This is a video that I use when I give my “Christian Invaders” talk. I think it fully captures (and provokes) what it is that Americans fear when they think about Islam and the Middle East. It’s intention is to do that, of course, and there is plenty to fear from more than a few people (i.e., Arab Muslims living in the Middle East). Of course the video also neglects to spotlight the vast majority of Muslims who strongly denounce not just terrorism but also narrow fundamentalist thinking (i.e., “Behead those who insult Allah”).
As to my own personal reaction, I also feel fear and anger when I see people with signs that say, “Behead those who insult Allah” because I have a very different mentality — a 21st century Western mentality, mind you, and it leads me to conclude among other things that God can take care of defending herself. (Did I just insult God?)
And so as I discuss empathy and putting oneself into the shoes of another, I have to ask Muslims to do that with Americans and understand how frightened Americans are when they see a video such as this. These are real people with real thoughts committing real (violent) actions against real civilians. Of course Americans are afraid.
That could have been them or someone in their family. A close friend perhaps. Second, by not showing any victims of countries we may not specifically be fans of, such as Asian or Middle Eastern people, we only feel that we are the targeted victims. Economically we do not get along with China so we tend to view them as the “bad guy.” If we were to see Asians as victims, not that we would not feel sorry for their deaths, but we would feel that the attacks were more wide spread and on the world. Because they omitted such images, we feel that we are at the center of all the attacks. Lastly, they do not show any victims that could resemble a Middle Eastern or Muslim. Really? They were able to blow up buildings and trains and what not but avoid hurting any Muslim and Middle Easterners? I don’t think that was the case. They clearly wanted to omit such images in order to make it seem that the attacks came from all Muslims and not just a terrorist group.
The video’s music is scary in itself. It just gives me the creeps. I felt the same way before I went to Iraq and after I came home from Iraq. We were not allowed to have our magazines loaded in our weapons while in Iraq at certain times. We all had these cases on the butt stock of our weapons with some sort of slogan. My slogan was 9-11 you are not forgotten. Everyone had to believe in a cause while we were there. That was my cause. It may have been a wrong one but that is the cause that I believed I was fighting for. Does it sound like revenge?Yes, it does. That was the something to pull us through. I don’t know if I believe in the eye for an eye quote or not. Sometimes I think I do when it comes to rapists and child molesters and even murders. When you do go into there country as a soldier you are told watch your back, always be aware of your surroundings, pay attention to key words (we were taught). In some cases this may be so and in other cases they are just human beings trying to live their lives but who are caught up in the war whether they want to be or not. Some are for it and some are against it. Some hate you and some love you. I guess it is the luck of the draw and who you run into. In this video you see a lot of violence but what about some of the good things done. I mean the bad may out weigh the good but it is not all about the bad. There are a lot of things left out by the media and it is usually the good, the good stuff don’t give them the ratings. The media kicks our ass in every war. Terrorists are everywhere, we do not know who they are. They are here and they are there and they want it that way. They are watching people live their everyday routine lives and wondering when to hurt. I do not believe this makes me Scits-zo it makes me aware.
Watching this video, as to my own personal reaction from the music to the images and quotes this is what we fear and does provoke what it is that we Americans fear when we think about Islam and the Middle East. I know this video neglects to spotlight the vast majority of Muslims who strongly denounce not just terrorism but also narrow fundamentalist thinking and reinforces the bias to think that every Middle Easterner is involved in this Jihad group and to stereotype people just because they wear a turban or Burqa but from what we have experienced and events that have occurred internationally can you honestly criticize someone for feeling this way? Throughout the video what made me uncomfortable and provoked fear in me were the signs made by the followers and people of the Jihad and quotes by their leaders.
“Kill those who insult the messenger” and “Exterminate those that insult Islam.“ The word “exterminate” is reminiscent of Nazism and the genocide of the Jews, and if you look closely one of the posters of the Muslim flag has swastikas painted on it. President of Iran Mahmaud Ahmadinejad quoted “The Islamic Revolution will soon reach the entire world.” Like Hitler and Mussolini and their intent of expanding their government, policy and beliefs. As I said, as we see similarities to previous wars in history can you criticize an American for fearing the Middle East? What I do not understand is, if Jihad is a “holy war” and Jihad means a “struggle” to do so then why do they make these posters, and say these quotes? I am not sure which is worse, but I do know that both are wrong.
As we saw in the video, as said in The Hidayah the Muslim manual, "If the infidels upon receiving the call (to Islam) neither consent to it nor agree to pay the infidel tax, it is incumbent on Muslims to call upon God for assistance and to make war upon them."
In my Christian “manual” the Bible in response to The Hidayah it tells me in Luke 23:34 “Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”
After watching this video it is clear to me what Americans fear and why they have fear for these things. Every normal person would be at least a little scared if they saw videos of people from a different country in the streets with signs like the ones in that video. Or they could have the fear of being bombed either in their own country or while somewhere else. Honestly I think people should be scared in the video I had 28 bombings from 1979 to 2005. How can just these facts alone not put fear into you. Just think these 28 bombings don’t even count the bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan that happen nearly every day. The video doesn’t account for the service members lost or wounded in those explosions either. I think that America and its people have every right to fear what they do. From the video I think I can say that Americans fear dying or losing loved ones to terror attacks.
Like I said before why wouldn’t someone fear for their life if they have to worry about people from a different religion and from a country thousands of miles away wanting to kill them and their allies? Now I know that not every Muslim and person of the Islamic faith feel the need to kill all “the infidels”. But when people see videos totally dedicated to showing people of one religion and ethnicity wanting to harm pretty much everyone that doesn’t agree with them or give them what they want people are going to fear them. To me I find it completely normal for people to fear what they do. Just look at the violence people of the Islamic faith display from the bombings to the beheadings of people that don’t agree with them. Their primary mission is to instill fear into their enemy’s. And to me I think they have done a very good job at putting fear into the hearts and minds of their enemy’s. I think that Americans and their allies need to keep strong and go on with their normal lives and try not to let the terrorists win.
This video is a clear example of propaganda used by the united states government. We listen to what we are told by small videos such as this one and take it to be fact without investigating more. If a person really wanted to they could draw a connection between any number of issues and say somebody is trying to take over the world with religion which is essentially what we learned the Iraqis do as well. Because of videos like this when a person of Middle Eastern boards a plane we become uncomfortable, we decide that they are not American and deem them enemies of the state because of the presumed religion they have in a country with “freedom of religion”. The media enjoys reporting on what they believe will get the most buzz and catch people’s attention. “Jihad Taking over America” is a much bigger attention grabber than “Earth Day!” Just recently I was riding in a taxi cab and the radio teased a story on how Jihad is trying to take over our court system and is helping muslim people get around the laws. To someone merely listening in not truly critically thinking this sounds threatening. This all reminds me of the video we watched in class on how the head of state or the president uses propaganda to help sell war. The media also uses propaganda to sell wars ratings and other things just alike. The news cannot report that muslims are actually good people and not trying to over run democracy or whatever then they will lose ratings, viewers and probably eventually be thrown off the air. As a direct result from this propaganda, we fear these people are trying to kill us and we need to do everything possible to protect ourselves. So why are we afraid of muslims? The reason is because that is all we are told unless as individuals we decide to dig deeper on our own.
Watching this video made me think a lot about the religion of Islam. I believe that most Muslims feel like they can defend their religion by destroying other religions. I totally disagree with those people. I feel like if you want to be a Muslim, you can be one but don’t try to punish those who aren’t. Those posters and quotes really scared me like the ones that said “behead those who insult Allah.” I mean it’s ok to feel like you have to defend your God or Allah but don’t take it to the extreme. But that’s just how I feel personally.
I was kind of scared while I was watching this video. I mean not because I’m scared of Muslims but seeing what some Muslims have done to our country and other western countries just scares me. Many Muslims in power try to persuade the people that America is a bad country and we don’t deserve to have the power we have. They are basically brain washing the people of their country, so the people feel like they need to defend their Allah by attacking us. This is really sad, if you ask me. I can’t seem to kill many innocent people for no good reason. I think that anyone who watches this video, despite their religion they are would definitely feel at least some degree of fear. The video displays people that distribute terror and hate to others, regardless of the fact that it is coming from Muslim extremists who are wishing to dominate and probably exterminate anyone who disagrees with them or gets in their way of jihad, of course, especially Americans. Jihad is a really touching topic. It has destroyed many countries like America, Spain, London, and many more.
I usually don’t follow the news very well, so most of the countries that were named in this video that were attacked by Jihad were a complete surprise to me. I never knew they had started their attacks since the 1950s or something. The first time I heard about them was September 11 2001.so watching this video I was really surprised.
Few years ago I’ve read a report about the conflicts and suicide bombers of all these years. And most of them are related to Muslims. The basic reason is that in Muslim dogmatic they think if you are not Muslim you must be a heathen and heathen are bad. I used to have a roommate who is Muslim, and at first when some Christians talk to him, he was so frightened. He thought they might kill him. So he didn’t talked to them and be so cold. But I know, he’s a good kid and also a very pious Sunni Muslims. He prayed five times a day, and never wanted to do bad things. But in the situation above, like instinct, he wanted to self-defense. Muslim is not like other religious, it’s not only a religion but also a way of life. In Quran, it also teaches people how to live and how to celebrate. The Muslim is a complete social system. In another word, those people are been “brainwashed” and hard to change. They have a different moral system. So Jihad is a part of their life. It not fit in the cosmopolitan values today but might useful in ancient times. Obviously, it’s so bad that they can’t reform Quran and make it more updated.
I want us to look at the question at different view. US have military bases around those countries. Why don’t we put our foot into their shoes? We may afraid of another 911 but think about this: if Iraq has a military base in Mexico and have hundreds of missiles aiming to major cities of US. Would you fear every day? So we can imagine what they’re feelings about us. And this video, it’s made by Americans and showed to us, but it just a video collection full of US ideology. Have you ever thought about why those attack only aiming to US and US allies? I know it has a long history, but the basic thing is the ideologies are so different. And all the governments and Medias are fomenting heating and misunderstanding. The only difference is that US is rich and have well equipped army and they are poor and can only use suicide bombers to kill innocent citizens.
When I watch this video I find myself feeling extremely angry and mildly scared. Of course people in the US don’t want to see their country being attacked. But this video is using specific situations to make a (false) statement about an entire religion and ethnicity group. The creators of this video are using fear tactics to create animosity towards Muslims in general. They’re not separating the average Muslim from the extremist. But when I see quotes like “Jihad’s goal is death to America”, there is definitely some one-sided thinking here. I don’t know a lot about Islam, but I know enough to realize that America’s death is not the goal of jihad. And even with my limited knowledge, it frustrates me to see people make false claims to the general public, knowing that someone will accept this as true. I believe people in the Middle East are not all bad people but just like everything else are influence by someone and because of that it can become dangerous. The whole belief in Islam I believe is if you die serving your god you will reach their heaven. Someone in power took this idea and influences their people that destroying Americans as part of god mission. After I still believe terrorism will never end because one country will always hate other country and someone will take it to extreme measure. So the idea of Americans being afraid I completely agree cause even after this war is over, if it will ever end terrorism will still exist. But this is all from my perspective, the perspective of a young American student, and as Sam has made clear through his class discussions it is not the only one. I hate to say it, but the fact of the matter is that we are not the perfect country that everyone makes us to be. We tend to stick our nose in places that will benefit us in the best way possible. And I can almost certainly guarantee that if any other country came to United Sates and started messing around with our civilians and land, we would not have any of it and probably start a nuclear holocaust. So am I still angered and concerned? Yes of course I am, but I also understand why people feel that way about the United States.
Americans have been led to believe that if someone wears a turban, looks Arab with a thick beard they automatically become suspicious of that person. This is a view that has damaged the social relationship with middle eastern countries and its citizens. The Jihad leaders have striven to make a point that all Muslims hate the United States and all Americans hate Muslims. they have corrupted middle east nations with these views which has brained washed any positive view of anything associated with the United States. Realistically, most Americans understand that not all Muslims are evil or Jihad. But Muslims who aren't associated with Jihad groups completely hate the Americans. The Jihad movement has an extremely strong presence in these nations and are able to influence these people who only know that Americans are coming for them. growing up, if my parents told me that Canadians are evil and want to kill every American, I would believe it and grow up anti-Canadian. I think this is exactly what is going on in these nations.
