US sees the world it sees it fit, as the other Nations do.
The problem is the US keeps on changing its views, sometimes, it is difficult remember what it had perceived earlier.
One underlying principle never changes, what the US thinks the ground Realities are and.. they are invariably wrong!
How The US sees the World.
Personality profile: Massively hypocritical, fond of sitting around criticizing countries that, in public, it professes to love and support. Told the US to keep track of Guantanamo detainees with microchips, as if they were “falcons or horses.” America’s response: “Horses don’t have good lawyers.” Like a fat kid on a sofa, covered in cake, telling his big brother to go and beat people up.
What America sees:Two-Face. The handsome, Harvey Dent half of the face is Saudi Arabia in meetings: a charming rich guy who has time to shake hands with everyone. In private, Saudi Arabia screams through an acid-ravaged face about how everyone needs to “do something” about everyone else.
Personality profile: Paranoid, delusional, vaguely gay. The British desire to be considered an important player in the diplomatic game make the UK an ideal place to launch morally-questionable, legally-bankrupt operations against nations with more balls and conviction than it has.
What America sees:Sir John Falstaff. Past his best, stumbling around the party drunk singing the national anthem and shouting about having the “best geography teachers in the world” before ending the night on the floor, crying.
“His name is Majed Al-Maliki from Saudi Arabia; his diet is 22 live scorpions. By eating scorpions he kept a Guinness world record. I don’t whether it is delicious or not but it difficult to watch. The previous record held by American Dean Sheldon with 21 scorpions.
“Wuhan University researchers said their findings — from the first venom analysis of the arachnid — uncovered nine novel poison molecules never before seen in a scorpion species.
The scientists led by Yibao Ma of the university’s Laboratory of Virology studied the sting of S. jendeki, a member of the family Euscorpiidae, which covers Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
“Our work greatly expands the current knowledge of scorpion venoms,” said Ma. “We found 10 known types and nine novel venom peptides and proteins. These molecules provide a rich, hitherto-unexplored resource for drug development, as well as clues into the evolution of the scorpion venom arsenal.”
The study that included Ruiming Zhao, Yawen He, Songryong Li, Jun Liu, Yingliang Wu, Zhijian Cao and Wenxin Li appears in the journal BMC Genomics.
Contrary to popular perception that Muslims favor Jihad, want women subjugated( this writer included), the Survey Findings lets us know that Muslims think as any one else.
What is needed by Muslims is to back up their collective Will to throw away the crazy Mullahs who preach the obnoxious concepts like Jihad,Slavery of women.
However Muslims have some more steps to take like emancipation of women and getting rid of Ghetto mentality of Pan Islamism.
For instance while Muslims in Islamic countries favored Sharia , they differed in its interpretations they want it applicable in select areas, Property Rights,Divorce,
‘The percentage of Muslims who say they want sharia to be “the official law of the land” varies widely around the world, from fewer than one-in-ten in Azerbaijan (8%) to near unanimity in Afghanistan (99%). But solid majorities in most of the countries surveyed across the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia favor the establishment of sharia, including 71% of Muslims in Nigeria, 72% in Indonesia, 74% in Egypt and 89% in the Palestinian territories.’
Jihad No,
‘Few U.S. Muslims voice support for suicide bombing or other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam; 81% say such acts are never justified, while fewer than one-in-ten say violence against civilians either is often justified (1%) or is sometimes justified (7%) to defend Islam. Around the world, most Muslims also reject suicide bombing and other attacks against civilians. However, substantial minorities in several countries say such acts of violence are at least sometimes justified, including 26% of Muslims in Bangladesh, 29% in Egypt, 39% in Afghanistan and 40% in the Palestinian territories.’
On Freedom to practice other Religions in Islamic Countries.
