Qatar vs all others

[AE Bravo]

I'll start thinking of them as separate states once they stop thinking of themselves as Muslims and start thinking of themselves as citizens of their states. As it is, I think of them as blocs, with Iran and any other Shias it can influence as one bloc, and the Saudi alliance as another bloc. I'm not the only one to think that way either, judging by what's going on in the thread subject. It was probably the neocons' mistake that they saw Iraq as its own state, rather than a piece in a multi-bloc puzzle that was better left alone. At the time, I opposed the invasion because I believed in the liberal argument of self determination. Nowadays, I have the same view except that I feel that the region is a hellhole not worth our effort. Muslims will do as Muslims will do, and it's none of our business, and we shouldn't beat ourselves up over how badly they treat each other.

Who are you referring to? The states concerning this thread are nationalists and only two in the area have an Islamist national character. Neocons actually prefer your bloc view and disregarded Iraq's lack of democratic traditions, its history, and civil society. I agree with you that it's not worth the western effort because that effort has been severely incompetent. The problem is your militaristic view of a region with over 200 million people, thinking that it's a basket of clone states with the same way of life because of the headlines that grabbed your attention. The homogenous Muslim culture you're talking about has been outweighed by secular nationalism in a number of states there already, but that hasn't really shown itself to be any better.

Now, are you going to chastise me for holding views about other cultures that mean we shouldn't interfere in their affairs? Would you like to argue that we are all part of the same world, and thus we should involve ourselves fully in their affairs as they're also our affairs? What do you think of the Iraq invasion of 2003?

Nope, just that your broadstrokes geopolitical views be expressed where they are relevant and not in a thread concerned with a small scale rift that has nothing to do with your grievances about Islam.

For a guy who supposedly gave up on Muslims and their world, you sure do like to proffess that you gave up on them at every turn.

[Pannonian]

Who are you referring to? The states concerning this thread are nationalists and only two in the area have an Islamist national character. Neocons actually prefer your bloc view and disregarded Iraq's lack of democratic traditions, its history, and civil society. I agree with you that it's not worth the western effort because that effort has been severely incompetent. The problem is your militaristic view of a region with over 200 million people, thinking that it's a basket of clone states with the same way of life because of the headlines that grabbed your attention. The homogenous Muslim culture you're talking about has been outweighed by secular nationalism in a number of states there already, but that hasn't really shown itself to be any better.

Nope, just that your broadstrokes geopolitical views be expressed where they are relevant and not in a thread concerned with a small scale rift that has nothing to do with your grievances about Islam.

For a guy who supposedly gave up on Muslims and their world, you sure do like to proffess that you gave up on them at every turn.

Are we obliged to think well of the region and say they're jolly decent people and so on?

And in Pakistan, someone has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, posting something on Facebook. And a while back, some university lecturers accused one of their students of blasphemy, resulting in a mob beating said student to death. And let's not forget a few years back, when a couple of high profile politicians who argued against the blasphemy law were assassinated, and their killers subsequently treated as martyrs (even here in the UK). And talking about the UK, how about that guy in Glasgow who was killed for being an ahmadiyya?

If you disagree with broadstrokes, and want to distinguish between individual states, note the guy born of Libyan parents, who got upset by US bombings in Syria, and thus decided to kill kids in Manchester. Why did a Brit of Libyan descent get upset at what's happening in Syria? What did the Syrians have in common with him, if, as you say, the individual states have separate interests? And if he was upset at American actions, why did he take it out on British kids? If the Muslim states are individual and separate, are we westerners an indistinguishable bloc whose deaths are as good as one anothers?

And in any case, why aren't we allowed to hold opinions about other countries that result in us having less to do with them? Plenty of people around the world hate Britain. That's their right. Why isn't this right reciprocated? Why are they allowed to dislike us, but we're not allowed to dislike them back?