I also believe that not enough Americans are given exposure to those Muslims who completely condemn terrorism. These people are victims of the fears of Americans. They are not given enough exposure by the media but maybe partly because they are operating within boundaries of Jihad who will behead them if any anti-terrorists or Jihad movements takes place. Their society is shaped by many invisible strings that lead to how they act and conduct themselves. The point is, these groups do not represent a vast majority of Muslims in the middle east. For example, during the early stages in the war of Iraq, Iraqis embraced American soldiers. But when 90% of casualties are citizens, what are they supposed to think? When their country suddenly becomes full of outside Jihadist who come to combat Americans creating more chaos, what are they supposed to think? This war between Jihad and Western nations will never come to a close by going to war and don't see the two sides ever sitting to squash the beef. We will continue to see these terrorists acts conducted against the US and other Western nations. As long as humans fear something, war will inevitably remain part of society.
My first reaction to this video was that it I could not get over just how annoying it really was. The data and information was not annoying but it was the music and the whole way that it was all presented in the video that just made me think it was stupid. Now don’t get me wrong I think that it was a real eye opener to see all of those places where terrorist attacks happened and a lot of people were harmed and injured. However where are all of the statistics for the countless suicide bombings going on in the Middle East and around the world? Because let us be honest here, we all know that there are way more jihad attacks than what they just showed.
Now with how the video moved me or made me felt. It really kind of made me think a little bit and take a look at how blessed we really are in America where it is so rare for a jihad or terrorist attack. But for when stuff like that really does happen it is a bit scary to think about. Like what if I was visiting London during the bus attacks or was in Madrid, Spain during the subway bombing. That scary to think about, especially because I could have been in that subway or heck I could have even been on that subway car that was bombed, I could have not been here now for all we know which is scary to think about. But on thing that I really want to know is why is it that all of these people want to do all of these attacks. I mean they can’t really be the levelheaded moderates thinking ones. They have to be the radicals and extremist. Why else would someone in their right mind want to inflict harm on people? So I mean it is not like I am going to hate all of the Muslims and people that worship Islam, because I know that a majority of them are good people, the religion just get a bad reputation because of the radicals and extremists. But this video was an eye-opener and did make me think, and put a little bit of fear in me cause that could have been me hurt, or even worse one of my loved ones or someone I knew.
I remember this video from a couple of years ago when I took Soc 119, and it gave me the chills this time just as much as it did the first time I watched it. I know better than to judge an entire group of people or an entire religion based on extremists, but at the same time, if I had never seen or heard anything positive about Islam or encountered any ordinary Muslim people in my life, I think that I would be more disturbed and frightened by this video. In truth, although I do not live in fear of terrorism or believe that the majority of people who follow the Islam faith want to kill everyone who does not believe their religious views, things like this video are still somewhat frightening to me because they show what certain people are capable of. All of those terrible bombings and killings over so many years were committed by people on a so-called religious mission. (part 1)
What I really do not understand is how it is possible that people would want to worship a god who they believe wants them to kill other people, particularly for such blatantly hateful and unimportant reasons. Maybe it is idealistic, but I choose to believe in a god who loves everyone regardless of race, sexual preference, personal choices, and even religion. In my mind, if you are a good person, then God loves you. It is as simple as that. It is seriously disturbing to me that there are people in the world who actually think that bombing things and killing people who do not have the same beliefs as they do is a good thing, and in fact a necessary thing, to do.
This video also really makes me question the images that people in other countries see of Americans. After seeing the pictures of “Bible Boot Camp” and things of the like, it would be understandable for people in other countries to think that that is how all Americans are, and that it not only untrue, it is absurd. When the media or anyone else portrays an entire group in a one-dimensional way, especially when it is negative, perceptions will always get skewed. (part 2)
Most of the images in this video are likely created and organized to form some form of fear propaganda. The way that the images are organized in this video with the corresponding background music was not done accidentally. The message in this video is clear, and that is to inspire fear and judgment on an entire group of people on the basis of their Islamic background. I am skeptical to watch this film as more than anything other than propaganda, seeing as how I know many individuals of different religious backgrounds than myself who would never act or behave in any of the ways implied in this video.
Another thing that this video ignores completely is the opposite end of the extremist spectrum. For every individual who is an “Islamic extremist,” there are just as many individuals in the world who follow other forms of religious extremist views with the intent to erase the existence of all other dissenting religions from the world as well. The scary apart about using the video in this manner to stir up mass fear is that it only increases the likelihood of other religious extremists will respond in a similar manner. This builds tension among the religious sects on the basis of false information and fear tactics rather than open communication and truth.
What bothers me most about disagreements between extreme individuals in different religious sects is the view that death to those who disagree is the only answer to solve their problems. The main views of most religions are to be compassionate to others and not to kill. So the question is what sociological reason lies behind the manipulation of religious views into extreme standpoints where murder becomes acceptable. This video is not the only example of this occurrence. It also happens in our very own society, where Americans are convinced into supporting war with religious undertones. Politicians use phrases like “God willing,” and “Gold bless our troops,” and “may God be with us to defeat evil” to reinforce the idea that the war has a holy agenda against an evil opponent that threatens to take lives of innocent people. However, the other side has the same identical view of our cause. So the underlying problem is not differences in religious views, but in political spin placed upon the public to sway support in a favorable direction.
After watching this video, my opinion on muslims and the religion of Islam did not change. I have always never had a big problem with muslims, obviously after the September 11th attacks i had somewhat of a dislike towards them, but over time I realize that those attacks were done by such a small group within the Islam religion, and i realize that muslims in the United States are not like those men at all. People in the United states fear/dislike Islam because they think that it is a religion that influences people to become terrorists and kill others. When in reality, the Middle Ages were dominated by soldiers, armies, and empires killing others in the name of Christianity. Back then, the soldiers and armies were not called or considered "terrorists". That is a term used in this twenty first century and is just another word for "freedom fighters". Honestly, i havent heard the term "freedom fighter" untill Sam mentioned it in class, and his TED talk really put in a perspective of the Iraqi civilians that are just like us. His speech about what if China invaded the United States and we were in a state of terror like Iraq is in now, we would not consider our American soldiers "terrorists", we would call them by a name like "freedom fighter". Sam's speech also gave me a perspective of what it would be like for an everyday normal Iraqi citizen. This provided me with a bias-free opinion of muslims and followers of the Islam religion. The Christian Invaders lecture that Sam gave in this TED talk brought to me a completely new perspective on the war in Iraq. As Sam said, it does not give justification to all of the bombings and terroristic attacks, but it gives an understanding of where they are coming from and what it is like over there. Before watching that lecture, I didnt have a hatred or disliking for muslims, but i certainly did not understand who they were. Now I can safely say that I understand who those people are and where they are coming from in terms of religion and what type of people they are.