‘At the same time, the survey finds that even in many countries where there is strong backing for sharia, most Muslims favor religious freedom for people of other faiths. In Pakistan, for example, three-quarters of Muslims say that non-Muslims are very free to practice their religion, and fully 96% of those who share this assessment say it is “a good thing.” Yet 84% of Pakistani Muslims favor enshrining sharia as official law. These seemingly divergent views are possible partly because most supporters of sharia in Pakistan – as in many other countries – think Islamic law should apply only to Muslims. Moreover, Muslims around the globe have differing understandings of what sharia means in practice.’
“In most countries surveyed, majorities of Muslim women as well as men agree that a wife is always obliged to obey her husband. Indeed, more than nine-in-ten Muslims in Iraq (92%), Morocco (92%), Tunisia (93%), Indonesia (93%), Afghanistan (94%) and Malaysia (96%) express this view. At the same time, majorities in many countries surveyed say a woman should be able to decide for herself whether to wear a veil.”
Conflict between Science ,Religion and Modern Society.
“Overall, the survey finds that most Muslims see no inherent tension between being religiously devout and living in a modern society. Nor do they see any conflict between religion and science. Many favor democracy over authoritarian rule, believe that humans and other living things have evolved over time and say they personally enjoy Western movies, music and television – even though most think Western popular culture undermines public morality’
‘The new survey also allows some comparisons with prior Pew Research Center surveys of Muslims in the United States. Like most Muslims worldwide, U.S. Muslims generally express strong commitment to their faith and tend not to see an inherent conflict between being devout and living in a modern society. But American Muslims are much more likely than Muslims in other countries to have close friends who do not share their faith, and they are much more open to the idea that many religions – not only Islam – can lead to eternal life in heaven. At the same time, U.S. Muslims are less inclined than their co-religionists around the globe to believe in evolution; on this subject, they are closer to U.S. Christians.’
But mere Guns and ammunition for them will no be enough to defend one country.
One has to have Tanks,Artillery, Armored Cars, and Warships.
In addition one has to have Research facilities as well.
One should have technology and the Investment capacity to produce them.
Smaller countries do not manufacture them and they import from the Countries that develop these arms.
How do these smaller get them?
In Theory there is a ban on export of Arms.
At the practical level, as the investment is huge for these Industries and you can not afford to keep them idle, they are continued to be manufactured.
But the requirement for the Country’s consumption is limited.
Continuous production implies additional investments, that too ,on a large-scale is required.
So the countries that manufacture Arms, export, though paying lip service to” Ban of Arms exports’.
Main Arms Suppliers are :US,Canada,Britain,France,Italy,West Germany(with certain banned manufactures under 1954 Paris Treaty,Sweden,Switzerland, Spain,Belgium, Israel and South Africa.
Israel and South Africa, unsure of their stand in the world of Importing Arms because of their peculiar political situations , have their own Industries.
The mutual export and Import is not a problem for them.
Smaller countries requiring import from any of these countries have to get cleared by the War Office and the foreign Office of the respective countries they want to import from.
Major West European Suppliers.
The four major West European suppliers (France, United Kingdom, Germany,
and Italy), as a group, registered a significant increase in their collective share of all
arms transfer agreements with developing nations between 2003 and 2004. This
group’s share rose from 5.5% in 2003 to 22% in 2004. The collective value of this
group’s arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2004 was $4.8 billion
compared with a total of $830 million in 2003. Of these four nations, the United
Kingdom was the leading supplier with $3.2 billion in agreements in 2004, a
substantial increase from essentially no agreements in 2003. An important portion
of the United Kingdom’s total in 2004 was attributable to a $1.8 billion agreement
with India for 66 Hawk advanced jet trainers, and a large agreement totaling in
excess of $1 billion with Saudi Arabia under the Al Yamamah military procurement
arrangement. France increased its agreements total to $1 billion in 2004from $519
million in 2003, aided by a contract to provide support for Saudi Arabia’s Crotale air
defense systems, and Shahine ground-to-air missiles for about $410 million. Italy
increased its arms transfer agreements with the developing world from $311 million
in 2003 to $600 million in 2004. Germany registered effectively no new developing
world arms orders in 2004. (charts 3 and 4)(tables 1A and 1B).
