Why are Muslim countries so angry?

Question

I consider myself very open, but why must the offended people of some Muslum countries burn the types of robes the Pope wear as a sign of protest. This image does not do very much for Christan Muslum relations. If you do not like what someone says then protest without signs or threats of violence. Why not march and protest peacefully?

Answer 1

Must be the sand. :)
Really, I think one would have to be raised there and live there, and know there ways to understand that. Otherwise we just catorgorize them like they do us!

Answer 2

It's not just Muslim countries but Muslims around the world. I'm Catholic but my mother is Muslim and she is PISSED off--and for good reason!! I am pissed off. I never liked Pope Benedict and I'm being proven right. Muslims have a right to be pissed off. What the Pope did does not help Christian-Islam relations either. Instead of picking on Muslims for burning the robes of the Pope (which is kinda like burning a American flag, which is protected by the Constitution) why don't you criticize the Pope for starting this whole thing. He is planning a trip to Turkey later, a predominantly Muslim country and unless he is planning on retracting his statement I agree with the Muslim leaders that he should cancel it.

Answer 3

First of all, the middle east is known as a cradle of civilization. These people come from a place that is far more rich in history than in terms of economics. People there aren't given the chance to have good jobs, or electricity, or even clean water in some places. It is my understanding that Muslims feel humiliated by the fact that the western world is so far above and beyond anything that they are even capable of achieving. Some people say that it is jealosy, but it isn't. It's way past that.

They feel like they are doing good by serving God, and yet historically they have nothing to show for it. You could tell them that God helps those who help themselves, and many of them believe that, but so many are sick and tired of having generation after generation living such a lowly existence. What they really want is help, but the rest of the world isn't helping them enough. But we don't want to help those who say they want to kill us.

They have one of the most valuable commodities on earth, but it is controlled by only a few people, and I think that is what the US is going to help them with.

Some Middle Easterners feel like the only thing that they have in their lives that is good, compared to us, is belief in Allah and the teachings of Islam.

So all of the worthlessness that they feel is only vented in religion.

They don't march and protest peacefully because nobody cares. When they use violence, the rest of the world listens. We all know that isn't the right solution, but from their point of view, what do they have to lose?

Answer 4

I think it is very interesting that the very first thing they do in response to what the pope "recited", is the very thing he was talking about. How many are in the streets right now, burning pope dolls on sticks and such. If you think about it, what other religion is going around blowing it's self up? Islam is taught in their schools and is not an elective subject. When they give their children that choice and stop blowing themselves up, then what the emperor said might not be true.

Answer 5

That is how the Middle Eastern Muslim reacts to a perceived slight. Should the Catholics be insulted by the burnings of the Pope's effigy? Should they dunk effigies of Osama or the Ayatollah in a vat of pig fat?

Answer 6

I wish I could say I knew why. I've wondered how come no Christian suicide bombers haven't crashed a jet plane into the Kaaba in Mecca,why we haven't blown up more mosques or sent the gift of high explosives into crowded shopping centers. Step up to the plate people!!! Perhaps because their calendar is in the 1300's they feel they must act like we did in our 1300's? It is a question of maturity when you think about it. We have it. They do not.

Answer 7

Islam is just going through a time where there is a lot of violence look at the crusades those were angry christans.

Answer 8

The Muslim religion is a religion that calls for hate, violence, and strife. The Christian religion is a religion of peace, joy, and overall, love.

Answer 9

Good point! Why not find out more about it? Let's see where they get it all from:

http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/quran_teaches.htm

Ugly, twisted stuff, eh?

Answer 10

What follows below is my response to a friend’s email concerning the same issue as what is being discussed in this forum:

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Its one thing for the common street hoodlum, or radical foot soldier, in Muslim countries, to be enraged by the comments made by the Pope. I don’t expect many of them to take time to deliberate the issue, or subsume the Pope’s comments in the proper context. They are reactionary beings. However, you would think that Imams’ and other Muslim clerics would me more academic in their reception of comments made by other religious leaders, affording their colleagues on the other side of the religious spectrum a fair hearing. Instead these so called learned men of Muslim upbringing are just as reactionary as the ruffians on the streets of Palestine, or the insurgents attacking their own people in Iraq.