Media is usually ninety-nine percent of the reason people believe things that are not true. Americans are terrified because the only facts they get are from what the media tells us. No one really knows what Jihad is, besides a “holy war”. So to the majority of Americans, they think that Jihad is a holy war against people of other religions, but in actuality, it is a holy war with oneself. I only know this because of the World in Conversation talk that I participated in earlier this semester. I was like every other American. We are afraid of things we don’t understand. At this point in my life, I realized that it’s pointless to worry about things I can’t change. There is always going to be war. Someone is always going to disagree with someone else. Instead of focusing on all the ways to either avoid conflict or resolve it by taking out the entire human species, we need to focus on how to live with it. Do I believe that the United States and the Middle East will ever be at peace? Absolutely not. I do however believe that we can find a happy medium where everyone wins, or as Charlie Sheen would say, everyone is “winning.” Empathy allows us to understand why other people hate us. We should use it to our advantage. To be empathetic is to understand the world around us. Americans are terrified because they don’t know any better. Who can blame us? As an educated society, we are less than stellar with our knowledge. We all need to take a step back and look at things from a third party perspective. The video makes us Americans scared out of our minds because of our lack of knowledge on the subject. But why would we know about Jihad? I don’t really think the blame can be placed on any group of people in particular. I think the blame should be placed on ignorance, and as a society, we should strive to end it. If ignorance is bliss, I don’t want to be blissfully happy.
If anything a video like this I would suppose would want to make someone become a terrorist. If nothing else is certainly aids them in winning. Because, quite simply, right now, the terrorists are winning.
“Terrorists” win whenever you change your day to day life out of fear, “terrorists” win every time that delays are caused at an airport. One of the ways terrorists win is by controlling your day to day life. Regardless, and I don't know how to do this, one of the ways to “win” is to remove yourself from the equation. To not let your life be controlled by fear or the actions of others. (Admittedly a tough thing to do.)
Another important thing in looking at this video however is to note that it's clearly motivated by fear. I don't even have to go to the website it looks back to, to know that I am already revolted by the people that have put it together. For some reason it almost reminds me of the west boro baptist church, it it's seemingly overwhelming one mindedness. It over generalizes a group of people, and seems to think that the actions of a few expand to all others. It's almost like saying that because you bought a single rotten orange, all oranges are rotten.
I find the video very disturbing. The Islamic people seem to be targeting innocent American people. They want the Americans to live in fear of them and it seems to always watch their back in a way. The United States from the past to resent have helped these Islamic countries and it seems the return the US gets is the hatred of people who are interpreting the wring ideals of what God wants them to do. In England, the Muslim uprising is causing many problems their to. They recently had in 2005 a suicide bombing of their tubes (subways). From that the British people have been trying to segregate the Muslim population they’re by keeping heavy security in the areas for which they live on. However, the British-Muslim people have been revolting by protesting and basically harassing the British people. They have been staging protest and revolting against the police. Also in a National Geographic video I recently saw it showed this British-Muslim musician producing a song about how to make a bomb. So what kind of message is this musician sending? Instead of trying to incorporate peace in his music he is adding to the tension that is arising between the Muslim revolts. I just believe that if these Islamic people want to show their disproval about the “Western people” then do it in your OWN countries. Instead, they are causing Western people to have fear and engaging in suicide bombing and other heinous crimes against the westerners. Also the young generation of Islamic people seems to have the biggest voice of opinion about revolting. However, when asked by one American reporter where they would want to study, nearly all of them said they would want to study in America. The Islamic people are going about trying to voice their opinions on the westerners the wrong way. Where does it say in the Koran that killing innocent American civilians is the right thing to do? Well it doesn’t! When asked in a British conference between the revolting British-Muslim and Muslim followers of the Koran, the people who have spent their lives reading the Koran say that nowhere in the Koran does it say that killing innocent people is the right thing and that the western needs to be destroyed. These Islamic people are following wrong ideals and just need to take the time to see that by affecting Western civilians they are also affecting their civilians as well.
I'm sure that most people have the general first impression of being angry or scared of this video, and for good reason. It portrays the entire bad side of a group of people sharing the same religious beliefs, and without delving deeper into the situation, people could just assume that all muslims are out to kill Americans. Luckily, I do not usually like to make a hasty decision towards how I feel about someone or something. Based on this video alone, yes it did make me angry while watching, but I know that the authors obviously support the killing of muslims and they gave no mention to anything they believe in besides killing, which is something the media does all the time to try and sway peoples opinions on topics that they may not invest enough time in to fully understand.
I know that not all muslims support the killing of Americans, but there are radical branches that are leading the war on terror, which is the part of Islam that most Americans assume represents all of the faith, even though this is definitely not the case. As far as the photos of protests in cities in the United States, yes, they have the right to free speech, but like Sam's thoughts suggest, if the muslims participating were to take a look at their demonstrations from the outside looking in, they would see why and how upset Americans get over their ideals just because of the typical American bias to think that all muslims are terrorists, just like everyone who sees someone dressed as someone from the Middle East in an airport is predisposed to worry and watch their every move.
Personally, I don't think that there is much to worry about these days as far as terrorist acts, just because there is such a high level of media coverage and security in place, but to most Americans, there is a high sense of fear of another attack. I think this is all directly related to both the media and the way our economy has broken down, causing many people to stress over things such as foreign policy and oil just because the media tells them to. But overall, as far as the video goes, I understand the issues that Islamic believers cause for Americans, and if they would simply look at their acts from our points of view, they would probably understand our cause for concern.
i'll admit that the video had some very powerful pictures and quotations, however even as an American I can realize that they are cases of a very small, vocal part of a much larger group. Yes, those events happened, and yes, there are people like that, but the same could be done with Americans to make us all look like fat, ignorant whores. Which I know would offend quite a few people. Actually, that sounds a lot like what the people in this video think of us. Now, i'm not saying that these people are nothing to worry about, because the effect they have is very real – just that we don't need to worry about every single Muslim we meet. In fact, there are a lot of non Muslims we should be worrying about, even American citizens we should be worried about. The way I see it, there will be good people, and there will be bad people, and they will appear in all race, gender, creed, and nationality. I also try to think about what it would be like living over there, i myself don't have much faith in the media, the way i see it everyone has their own agenda and their own bias, and I assume that as much as our media made all muslims look like suicide bombers, their media made us look like an evil army coming to burn their villages and rape their women, children, and probably men too. If this is what they're learning from their only source of information, how are they supposed to know any better? like in the book 1984, history is made by the people who write the history books, the only way to know what is really happening is to be there in person, and know all people involved, and their thoughts and goals.
