Having lived in Saudi for ~ 9 years, some of this is true. Most teaching
there is by rote, rather western methods that try to teach people to think,
and be able to find facts to use in the thinking process. One of the annual
competitions for young students there is to learn the whole Koran off by
heart and be able to reliably recite it from end to end. This type of
learning doesnt necessarily mean you understand any of the message you have
recited.
It was also apparent to us that they are taught that people who have
different lifestyles (eg western women dress and behave differently from
Muslim women) are ipso facto immoral and loose, rather than just different.
I met one middle eastern gent (with a US passport, working for a large US
company) who started a discussion down this track on how all women who show
more than face and hands in public are whores, and was in a great deal of
difficulty when an English co worker asked him point blank did this mean he
though HIS wife and daughter were whores?
The same guy also expressed concern that Egypt was going to allow wives to
travel out of country without husbands permission being necessary, and when
I raised eyebrows, allowed that of course as his wife was American, she
could do anything she wanted to.
You can meet many people there who are perfectly normal at work or in the
street, as long as you dont discuss religion, women, or Israel/Palestine.
Weather is about all that is safe. It will take a long friendship, with
some, to get to meet the lasy of the house.

Anyway, back to the point. It is my experience that most western countries
are MUCH more tolerant of differences in people than many Arabs, but its
mostly due to lack of exposure and contact. West coast Saudi has many years
of external contact with traders through Jeddah, and the same goes for the
east coast through Dammam. The centre is much more conservative, and is the
home of the religious police, or Mutawa. Apart from a few "Tell the woman to
cover her Hair!" from these guys, we met very little hostility there the
whole time.

jp
----- Original Message -----
From: "fred White" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 4:12 AM
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Terry Jones (from Monty Python) on War


> On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 07:07 AM, Chuck Ryan wrote:
>
> > In the Arab world children are raised by religious schools that teach
> > them
> > to hate. They are taught that it is their duty to kill and die in the
> > name
> > of their god.
>
> Where did you learn this?
>
> Even if your assertions are true, how different are we?
>
> Don't we always claim that god is on our side when we go to war? Do you
> think any religious American would go to war if (s)he thought god was
> on the other side?
>
> FW
>
> * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
> * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *