InsideTech

I did not read this entire thread, I just wanted to comment on the questions posted by the original poster:

I spent two and a half years as an American girl, living in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, so I am familiar with the general issues, and learned alot of the history that is not widely taught with the problems that history created.

1. I have read that there is a Muslim Law that states that a Muslim is not bound by any agreement with a non-believer. Is that true and if so what is it called?

That is not part of the Koran, that is the teaching of a few radical sects of islam. (Radical sects of Islam are not huge portions of the Islamic faith. They are not the size of  say lutherans and catholics compared to all christians, more like say catholics compared to the christian based cult that was in Waco, TX. Unfortunately these radical groups are armed and have chosen terrorism as thier path.)



2. If Middle Eastern countries view Obama as a Muslim (not saying he is), what would the repercussions be to diplomacy in that region.

None really, the radical controlled countries do not like ALL Americans, the non radical controlled countries are reasonable in diplomacy with ALL nations. Also Obama says he is a Christian, so he would be viewed as a Christian and not as a Muslim in any case.



3.  Where does Israel fit in? It seems like a number of countries and group want to destroy it.

The main issues of the middle east were caused by world war one and world war two.  Those two issues being, the breakup of the Ottoman empire, which had ruled with the 3 major religions of the region living in harmony for 700 years. And the insertion of a new Jewish state in the same territories.

First off the Ottoman empire had a basic system of government that ensured stability for the middle east. This was removed. Its basic system was Jews were held to Jewish Law, Christians were held to Christan Law and Muslims were held to Islamic law, and disputes between two or more different groups were mediated by a system of courts.

When the Ottoman empire was carved up (they joined the Axis powers late in the war), it created alot of the modern states as seperate states. Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Isreal and Kuwait for example were all part of what was the Ottoman empire. Some of these newly created countries got a great share of oil resources, some did not, encouraging bickering, fighting and instability and in the region. Also alot of the carving segmented up groups of different faiths as much as possible, so instead of l working with them as fellow citizens, views of neighboring countries became *those people over there are not like us* to a percentage of the population.

The culture of the middle east in general is a taking care of your neighbors is absolutely required culture. Which evolved from the harsh landscape, one does not refuse to give water to ones worst enemies when travelling in the desert, because you never know when you will be in the need of such kindness. This is deeply ingrained in the culture of many middle eastern countries.

So when Kuwait became extremely rich, and refused to help its neighbors financially, that caused one of its neighbors to eventually get fed up enough with them to invade them (Iraq), beacuse many of the countries in the region think that all the people of the Ottoman empire should be one country still, and not helping out your own people is neighbors is NOT acceptable to extremely insulting they-had-it-coming to the views of many of the middle eastern countries.

For Americans, it would be like Nebraksa being now offically a new country, and say something silly like 1000 diamond mines were discovered in Nebraska so everyone in Nebraska becomes rich, then something bad happens to say Kansas, and most of the people in Kansas are starving, so they ask Nebraska for help. Nebraska says, nope, were not gonna help you, and the people in Kansas got very mad, and eventually invade Nebraska and try to take control of the diamond mines, and demand that Nebraska become part of America again.

The second thing that contributed to the trouble in the region was from the aftermath of world war two. The Allies did not know where they should put the Jews. Europe was not seen as a safe place for them, due to the large amount of hatred that was created there by propaganda efforts on the part of Germany. The Allies decided the Jewish people should have thier own state, and they put it smack into the middle of the Ottoman empire, since this was the holy land of the Jewish faith, where better could they put them to help atone for the atrocities they had suffered during World War Two. This displaced alot of the people who were already living on that land, making them very annoyed at losing thier land and homes. (Why they didnt carve off a piece of Germany I will never understand).

The jewish people were determined to make Isreal a great place to live, worked very hard and had good luck and made Isreal a great place to live. However, cause a large number of people had spent a long time in Europe they as a country don't share the same deeply ingrained basic middle eastern value of helping out the neighbors. Which doesn't sit well diplomatically with many of Israels neighboring countries. Alot of middle eastern people are still upset of the loss of thier family land, and are now doing poorly on thier new land... that is what makes Radical Islamic hate mongering possible. The neighbors have become those people over there who will not help us to a significant percentage of the population.

Islam itself, if you read the Koran all the way through, is less violence oriented than Christianity. There is more overall violence in the New Testament/Bible. Which is also true of the Old Testament/Torah contains more violent stories than the New Testament/Bible. Islam itself is not a problem, people who read and follow the entire teachings of the Koran, have a harder to live up to more peaceful behavior demanded life than Christians that follow the entire teachings of the Bible.

Angry people who are not doing well economically, who had thier ancestral family land taken from them, and think of the neighboring countries as *those people over there that are not like us* are prone to more easily believe the teachings of radical militant angry jerks who twist small quotes from the Koran taken out of context into a way to rally people into trying to re-conquer the area.

The islamic militants who form the Radical Islamic Terrorist groups, are essentially the same as the David Koresh's (You Remember Waco, TX) of Christianity.

The reason there are not constant wars in the middle east is that Islam is a religion of peace, and the majority of the people in those countries do not want war with the neighbors.

However, it only takes one George Bush to invade Iraq, (whichever time you want to talk about) which is why it is international news when one angry leader makes comments about destroying Isreal, making the entire region appear more radical than it is.



4. If Obama was seen as a convert from Islam would that make a difference?

If they were taught that he was Muslim (which is not true) and that he converted to Christianity, the majority of the people in the middle east would not care. People convert to and from Islam freely in most countries. (There are odd forced conversions in places in the middle east, just like there are shotgun weddings in places in america)

It would only be an issue to the radical islamic terrorist groups that are about as sane as David Koresh (sarcasm sarcasm), and simply twist anything that they can to inspire more blind loyalty from the followers they have acquired. It would not matter if there was no mention of religion at all.

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Sorry for the novel, but its alot of explaining :)

Thanks dear caprich ..

It seems that you have really  covered all the subject matters and answered all the subject questions from a kind american citizen point of view, who lives in KSA and who is really so "Objective".

We have in our culture a great quote that says : " He who has seen is not like he who has heard "

GOD BLESS YOU

Taoufik.

Very good posting on this topic, very informative.