The Minority community expresses anger, hurt over a Film like Viswaroopam which in no way insults Islam or Muslims.
Please read my post ‘Yes Viswaroopam Hurts, Review’
Three has been no protest over the beheading of Indian Soldiers by Pakistani Soldiers.
But there is protest over the hanging of a man who has attacked the Parliament of India and killed people!
There is no ‘hurt’ over 6000 Indians jailed in maximum security jails in Saudi Arabia.
‘Over 6,000 Indians are currently languishing in foreign jails with the maximum of 1,691 being lodged in Saudi Arabia. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, said a total of 6,293 Indians are imprisoned in various
countries.
He said 1,012 Indians are lodged in jails in United Arab Emirates followed by 441 in the US, 426 people in United Kingdom, 377 in neighbouring Nepal, 279 in Qatar and 225 in Kuwait.
The number of Indians lodged in Pakistani prisons is 224 while 114 people are languishing in jails in Australia, 167 in Bangladesh, 187 in Malaysia, 52 in Iran and 27 in Afghan prisons”
There is no anger at the discriminatory and insulting treatment meted out to Indian Muslims the Middle East,Indonesia and Pakistan to name a few Countries.
Why?
Look at these Statistics.
Alcohol use in predominantly Muslim regions of the world increased by 25 percent between 2005 and 2010.
Statistics provided by research group Euromonitor International reported a constant increase in the use of alcohol in several countries where the Muslim religion, which prohibits the use of any product capable of affecting behaviour (drugs included), is dominant. Quoting the survey, Le Monde reported that between 2005 and 2010 the average consumption by the French dropped from 104.2 litres of alcohol per year to 96.7, while in the same period in the Middle East and Africa area it increased by 25%, from 11.7 billion litres to 15.2 billion.[2]
February, 2011
“The Gulf is an important market for us to continue growing,” said Jane Ewing, Diageo’s general manager for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The London-based maker of Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka posted a 16 per cent rise in regional net sales last year [2010] and expects sales to double in the next five years in the MENA region. The Gulf Arab region alone accounted for 44 per cent of Diageo’s total sales in MENA, with the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon being its two largest markets.[3]
March, 2011
According to the study [cited by the Alriyadyh Arabic language daily], Arab countries spend more than $10 billion on Viagra and other anti-impotence medicines every year and that Saudi Arabia [ranked sixth largest consumer of sex drugs] alone spends over $1.5 billion [10 times more than Russia although the population in Russia is more than 10 times the Saudis]. It is followed by Egypt and the UAE, which spend about $one billion and $500 million respectively.[4]
While alcohol consumption is supposedly forbidden, the Muslim world has seen nearly double the increase in alcohol consumption in the past decade, according to a new study.Across the Islamic world, The Economist magazine said, consumption is on the rise, with an increase of some 72 percent between 2001 and 2011.
“I believe it 100 percent,” said Egyptian lawyer Ahmed, who regularly joins his friends at a bar after work for a beer.
“We just like to enjoy ourselves and this whole religion thing has not been something that hinders us,” he told Bikyamasr.com.
Surprisingly, the Islamic world’s increase in boozing has been as the rest of the world has only grown in its alcohol consumption by some 30 percent.
The magazine, in its report on the new figures, said that the “rise [in alcohol-sales in the Middle East] is unlikely to be accounted for by non-Muslims and foreigners alone.”
Muslims are just as likely to partake in drinking as their non-Muslim counterparts. Granted, there are some Muslims who maintain abstinence to drinking, but the magazine and others believe Muslims have had a direct role in the rise of alcohol.
Although a taboo in many Muslim countries, more so in places like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Pakistan where it is legally banned, drinking is still commonplace.
In other places, such as Lebanon, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Egypt it is legal to consume alcohol and bars are often crowded.
. . .
While there are some countries where drinking is lower, overall drinking is becoming a common part of many lives in the Islamic world, from Morocco to Indonesia.
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