Many Muslim countries do not tolerate usury - always follow the money.

for the purposes of profit.

But now the Gulf monarchies have realized it's out of control and will turn on them.

And you have the absurdity of American advisers helping Iraqi troops fight rebels who are equipped with American weapons and vehicles.

The American people need to wake up, reclaim the Treasury and spend the money on American jobs and infrastructure instead of pouring blood and treasure into the sand.

Lower class serves and is tightly regulated. Humanity is about the same around the world.

Nice.

and supplied weapons and training to the Mujahideen who were fighting the Soviets.....

http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/taliban-using-jihadist-textbookssupplied-by-the-us-141210?news=855057

The next generation of radical Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan is learning how to hate the United States through textbooks made by the United States.

This story of shortsighted, unintended consequences begins in the 1980s after the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

As part of the U.S. campaign to undermine Soviet control over the country, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) oversaw the creation of school books in local Afghan languages that taught children how to become jihadists. The books, such as The Alphabet for Jihad Literacy, were produced for USAID by the University of Nebraska Omaha (which, years later, was apparently paid $6.5 million for a similar book contract, according to First Lady Laura Bush during her appearance with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai in 2002). The books were reportedly smuggled into Afghanistan with the help of the CIA and the ISI, the Pakistani military intelligence organization.

The Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in 1988.

The USAID textbooks, however, are still being used, only now by the Taliban as it seeks to recruit new warriors to attack, among others, American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. Duplicated copies of the U.S. textbooks have also surfaced in Pakistan.


Just sayin"

To know what's happening in the Middle East, a person really needs to understand World War I in the Ottoman campaign. That's the beginning of the mess over there and we're still suffering from ill-considered decisions made at that time for all sort of nefarious reasons, but chief among them were hegemony and, of course, oil. Britain had just announced that their navy was switching from coal to oil. So they needed a supply.

If you don't understand how Sykes-Picot came to be, you can't really understand the dynamics at work. Most people don't even recognize the term Sykes-Picot. It also has a lot to do with how Zionism played out against the backdrop of the war.

For anyone who is interested, a good resource is "Lawrence In Arabia" (not Lawrence Of Arabia) by Scott Andserson. It's packed with information, but is not only an easy read, but an enjoyable one. I found it to be a real page turner. I couldn't wait to see who would screw up next. I was just blown away by what I didn't know about the conflict and the fallout. But once you understand it, things today fall neatly into place.

Under the Ottomans.

Moreover, at various points the less conservatives Ottomans had their own little rebellions, many of which were fundie-based.

As far back as Andalusia, or after the Mongol invasion, or in Egypt at various points, you had "liberal" and tolerant rulers under the gun when conservative, literal-minded imams roused the population against their lax and unrighteous ways. Letting churches continue. Allowing public celebrations. Corruption.

The conservative whiplash had all the same hallmarks: Non-Muslims were punished, tolerance was rolled back.

We absolutely relish focusing on the worst parts of Catholic history and the best parts of Muslim history and comparing those two--with the assumption being that given who we are and who they are, if at their best they're better than our worst it's we who are obviously inferior. QED.

A lot of posts here are the equivalent of this rather horrible argument: If you look at how Xians were treated under the Ottomans in SE Europe, how villages were expected to furnish children for conversion and training in the military, how a Muslim vs a Xian at trial was a no-brainer because the Muslim's word was worth twice that of a Xian's, how they had special taxes and restricted property rights, how Xians were restricted in employment options but conversion would let you advance and gain advantage over your neighbors as you betrayed your community, how Islam was the religion of the conquerors and oppressors, you understand things like Srebrenica and Sarajevo, and the resentment felt by Balkan Slavs against Muslims. You develop empathy for Serb actions in Kosovo. It's how slavery and financial gain played out against the backdrop of Muslim hegemony. Once you understand it, things today fall neatly into place.

It's no less true. But what happens today happens today. There is no sense of historical revenge that doesn't lead to genocide, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and punishing the current living innocent for the "crimes" of their ancestors or even the crimes of their ancestors' ethnic or faith communities.

If memory serves, the Sykes-Picot agreements on how do divy-up the Ottoman empire date 1916/17 or so and oil wasn't discovered in Saudi Arabia until 1936/37 or so. In fact, it was widely believed that there was no oil in the middle east until the early 30's.

There were people over there during the war looking for oil. Even Socony had sent a guy over to scout for oil. They knew it was there. They just didn't have the techniques to find it we had today. But they were finding it in the 1914-1919 era and the companies were buying up oil rights right and left.

and the recommendation

word Crusade didn't he?????

Some people get by
With a little understanding
Some people get by
With a whole lot more
I don't know
Why you gotta be so undemanding
One thing I know
I want more