip of the iceberg as far as how wrong the media portrays Islam and the beliefs, seriously i can go on and on. People need to understand that without their own research, of what is ACTUALLY TRUE about Islam, they will never understand. The media will continue plaguing the minds of the people telling them "they want to kill your women and children" as if Muslims were some sort of monsters. And saying that the Quran is preaching to kill all Christens and Jews is also wrong because the verse from which this is taken is completely out of context. Muhammad never seeked war and only did so if he had to. He had great respect for Christens and Jews alike, i.e when the funeral of a jewish man was passing the street, he stood up in a way of respect for the person. Finally i want to say, most muslims are faithful muslims and practice their religion well, so if the Quran actually said to kill all infedels aimlessly, don't you think all Muslims around the world would be killing every non-Muslim? and yet, i only see a handfull of people doing this for stupid and ridiculous reason, claiming them in the name of Islam. thanks

Answer 2

BeachBum,

This is a good question and I can understand your apprehension to believe it. Look at the Islamic religion and their philosophy:

You can't leave their religion w/o getting killed. No freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of expression. Remember when the cartoons came out what riots there were?

Do you see that among any other religion? No! Why? God gave humans freewill because he loves us. Giving a person freedom is an act of love. The muslims have a religion that is fundamentally against freewill and Demands conformity or severe penalties and consequences will follow. Their religion believes a person should be stoned to death as the Old Testament taught for various reasons and that pigs make you unclean. Christ and the New Testament taught a more merciful, compassionate, and non-judgemental type of religion.

It is these fundamental differences between our religions that makes the idea of freedom a corrupt form of governing. This is why they think having a "religious leader" that has strict conformity with the religion is the kind of government to have. A dictatorship with an illusion of democracy. Saddam had mock elections to try to make the world think he won the "popularity contest".

I hope this explains why the muslims fear democracy. One other reason is a popular book in the Muslim world that told them that Christianity use to be noble until the freedoms in America (the Great Satan) corrupted the Christians in that country. I cannot recall the book but the author saw the degridation of the 60's and 70's.

Answer 3

Yes I believe it.
They believe one must believe in Muhammad as prophet and follow sharia laws, so the freedoms we have to choose our religion, the freedoms we have as women, are against their teachings. Its not really our freedom to vote etc we are talking about when we say this. It's more like our lifestyle. The liberals should be thankful that the republicans are defending their lifestyle or they could see how they like living under sharia law.
The Muslims were doing this back in the year 1000 by the way, so it's not just America that they consider infidels and it's not new.
Besides they call America the great satan and believe we are evil, and have sworn to keep fighting us, so unless you all can figure out a way to stop them from proclaiming this, we have no choice but to fight back.
It's not like this started with Bush you know, they have been getting steadily worse for 30 years. Do you remember when they kidnapped all those Americans in Iran when Carter was president and held them for months???

Answer 4

The extreme Islamic and the nations they rule..Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia and many parts of Africa, all believe that the Islamic way is the only way. In order to control their people and keep them subservant (as opposed to free to voice and peaceful action) they subdue them thru their religious beliefs. Most Muslims in these countries only understand their religion thru their religous leaders(who are most often part of the controling party)....and can you honestly believe if you were ruler or of the controling party of this and receiving all the power and control of the money, that you would allow the people to be in control of their own destiny? Heck no! As these rulers are proving....they will do anything and use their religion in order to keep ahold of the control. As someone said earlier in the post, the average person is being kept in the dark as to what they could be enjoying (freedoms and prosperity) and are being lead to believe it is because of our corupt ways. But it is their own leaders and a corupt use of their religion that is making them hate the US and what we stand for. I'm not saying we are perfect, but our ideals of freedom are the best ever known...and as other countries (Japan, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and even Lebannon and I could go on...) as these countries experience freedoms they begin to prosper. The more they prosper and experience freedoms, the less they try to take others....and the more peaceful the world becomes. Am I willing to fight for this? HECK YA' !!!

Answer 5

First off, great question, BeachBum!

The first thing that amazes me is that Bush thinks he can claim this without any justification whatsoever. The second thing is that no one is asking for any justification either, except for you and a few others.