At this point, especially after a semester of sociology 001, videos like this only serve to annoy me and help me to realize how much bullshit propaganda is out there. This is what humans do when they want you to see your point, find the worst images, skew the statistics, and just generally make everything seem worse. That being said I can understand why Muslims fear Americans after seeing certain videos and publications and why Americans fear Muslims or middle eastern after seeing something like this. Not knowing better or even knowing and still being sucked into the ominous music or scared by the signs and the pinpoints on the maps or the cryptic words running across the screen it becomes easy to imagine that all Muslims are like this, that all Arabs are like this, that everyone in the middle east is out to get America, which is certainly not true.
I do not even know how we begin to separate ourselves or rise above these types of things. Is it enough to realize that “Oh this is what they see, no wonder they fear us” or vice versa. Is it even possible to stop this or must we accept it as something that serves a sociological purpose and therefore will be around forever? I just really wish we could see the best in people, or not even the best just an accurate representation. I am too tired of videos like this, on both sides of the war.
When I see videos against Christians I get upset and I am sure Muslims get upset at videos like this against their people. Even reasonable people who know better can be swayed by these types of videos, I got a little scared and I am not even an American. After a second I realized I was being ridiculous but these are some very well strategized videos aimed to put fear into people and it works a lot of the time. I hope that something is there to counteract these videos and mentalities. One day we will all watch videos like this and be able to laugh at their ridiculousness
What americans fear? What people fear in general is the unknown, ıt`s not just americans who have fear, everyone fears the unkown and ıt ıs very apparent that so many amerıcans are very ıgnorant to other people`s belıeves. Also I hate the way how U.S always plays the victim while its military goes on to play hero on other peoples countries. Allmost all terrorist groups are funded by governments and so terrorist attacks are carried out by governments hands.No one really knows whose hand is in whose pocket. This is the first thing american population has to realize that all governments are corrupt, whıch ıs an illness, a desease caused by money. In this day and age no country goes from murdering thousands of native americans, working the african american people to death and treating them like animals to being the hero of the world – sell democracy and freedom to the world. The key word is sell because thats exactly what the us goverment ıs doıng selling lies and at this point no one is buying. When is the last time you ve seen the u.s fight a war in its own soil and the media keeps trying to convice us that we are fighting defensive wars. Hiroshima was a perfect reason to test the new bomb. Nagazaki was just overkill. We are searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when we have enough nuclear heads to blow up the whole universe. We pick a president for two terms who cant even say the word nuclear. I am just disgusted by how stupid become. Our population has become very gullible against these scare tactics, that we believe everything that this government says and willingly surrender our rights to feel a bit more safe. We become silenced but we dont realize that the governments asinine policies rupture our relationships with other cultures dammages the american reputation. We are not fighting defense wars we are simply invading countries, destroying economies and infrastructures, killing civilians, raping women: because that is what war is, because war is never pretty, because organized millitary is the biggest terrorist group of the 21st century. All ın all ı can understand how some people mıght be scared but ı blame all of thıs on the u.s government. If you put apple seeds on the ground you are goıng to get an apple tree, you cant get an orange tree from apple seeds.
For the most part I do not actually fear people from the Middle East. However, I cannot help but be wary when I am traveling on subways or airplanes with people from that area. I feel terrible saying that, but it is true. I have felt this way since the World Trade Center bombing in 2001. I am from 30 minutes outside of New York City and could see the smoke coming from ground zero for days. I was terrified of people in the Middle East as a 10 year old because this was my first experience with them. 12 people died in my town because of that attack. That is not exactly the first impression anyone would want someone to have of their culture.
The next experience I had that furthered my fear was the London train and bus bombings. My dad worked in London for 5 years and was there with my brother, who was interning with my dad’s company, when the bombings occurred. There was even a bomb threat on their building and knowing that my family was in immediate danger was terrifying. Again those attacks were at the hands of extremist Muslims.
The week following those attacks my mom and I joined my dad and brother in London. It was immediately apparent that people there had begun to live in fear as well. While on the subway with my mom and brother a Middle Eastern man got on the same car as us. He sat down one row away from us and it was obvious that people were nervous. While they did not move away from him immediately, they did try to move away from him. He did not look threatening, he was wearing regular clothes and had a briefcase with him, but it was apparent that everyone was aware of his presence. When his phone started to ring everyone stopped talking. At this point he knew that everyone was uncomfortable. In an effort to make people feel better, he answered the phone and began speaking perfect English with a British accent and it was obvious he was not actually from the Middle East. When he hung up he tried to laugh off people’s fear and smile at them. I felt terrible that people treated him like that, but that’s the kind of effect fear has.
This video and the whole concept of Jihad is particularly frightening and disturbing to me. To see the dates of attacks in chronological order is terrifying. The goal of these terrorists is to wipe out America, amongst other people. To see that over the years attacks have been followed through, to know that there are followers of terroristic leaders and that these groups are possibly growing at this minute is terrifying. Seeing this brings me right back to my Hebrew school days and hearing for the first time about the Holocaust. At the time it was incomprehensible to me that one person could lead to so many deaths, that one person could reshape the thinking of millions of people, that a single human being could cause the deaths of millions. A man like Bin Laden had tons of followers, and possibly still has them. To see people holding signs expressing their want for people to die who do not believe in allah makes me think the world has a huge way to go before equality, acceptance, and peace will every be something remotely tangible for the human race. America got its first real taste of terrorism on 9/11, meanwhile the rest of the world experienced bloodshed because of the concepts of Jihad many times before. It is when lives are personally affected by terrorism that people begin to experience fear. After the twin towers were hit my grandmother told me that these suicide bombers are crazy, loonies from the Middle East. "But Grandma," I said to her, "if they were Americans doing the same thing you wouldn't say so." She told me then, that it wouldn't be Americans killing in that way. I never forgot about this conversation because some of what she said rings true. Though not legally insane, suicide bombers are brainwashed, just as nazis were. The supporters and followers of Jihad all hold the belief that allah is the almighty and powerful and if he is telling them to kill the crusaders, or the jews, or the americans, then that is their purpose, to fulfill the desires of their god. I would not say they are crazy, but that these people were brought up with a concept and had it pushed on them with no explanation and they are forced to believe what their people know to be true. To question authority is not an inbred ability. When you look up, you see the sky. It is blue. Why is it blue? Well, someone, probably your mother or father, told you early in life that this was the color to see when you see the sky.