It’s bizarre that both Jews and Christians are called to make concessions and penance to placate Muslim sensitivities, and yet any offense to Christian ideals or people by Muslim authorities is met with deafening silence. When Christian churches are burned to the ground, when our iconography is desecrated because of Islamic militancy, and when death threats are levied on our most revered religious figures, no one in our ranks cries out for apologies or even reparations. No calls for the destruction of Mosques; no command for the assassination of Muslim leaders; and no vitriolic statements from our religious leaders are made concerning Muslim clerics. Even when the more radical fringe of Christendom – men like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson – make inflammatory remarks concerning Muslims and Islam, there is a large outcry from both mainline Christianity and the western secular media denouncing their statements as inane and immoral.

It is the Muslim world that has failed dismally in their efforts to do the same. We always point the incriminating finger at those within our fold that act in a manner that is in discord with what we believe to be the noble thing to do. Muslim “moderates” standby quietly giving tacit approval to the aggression of their more “radical” brethren.

Muslims constantly lament the disproportionate military response to 9/11 that Bush has made. Many in the Christian wing and in the rest of the western world have called him on it, and criticize him constantly for it. Yet when Muslim people attack Christian churches for something as trivial as a cartoon or an insensitive statement made by another Christian, no one talks about the Muslim disproportionate reaction. At least our attack of Afghanistan and Iraq, though focusing on the wrong people, returned violence for violence. Muslims, in reaction to mere rhetoric, returns temporarily hurtful words with violence. Words are eventually forgotten; a loss of life has repercussions that never really go away. You tell me who is responding in a more disproportionate fashion? Who in this scenario is responding more unjustly?

I wonder if Muslims realize how utterly feeble minded they look every time they respond like this? I am curious if “moderate” Muslims are cognizant of the fact that the more they remain mute concerning the wrong doings of their radical counterparts, the more the rest of the world will see them as one in the same? For my part, I a little doubtful as to how divergent “moderate” Muslims are ideologically from their “radical” colleagues. Both of them believe that Muhammad is the supreme prophet, one who supersedes even Jesus in divine significance. Muslims of both “radical” and “moderate” stripe believe that Muhammad is also the ultimate paradigm of human behavior; a model that should be emulated as close as possible. Both, if truly candid, must acknowledge that Muhammad, UNLIKE Jesus, who is the Christian’s primary example for living, was a military commander that took part in violence, order assassinations, and engaged in all the brutality associated with a military enterprise. He ordered the execution of those whose only sin was to ridicule him. These are historical facts attested to in their Qu’ran, Hadith, and secular Arabian history. Maybe the so called “moderate” Muslims don’t vocalize dissent against the “radicals” in their midst because they know, in their heart of hearts, that those the world likes to marginalize as “radicals” really represent the manner of behavior Muhammad would have condoned. The “moderates” remain silent, so as not to underscore their secret agreement with “radical” tactics and their own cowardice at not acting on principles they agree with.

I am disappointed at my Pope for apologizing for statements that are truthful. The truth is always offensive. Jesus made statements to the Pharisees that were infused with controversy. He never apologized for them, despite how inflammatory they might have been. There is no need for Pope Benedict XVI to qualify his statement with an appeal to proper context. Even as an isolated statement, the statements by the Byzantine emperor, that the Pope was quoting, are a truthful assessment of Islam’s prophet. The Catholic Church needs stop being politically correct. The Catholic Church needs to cease abiding by a culture of appeasement. Why should the Pope apologize for the narrow minds of those who cannot read a statement in its context, or who cannot admit to the dark side of their faith? Contrition and forgiveness are foundations to the Christian faith, but to be contrite, when one is not at fault, makes a mockery of reconciliation. If the church continues to be spineless like this, even I will want to leave it.