When I searched the web for articles on terrorist motivation, I was again amazed to find how many people have opinions but no data to support them. Apparently everyone is such an expert that they have no need to perform a study or conduct a poll. ("Don't confuse me with the facts, I've already made up my mind!")

I did manage to find one book, "Dying to Win - The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism". The author of this book (Robert Pape) actually interviewed 462 (apparently failed) suicide bombers. He has also studied 315 suicide terrorism campaigns around the world from 1980 through 2003.

His basic conclusion: "...what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland”.

As for GWB's motivation for making his statement, we can't really know for sure. However, I believe it is a politician's calculated logic that
1) Americans can't deal with complex issues
2) It is best to offer an explanation that panders to our egos
3) No one wants to accept an explanation that reflects negatively on us
4) Most Americans don't care about the exact reason, as long as it reflects badly on the enemy

For all the others who have answered this question without any evidence, I challenge you to do some research and supply some data, not opinions. Opinions are too often wrong. After all, that's exactly why we got bogged down in Iraq - by acting on hunches rather than data in our search for WMD.

Answer 6

Sweetheart, you are trying to understand a different culture and mindset using only your OWN way of thinking.

This is like trying to explain the "emotions" of a lion attacking a gazelle.

In the Quran, it is expected that a good muslim become a "slave" Ayah 93 of Surat Maryam means: "All those in the heavens and earth must come to Allah as a slave."

Read the Quran, post on Islamic message boards and make an effort to UNDERSTAND a different WAY OF THINKING. I have done this and my eyes were opened.

We are viewed as "corrupting" the world, spreading "decadence" and "immorality" Further, our government is seen as "waging war on Islam" and being "Crusaders"

We have been declared war on by al qaida, by Osama Bin Laden in 1996, "Our enemy, the target -- if God gives Muslims the opportunity to do so -- is every American male, whether he is directly fighting us or paying taxes.”

You'd better wake up and realize your enemy is NOT your own government- it's the people making "beheading" videos.

Answer 7

Try taking a look at conditions for the average person in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan. It's the terrorist leaders who hate us because we represent what the citizens of their countries could have in a Democracy - and if those citizens ever REALLY figure that out, they'll overthrow their governments.

OR...maybe they LIKE living in countries where people are executed for voicing their beliefs. Or for wanting to follow a different religion.

There was a trial recently in Pakistan where a guy was going to be EXECUTED for being Christian. He got lucky, though. They decided he must be insane, so they didn't kill him.

Good GOD it scares me to read some of these questions, it really does.

Oh - and the word is 'soundbyte'. It's like a 'byte' (computer term) of sound......

Answer 8

what does being pro-bush, pro-war, and hating democrats have anything to do with this question? I am none of those things, but I think the terrorists hate us for many of the reasons mentioned above, including freedom, and they are stupid. Why do YOU think they hate us?

Answer 9

Of course it isn't about hating freedom. No one hates freedom. It is because this governement doesn't respect other people's ways. It is similar to when someone, (missionaries for example), tries to proselytize their religion unto another. That is what this government does. How other people choose to live and be in the world is not this government's business. Their business ought to be in taking care of their citizens domestically. By going into foreign lands they can avoid what the true needs of the people are and blur their perception with fear. In any case, it is about not honoring and respecting that enrages the terrorists and it enrages many of us too! Other cultures and ways of being, when honored, do not hate and do not attack!

Answer 10

Yeah, I "believe terrorists hate us because they hate freedom", but that doesn't mean I believe in the war in Iraq. In fact I have absolutely no doubt that the Cheney regime has manipulated our normal and natural fear of terrorism to trick us into a war whose real purpose is to advance the interests of Israel and Oil.

Somebody (one of the Nazis I think) said something like, "The best lie is a half-truth". The half that they're not telling us is that from the beginning Al Qaeda was thoroughly infiltrated by Western intelligence agencies and could never have accomplished anything if it had not been deliberately allowed to. The 911 attack was allowed to succeed in order to create "The New Pearl Harbor" that the neocons and the oilmen needed for their war plans.....