Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 10:31:27 +0100 From: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> To: "Denny Jodeit" <denny@jodeit.com>, "FreeBSD Chat" <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Why no Indians and Arabs? Message-ID: <a05101027b84365277d1e@[10.0.1.22]> In-Reply-To: <005101c186ca$c637b560$6f830acf@gdennyj> References: <3C1CE49E.39FBBED2@mindspring.com> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0112161846210.45555-100000@server.highperformance.net> <20011216222651.A92038@nexus.root.com> <005101c186ca$c637b560$6f830acf@gdennyj>
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At 2:16 AM -0500 on 2001/12/17, Denny Jodeit wrote: > In light of the video recently released, uncovering bin Laden's uncaring > ways for even his own followers, the question about Arabs and Indians was a > little on the insensitive side. But I also understand the nervousness. It's > a Catch22, no doubt. But let's not, for mankind's sake, repeat past > mistakes. Arab in descent doesn't mean evil. Muslims do not want the rest of > the world dead, how ridiculous. No God of any religion would want people > killed in His name. I find all this rather surreal, especially the grossly mistaken belief that all muslims are "evil". I went to the University of Oklahoma, which still has one of the best petroleum engineering schools in the world. It's a state-supported school, and even out-of-state tuition is lower than the in-state tuition at many other universities in the US. This makes it very popular with international students, especially those coming from oil-producing countries. We had a widely varied and rich mix of cultural values, and while I saw more than my share of stupid rednecks that would bash anything that was different, I also met plenty of people from other countries. I found that I frequently liked the international students a lot better than some of the American ones. Some of the international students would say that they were from Persia, because after the fall of the Shah (and the taking of the hostages from the US embassy), they didn't want to be identified with Iran. Some of them said that they were from Palestine, and only once was anyone ignorant enough to ask where that was on the map. Sure, I had some problems with some international students, but I would have had the same problems with Americans that displayed the same sorts of incompetence -- no teaching skills, talking into the blackboard at ninety miles an hour, and answering "Well, it's in the book" to any question asked in class, are not problems unique to international graduate students. If I had been in a class with an American graduate student that exhibited the same kind of behaviour, I would have reported him to the Dean and tried to get him fired, just like I did to the international graduate student who displayed these faults. Incompetence is incompetence, regardless of nationality. Indeed, the only unusually negative interaction I ever recall having with anyone who was Muslim, happened over here a few weeks ago. I was in the Netherlands, attending the final program committee meeting for the SANE 2002 conference, and on my way back to Belgium. A train had just arrived, and I thought it was supposed to be the one I needed to be on (in order to avoid being stranded overnight), but I wasn't sure. So, I was trying to boot my laptop so that I could read an e-mail message I had sent with all the train schedule information, and confirm whether or not this was the right train. I had my laptop out, and carried it and my other bags onto the train, and set down in a compartment. As I was trying to access my laptop, three guys came into the compartment -- one of them tried to direct my attention outside of the train, while the other two tried to steal my laptop bag. It might have worked if I hadn't been in such a rush, and trying to get them to just get out of the compartment and leave me alone. As it was, I noticed what was happening, and as I saw the other two trying to leave, I bellowed at the top of my lungs that they were stealing my bag (I have yet to find anyone who can yell as loud as I can). They apparently decided that it would be the better part of valor to avoid the homicidal American, and retreated at high speed. As best I can figure, these three guys (all Muslim, so far as I could tell from their manner of dress and speech), thought that it would be fun to harass an American, I guess as some sort of retaliation against the actions that had recently started in Afghanistan. But I certainly don't lump all Muslims into the same category as a result of this experience. -- Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be> H4sICIFgXzsCA2RtYS1zaWcAPVHLbsMwDDvXX0H0kkvbfxiwVw8FCmzAzqqj1F4dy7CdBfn7 Kc6wmyGRFEnvvxiWQoCvqI7RSWTcfGXQNqCUAnfIU+AT8OZ/GCNjRVlH0bKpguJkxiITZqes MxwpSucyDJzXxQEUe/ihgXqJXUXwD9ajB6NHonLmNrUSK9nacHQnH097szO74xFXqtlbT3il wMsBz5cnfCR5cEmci0Rj9u/jqBbPeES1I4PeFBXPUIT1XDSOuutFXylzrQvGyboWstCoQZyP dxX4dLx0eauFe1x9puhoi0Ao1omEJo+BZ6XLVNaVpWiKekxN0VK2VMpmAy+Bk7ZV4SO+p1L/ uErNRS/qH2iFU+iNOtbcmVt9N16lfF7tLv9FXNj8AiyNcOi1AQAA To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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