This video is exactly the type of propaganda that makes Americans and westerners fear the Middle East. The negative connotation given to extremism stems mainly from current Islamic terrorism. About 60% of Americans think that Islam is inherently terroristic. But fundamentalists make up only a small fraction of Muslims. What of the followers who do not subscribe to the tenets of jihad and Islamic domination? We cannot expect all 1 billion of the world's Muslims to engage in various acts of terrorism, because Islam does not imply terrorism. In fact, “Islam,” roughly translated, means “peace.” The question is whether Islamic extremism always means terrorism. First, you must understand that Islam, like any other religion, has believers that range from moderate to orthodox. It does not lend itself to extremism any more or less than other religions. Islamic extremists, like those of any other social, political, or religious group, exist in the margins or peripheries of normalcy. These are highly religious Muslims who follow the word of the Koran specifically- they are only different in that they value their faith to a higher degree than moderate Muslims. Moderates have defined extremism negatively in an effort to avoid deviation.
Society has always been about fitting in, so those who do not are glaringly obvious. Media sensationalism only adds to this, especially in light of recent terroristic actions by certain militant Islamic groups. If every Islamic extremist were to commit random acts of violence, we could associate extremism and terrorism. Instead, we see that not all extremists are terrorists. Therefore, we cannot presume the two to be synonymous. It is possible to be an extreme believer without resorting to violence to complete an agenda. Rather than denouncing all Muslims, we should make an effort to understand their culture and respect their values. We cannot forget that Christians were Crusaders too- every religion (with the possible exceptions of Hinduism and Buddhism) has undergone mass attempts at conversion followed by violence if unfruitful. We need to stop clinging to our illusion that we are the “good guys” fighting the evil jihad and give Islam the respect of considering it a religion, just like any other, at least on our side of the fence. It is up to the Middle East to extend the same courtesy to non-Muslims.
I think as a fellow American, the Middle East is very misunderstood. We have this perception of Muslims and what they have done terrorist wise around the world and we immediately hate them for that, which is well deserved. However, there is a large amount of Muslims who denounce those activities. Those people are the ones who truly suffer. They get mixed up with the narrow fundamentalist. Maybe the Muslim religion needs to take a stand on terrorism. Either support it, or don’t, so good people don’t suffer for irrational thinking and acting.
Do I fear these terrorists? Absolutely. The video alone speaks for itself. Since 1979, the Jihad has been terrorizing and making this world an unsafe place. How could a religion support world dominance? And now that i'm thinking about it, what if they did achieve world dominance. Than what? I don’t even think they would be satisfied. Another thing that i'm unsure about is that I feel like it is universally known that the USA hates the Jihad. Of course we do, but shouldn’t other countries hate them just as much, if not more than us? The Jihad has done damage equally all over the world, so shouldn’t we all be taking a stand as one against them?
I just think the root to all of this starts with the broad teachings of the Muslim religion. If the teachings were more specific and not so broad, people could pick a side between good and evil. How could you be part of the Jihad and Muslim and the goal of your organization is death to America? I just don’t understand how they think all of the harm they are doing to innocent civilians will grant them God’s consent and they will be forever taken care of for their actions. It is completely asinine.
To conclude my opinions of this video, i'm very confused, mainly with the differences of the Muslim and Islam religions and the root of their evil. I know not all believers and followers of these religions have this “evil,” but for the followers who do, I just don’t understand it. The Jihad must be stopped before they forever damage our world.
There american fear is quite funny. What exactly are we afraid of? The media is
the middleman between our sanity and our fear. We are so media driven that we
rely all of our information and feelings on the media. I can say that I am the
same way. Media is everywhere I go. I remember the time when I was very scared
of dying when September 11 happened because I watched the new so much. I was
scared that the terrorist would in fact get me. I was also scared my city would
be next. However, without the media I would have not felt way without media
influence. I wonder where would be without the media? Would we rely on
information of our own research? I wonder if we just ignored media. What would
they do? The media is such a business. The more viewers they have. The more
money they make. I wonder what news casters think about their jobs? Do they
feel they are doing a service to public. Or are they evil as we make them out
to be? What do they think? Where is Dan Rather when you need him? I think he
got fired for talking bad about the president. Doesn't that make us a communist country. I thought this was a country of free speech. If the president is a fucking dick head. I should be able to voice that at any time. See Rather got fired for saying something true about the president. He lost his job. That's a shame. Does our American fear come from other sources? I think the defense dept. makes us fear by trying to make us join to overcome our fear and face the enemy firsthand. I sometime don’t even know what to write on these blogs. The topics really get me going but so many ideas race through my mind, I just don’t know what to write. The American fear is just based on so many things like the media, our programed fears. We are programed to fear fire because it hurts us. Sometimes we are pre-programed to water cause it might drown us. Can we get rid of the fear
After watching this video I can see how this would definitely scare a lot of Americans due to some of the graphic footage but I feel like it is pretty obvious that this video exaggerates a lot of things. First of all the video makes it look like all Muslims have a killer mentality towards anyone that is different from then, this is very very untrue. The majority of the Muslims in the world do not have a problem with Americans and everyone around the world. In my world in conversation I was able to talk with 4 kids from the Middle East that are all Muslims. They did not have hatred for me or any of the other kids in the room, in fact that like Americans. They wanted to hear about what we do and how we do these things more than anyone I have ever met. They also went on to tell us that their homes are not as dangerous as they are made out to be on TV and even on this video. There are not always bombings and huge mobs running around killing all of the non-believers, these types of things are very rare. On the other side of the argument I can see how a lot of people are fearful for their lives on a daily basis. I mean they list of attacks on the video surprised me a lot because I knew there were bombings and hostage situations but I had no idea that there was that many. Personally I dont get too scared by all of these images for a couple reasons. First of all I live in the suburbs during the summer and State College during the school year. Both of these places would not be the first likely target of a terrorist attack. The Muslim radicals would definitely look for a more densely populated area for an attack just like they have in the past. But even if I did live in a city I wouldnt be afraid. The amount of terrorists out there are such a small portion of the total population and the chances of one actually doing something to you out of everyone else is slim. Lastly there is so much security nowadays to prevent things like attacks that the numbers have gotten even smaller than they were before.
