From: bes@cco.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Subject: Re: Bosnian Muslims
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 05:50:21 GMT

In article <20399@optima.cs.arizona.edu> you write:
>In article <1992Aug11.170714.8411@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> mmasood@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Mohammed A Masood) writes:
>>Salaam,
>>	Muslims men, women, children, old all are calling to help
>>	them out of the sufferings they are going thru in Bosnia.
>
>Are you concerned about the suffering of non-Muslims in places
>like Croatia or the Sudan or Somolia or South Africa or .... ?
>Here in the West we believe that people are equally precious
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>irregardless of their race or religion.  Some people here don't
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>yet fully believe that, but they don't usually say it publically
>because they'd get flamed for being such a bigot.

Yes, some people here in the West, like 90% or so, don't yet fully 
believe that. But they're only a tiny winy bit away from the ideal 
egalitarianism and before you know it, the perfect ideal will
be achieved.  (Sorry about the sarcasm!)

Meanwhile, it would be a good idea for the West to stop the
arms embargo against Bosnians so that they can at least defend
themselves.  Nobody is asking the catastrophy in Iraq be
repeated, i.e. for Serbia to be bombed back into the "pre-industrial
age" with UN authorization.  By the way, I took the phrase bombed back
into the preindustrial age from the UN's own report of the damage to
Iraq.

Also, I am not asking that the United States be bombed back into the
pre-industrial age for its illegal occupation of the soeveign state
of Grenada or its invasion and occupation of Panama.  I don't like to
see 200,000 American children starve or die from disease as a result
of such an operation.  

I am also not asking the UN to bomb the former Soviet Union into
the pre-industrial age because of occupying Afghanistan and killing
2 million people in an already impoverished Muslim country.

I was depressed to watch Iraq being bombed back into the pre-industrial age, 
even though it had attacked the sorverign state of Iran, my own beloved homeland.  
For me, it was really sufficient that after 13 years the UN finally accepted to
give a mere verbal admission that Iraq was to blame for invading Iran.  And 
what a coincidence that such an admission came only after the relations between 
Iraq and the West got unpleasant.

>You've done a pretty good job of disgracing yourself with the
>bigotted drivel above---you don't need any help from Allah.
>Unfortunately, such drivel seems to be the accepted wisdom
>in some parts of the world.

Yes, "in some parts of the world" such "drivel" seems to come naturally
to people, while "here in the West," people think
rationally and are completely even-handed and unbiased in
viewing other cultures, as the history of the relations between
the West and the rest of the world amply proves.

>Dave Bakken                               Internet: bakken@cs.arizona.edu
>Dept. of Computer Science; U of Arizona   Voice:    +1 602 621 4089      
>Tucson, AZ 85721; USA                     FAX:      +1 602 621 4246
>The fact that you're paranoid doesn't prove they're *not* out to get you.

Behnam Sadeghi