Warning: The comments below might be extremely controversial and highly offensive to some people. They do not in anyway represent my held opinion, but they only reflect thoughts that have passed at my mind at one point. You have been warned. (please read explanatory note at previous post).

Lately, I've come to really disdain, in fact hate, many of the Arabic blogs online.

We are completely against the Iraqi insurgency in Iraq, and we think them absolutely barbaric. The American troops, on the other hand, although we might criticize them, we still say the jury is out, and we can't even begin to compare them to our own brutal armies.

We don't really like Arafat, and it's about time he left. George Bush and Sharon, on the other hand, although we might criticize them, but we still say the jury is out, and we can't put them in the same position as our own corrupt and barbaric leaders. In fact, we can't wait to have an ever lasting peace based on the road map (i.e. their terms), where we all live happily ever after with our cuddly, peaceful new neighbour. It's just our leaders who bigoted and hard-headed!

Life here is so fucked up. Arrests in our home countries are happening all the time, and poverty is rocketing. America, on the other hand, where 35 million people don't even receive healthcare, and raving evangelical christians who think an Israeli state somehow will lead to the coming of chirist run the country,is pretty rosy, and oh do we wish our country was America.

BULLSHIT.

Basically, as I've mentioned in an earlier post, most arabic bloggers cater to an American and Western audience. Saying extremely controversial and politically incorrect things about arabs is fine, but there are certain limits that when criticizing Americans should not be endorsed by the blogger. All of our leaders are absolute shitholes, while their leaders might be controversial, we might not even agree with them, but describing them as evil shitholes? No way.

This was epitomized to me on a comment exchange I viewed not too far ago on some blog. Two guys, one who was very pro-Islamic and anti-American, and the other who was very pro-american and anti-Arabic, started off in a heated debate. The arabic guy decided to bring in sweeping stereotypes about Jews, and the American decided to bring in sweeping disgusting stereotypes about Islam and muslims. The owner of the blog decided to intervene after the Arabic guy posted another comment, and said he will not tolerate anti-semitism here (and I doubt here he had the tact or the brains to mean by semitism both Arabs and jewish people).

In other words. Let's tolerate stereotypes about muslims, but let us not dare say stereotypes about jews. After all, there are certain established poltical correctnes standards in all the western medias, which include not making very general and controversial claims about jews, and we dare not break them. Muslims? Well, we're in the news very often, and there isn't a single thing that hasn't been said about Islam, so hey, why break the tradition. Most of our readers are Western anyway.

BULLSHIT.

Then another commenter decided to reach the startling, (and obviously well researched conclusion), that judging by reading middle-eastern blogs online, he can reach the conclusion, which he posted as an absolute truth, that most arabs welcome american presence in the middle East, and are very happy about the liberation of Iraq. Well let me then reach my own sweeping conclusion from my very thorough research, and post them as absolute truths (and they're definitely more true than this commenter's conclusions):

1.Most arabs might want the American troops to establish security and for Iraq to have freedom, but they definitely want to see the maximum amount of casualties on the way inflicted on American troops. After all, that is the tried and tested way of making them leave a country eventually (Vietnam, anyone?). Basically, we hope them the best because they are the lesser of two evils, but to use Mr. Bush lingo, still evil non the less. They are like a swarm of locusts, better yet vermin, who have spread around our countries eating everything green in their way. They are in Bahrain, qatar, saudi arabia, iraq, afghanistan, jordan, egypt, and in Israel. We do not think, like these blogs might lead you to believe, in the extremely idealistic and wellsounding but bullshit thoughts that the american troops are here to spread prosperity and freedom. Instead, we believe they are here to profit from our oil, make a strategic presence in the middle East, help Israel, and generally follow their own self-interest. The sooner we can get rid of them, and send them back to the bum-fuck red-neck town they came from, the better.

2. Most Arabs might say now that a peaceful solution is the best for Palestine, but that is simply because we are powerless to bring any other solution ourselves. If we had the choice of a peaceful solution or the state ofIsrael collapsing tomorrow, I can absolutely guarantee you most would want the latter. and although most arabs would think the main reason for our failures are of our own doing, we do not, as these blogs might lead one to believe, only blame ourselves and our leaders, but we also put a lot of the blame on the west. After all, we were not the ones who decided to award them a land based on the slogan, "a land without people, for the people without a land." Neither were we the ones with big hangovers of permitting the massive and barbaric slaughter of millions of jews in concentration camps. Furthermore, contrary to what these blogs might lead one to believe, we revile Sharon, and have no wish whatsoever to conduct peace talks with him. In fact, we wish that a very horrible death is inflicted upon him, such as his flesh being slowly eaten by rats, while he shrieks loudly from the pain.

3.We might have many problems and difficulties in our region, but contrary to what these blogs would lead one to believe, most arabs do not want westerners to intervene and help us. In fact, the west is the last resort of help we want for our problems.

4. Contrary to what many blogs might lead one to believe, these are not views held by a small fundamentalist, and even terrorist minority, but they are very widespread, indeed if not the mainly held opinion.

5. Contrary to what most arabic blogs would lead one to believe, they do not reflect the viewpoint of the average person in the middle east, nor are they written by the average person in the middle east. Most of these blogs, including mine, are written by people who are very much entangled with western thoughts, or have studied in the west, or have a very solid western influence in their life. Therefore, take what they blog, including myself, with A VERY BIG pile of salt.


My whole point here is not to discuss the merits of these beliefs, nor to say if they are right or wrong. My point is to make sure people out there do understand that these are mainstream viewpoints, and not viewpoint of scruffy, smelly jordanians holed up in a house in falluja foaming in the mouth at then next oppurtunity to behead someone.

So don't blame the messenger.

¶ 11:06 PM