Whenever I watch a video like this, I can never take it seriously. Sure, it is quite scary for American's, but it is made to do just that. The purpose of this video was simply to scare the average westerner into donating to that organization. The explosions, music, and selective events and quotes just sets this over the top. There is more to a lot of those events than just, "JIHAD!" for many of those events. I haven't even talked about how cheap that video was. I think I saw a third grader poop out a better produced video than that one. That video is a complete joke and the only thing that it truly evokes from me is laughter and disbelief that someone was serious when making this. I truly hope they're not and it just so happens to be a video that was made while under the influence. I truly wonder how much American's actually have a fear that is this irrational. How often does a typical American truly think about something like this as it is? I will say that I do not go about my normal day wondering if there will be an attack by a Muslim. I'm more concerned about a winter storm or a spring tornado ripping through my town than a terrorist attack. For what it is worth, I'm not very worried about that either. My concern for those events is no where near my concern about my grades, money, family, health, and my social life. If there are truly Muslims out there who want to succeed in this Jihad and want to terrorize me, then I suggest they step up their game, because it is currently no where near the top of my list. Yes, that is a challenge, because I don't think they can.
This video raises some very interesting points. That being said, the video is absolutely absurd. Its purpose is to scare Americans and that is precisely what it does. It takes quotes and passages from the books of Islam more or less out of context and uses Islamist extremists as a source. It is generally an easy feat to spin things to sound the way you want them to sound and to portray a certain image. That is exactly what the creators of this video are able to do. I think that one major thing to bring up about this video is the perpetuation of stereotypes, something that is a major problem in the world today. While it is true that stereotypes sometimes have their plays and sometimes stem from things that do have some basis of truth, many stereotypes come from views or opinions held by a minority of people, yet are portrayed as the opinion of the majority. For example, the stereotype that Asian people are good at math is not necessarily untrue. When I personally look at the Asian people that I have met in my life and at the statistics about how Asian people do in math in general, there is some factual basis for this stereotype. Still the downside to stereotypes is ones that show a minority opinion as one of the majority, evident in the use of extremists in the posted video. When stereotypes like these are shown, such as in the video, they are used to instill fear. Take for example the stereotype that all Middle-Eastern people are terrorists or that all Muslim people want jihad and “death to Americans”. Obviously both of these statements are not only false, but also in fact completely ludicrous. The number of Muslim people who are terrorists and want to bring down America is a very small number in relation to the population of Muslims and Middle-Easterners. But when people are ignorant to the facts, they often fall victim to believing things that are false. This video does a good job at doing what it is intended to- spinning things in order to instill fear. I think videos like this are ridiculous and hold no real weight when one takes into consideration the facts.
I thought this youtube video was naïve and really stupid to say the least. They don’t really provide any factual evidence and they stereotype all of Islam in this video. This is what is wrong with the world. We all feel that we are so different from one another and instead of getting to know each other, and putting ourselves in the shoes of our fellow human beings, we stereotype and objectify whole groups of people. The individual’s that produced this video need to understand that the same stereotyping that they did to produce this video, is probably eerily similar to the stereotyping done by some terrorist groups in the first place. We, as a human race, need to come together instead of separate ourselves and all the violence in this world would be greatly decreased. It is almost comical how stupid some people can be. Do they actually believe that an entire religion of people solely want to destroy America? It sounds completely absurd to me. The extremist groups are pretty similar to some Christian extremist groups that we have in the world too. It really only takes a few people to stand out and the whole group can be stereotyped. This is very dangerous thinking and needs to be stopped. It is like saying that because the Klu Klux Klan discriminates and persecutes certain races in the name of Christianity, that all Christians are like this. We know this isn’t true, but we do not know what the media is saying in other country’s around the world. We need to stop treating other groups of people, Middle Eastern especially, as second-class human beings. That only gets us in trouble and can muddle our sense of morality in times of war and in times of peace. Actions need to be taken to change the way of thinking that has plagued this world and brought it to years of destruction and death. We need to unite and band together. There needs to be a level of mutual evolution on the side of American’s and the rest of the world, into an understanding that cooperation and tolerance is always the best solution to any difference.
One day at home my brother received a phone call from his “friends.” They were two eleven year olds calling my family a group of terrorists. You might say to yourself “why would these children do such a thing?” That’s what I was wondering for a while but later on I came to a conclusion. That same day my mother went to pick up my brother from swimming. Those children were there and saw that my mother wore a headscarf due to our religious beliefs. They probably saw the war in Iraq on television or thought of how a terrorist always tended to be Muslim. This stereotype has carved its way into American culture because I shared the same problem in elementary school. One day our teacher was going over a math problem with three students and one of them was I. I was sitting in the middle of the group and a question about Islam came up. I answered the question and the teacher asked me how I knew the answer. I told her that I was Muslim and she understood. However, I realized that my two classmates sitting next to me were making hand gestures behind my back. One of them had a scissor in his hand and was pretending to stab me with it. In my own situation, I wasn’t able to understand why the children were acting the way they did, so I didn’t want to start a problem. However, when a similar instance occurred with my brother I was able to react, not because of my age but because of the knowledge I have gained. I decided to call the school and set up a meeting with the children and their parents in the principal’s office. My intention was not to get the kids in trouble but to have them understand that labeling a whole 1.5 billion people was wrong. I completely understand the people who do not know much about Islam and create negative impressions in their heads just by watching this video. Unfortunately, not just for Islam but for every matter this is the biggest issue. People need to be educated and then state their opinions objectively. Those who refuse to educate themselves on a subject and continue to make derogatory comments are simply ignorant.
Americans have a lot to fear. The acts of terrorism committed against the United States and its allies, fuel this fear. It is hard to imagine that anyone after hearing of a terrorist bombing or a plane crash could not be overtaken by some amount of fear. We only have a limited amount of fear since our government and military is there to protect the country. Now for Arabs on the other hand, civilians have no one to protect him or her. In many countries the civilians live in constant fear. Fear of speaking out against or offending the leader of the country could get them killed.
As Americans we are pretty lucky in comparison to Arabs and fear. If we put ourselves in their shoes as Sam said in his talk on empathy, we would realize how much they really do have to fear. Not only are Arab nations currently uprising against their political leaders and facing the chance of being shot while protesting, they also have the fear of the Americans. Who could imagine a convoy coming through downtown State College running over civilians who got in the way or in some cases when the soldiers deter and shoot innocents. The local invasion of Americans is not the only thing; the Arabs are in constant threat of being bombed and many civilians accidently killed as a result of the bombings. It is important to realize that the bombings are happening to help liberate the Arab nations; however, the bombings are another fear of the Arabs.
