I agree with you, Long Hair, this thread has really nothing at all to do with the interests of MD students from international schools.
Originally posted by praying4MD
What in god's name does the WTC have to do with the original post? If I posted pictures of Cancun or London, or the beautiful Nile in Sudan, would you also threaten to post a pic of the WTC. The Nile is the Nile and it is stunning; what country it is in is peripheral to appreciating its beauty. I am getting so disgusted with SDN. Ugh.
O dear. Sometimes I forget how important it is when addressing a wide audience to avoid inferences or implications....there are always people who will miss your point or misinterpret.
If you think back to the time of my post, ayanjoe was at that time presenting himself as this caps-locked, screaming moralist who headed posts with topics such as whether Jewish people were allowed in heaven, or the immorality of sex outside of wedlock, or how sacrilegious folks would burn in hell.
Our very next thread from this seeming radical is an invitation to Americans to visit his home country, Syria - a country notorious for its support of Muslim extremists: the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist factions.
My emotional reaction was to say, "you know what, let me tell you about my country. I come from a beautiful country too. In my country, Jews do go to heaven. We can have different views on religion and nobody goes to hell. Those of us who have loved someone outside of marriage are decent, honorable people. Tolerance and acceptance are cherished ideology in my country.
ayanjoe, let me show YOU a picture of my country; the same country whose people you seem so critical of..."
Of course, based on the subsequent character of his posts, it is now apparent to us all that ayanjoe is not some extremist looking to inculcate us with religious dogmatism (well, at least not in a hostile way). Rather, he is some teenage kid excitedly and clumsily revealing himself and his background to people from a different culture. I know this about him because I took the time to ask him.
People die because of religious and cultural bigotry. Our losses are real, and they are raw, and they are recent. That rhetoric coming from someone from the Middle East felt, at best, irritating to me and, at worst, ominous.
I misread ayanjoe; that is clear -- now. It wasn?t at the time that I had those sentiments.
-ws