The video highlights all of these horrific events. Propaganda such as videos like this one help place the fear in peoples minds and helps the fear grow. When Americans only see the terror cause by the opposing side, it is easy for them to view the opponent as evil or bad. Viewing someone as bad helps influence the fear and act out against it. I am sure most Americans will not know that the other side is in just as much fear, even the regimes leading and controlling Arabs citizens are in fear. It is easy to see that fear isn’t one sided.
Honestly, I think this video is ridiculous and extremist in itself. It is obviously biased because it outlines every single attack on the US and its allies in succession like they are all connected to some kind of Islamic takeover. Also, the quotes that were taken out of context were from blatantly extremist leaders who both Jews and Muslims admit to being too extravagant. This video makes all Muslims seem like terrorists, even though every religion in some point in time has had their share of insane war mongers. Secondly, everybody is taking the word "jihad" out of proportion and meaning. The Koran states that "jihad" is a holy war against non-believers and threats against God's will. It says nothing about killing Christians and Jews. In fact, the Koran also says Muslims should "support our brethren of other faiths" because they all believe in the same God. So both sides of this "argument" are equally wrong and outlandish. Unfortunately though, fear and anger can make any person become ignorant and susceptible to any information. That's why when someone in traditional Islamic attire, Americans want to stereotype in their mind that they might have terrorist intentions. Ironically however, the 911 suicide pilots were not in this garb; they had on westernized clothing that would be considered "normal". If you look at the history of the suicide bombers and terrorists in the past decade, most of them did not meet the stereotypical look that the reported news suggests. Many of them did not have "Islamic" dress or were even of Arab descent. There were a plethora of races involved as well as nationalities, which makes it impossible to try to racially profile a terrorist. In a way, this is smart from an insurgent's standpoint by taking advantage of Westerner's fear of an asinine image of a threat. Taking this into consideration could actually help in being more fair and being less ignorant when it comes to security and images posted on the news, because it is obviously misleading.
Moreso than fearful for myself after seeing this video and having been exposed to many like it before, for me personally I think of how sad it is to see that this is what these people choose to do with their lives, the only one they’ll ever live. It must be even harder for those Muslims living in these environments of hatred who want nothing to do with it, and all of the moderate, actual God/life respecting, Muslims who have been targeted by retaliation out of Americans fear of groups with missions like these that enact these brutal measures of Jihad. My take is that they claim it is for religion, that Allah is the true good and they are ordered by the Karan to kill anyone who is an “infidel”. This in a sense is them saying if you are not muslim, you don’t have the right to live. But in as much as religion relies on faith in a God, then why wouldn’t God do this himself? They are using a book thousands of years old that comes from a time of war to justify the killing of others while claiming religious justification in doing so. If that is what being a Muslim is about, so far as these radicals represent it, then what good is it? Who would want to be this type of Muslim? Only to live in hatred and to kill or give your own life to kill others who don’t share the same faith. Basically this says to me that what they are all about says that Allah put everyone here just so they can kill the non muslims. This is a huge contradiction that serves no purpose. It is really a front for a world power struggle stemming from animosity of differences that really drives this Jihad. They want to kill us because of our ways of life. Israel and Palestine are at war over the land each other lives on like were back in the years B.C., each giving ancient claims by their God to the other, and hate the other race personally because of it.Those of the true Muslim faith suffer because this is what the image of their religion comes to and it has become liable to heinous acts of genocide. It is like in Hedge's book with the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims in Bosnia hating each other, which in effect all it accomplishes it to establish they are different and continue more hate, which to me is a morbid life. They should just give up and let go, what keeps this type of terror alive in people is beyond me, why would they want to perpetuate this any further? If it is “God’s will” he would have it that way, but I chose to believe in a God the creator that commanded people to not kill, but I guess that makes me the target of these people and obviously I would also end up one to die for my beliefs in the face of them. Hatred is a sad waste of life and goes against the purpose of religion, which is to find meaning in life, because it has been corrupted to justify means like this. It is difficult and complicated, but amounts to a huge loss that continues to wage on.
Alright, so the video was a little disturbing, Im not going to lie. The images of all the terrorist bombings across the world, scenes from 9/11, images of people holding signs that basically say they want to kill me.. Its strange to see the real thoughts of people in some parts of the world. The video was obviously meant to strike a chord with people and was created purely to show the hatred that Islam feels upon the rest of the world..right? But, hold on. I think this video was created with the notion that anyone who watched it would start to hate islamic people.. its meant to make the average person think for a second about how intense the feelings are towards americans and christians from the islamic community. However, when I watched it I had mixed feelings. The video was a montage of images taken from scenes of terrorist attacks. The images were all of americans and christians being hurt by the islamic extremists and was meant to prove a point, that all islamic people are crazy insane idiots who just want to kill everything in sight. But, you have to take in and examine the entire situation to really have an opinion that matters.
What I see when looking through all the bullshit of scene after scene of terror is that were doing the exact same things to the people of islam as the are to us. Were over there killing innocents with bombs, killing children in firefightsm, killing entire wedding parties of people just by accident. If i was an islamic person that would piss me off too. I cant imagine living in a war zone seeing my friends and family being killed everyday just for the oil. And everyone knows its about the oil. So, imagine having your kid killed by a stray bullet, how would you feel? Would you want to strap on a bomb and walk into a mall filled with people and blow yourself up? Im not going to lie, I might have some of those feelings too. So this chaos thats unfolding between Islam and the western world cant be fixed instantly, but the best way to fix it isnt through more violance, the best way would be to just leave each other the hell alone and chill.
Watching the video honestly affected me. Some of the images were very disturbing and generated a certain feeling of despise towards the Islamic people given that all the images were "crimes" they have committed towards western countries and christians. I put the word crimes is quotes because it is very hard to determine what a crime is without considering both sides. A crime always has a point of view, just like wars and enemy countries have points of views. A man who runs into a crowd of american soldiers and blows himself up may be seen as a fucking suicide bomber that killed our troops, however, an american soldier may have entered his house, raped his wife and molested his kid in front of him and he is just doing that for revenge. Would you still consider it a crime? I know i wouldnt. These videos are intended to brainwash people into believing that Islams are all bad people; that they are the enemy. These videos take advantage of the people who dont know anything about the topic, people who dont have the knowledge that the american troops are doing the same thing, if not WORSE, to the islams. At the same time, i dare to say that same videos are shown to the islams about the americans being assholes who destroyed our nation. Taken that into consideration, it is easy to predict that this "war" (which is definitely for the oil) is going to continue on for a very long time.