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by What was meant to be a token of good will has, instead, become a veritable apple of discord. Recently U.S. forces in Afghanistan distributed soccer balls adorned with flags of the world, the intent being to give Afghan children a gift they would appreciate. Reaction to the balls, however, has taken the form of a protest against the U.S. for insulting Islam. One of the pennants displayed on the balls is the Saudi Arabian flag, which features the shahadah, the Islamic statement of faith. This, according to Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini, is completely unacceptable: "To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world." A U.S. spokeswoman described the incident as regrettable and said that it was not immediately recognized as offensive.
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0 Nerd-Its
thought experiment
keeping in mind that the foot is considered dirty--pretend, if you will, that in support of one of our relief efforts we issue a catholic country jockstraps emblazoned with images of a smiling jesus christ. (or, for a little more subtlety, make it son-of-man stamped kleenex.) then as general background on top of that--add that we've been driving around shooting things and occasionally blowing things up for a while. then pretend, regardless of whether or not we actually cared, that we _already knew_ these were the touchiest people on the planet.
would we be surprised people in our hypothetical country were pissed off? i don't know. i wonder sometimes if we have an agency organized to spread cultural not-awareness.
DISCLAIMER: this post does not reflect my own views. the only thing that offends me personally is running out of red meat and cigarettes when i'm drinking in public with andrew dice clay, the wu-tang clan, and a girl scout troop plus on the roof of the nearest abortion clinic. (do i really think any of you care? no, but i wanted to type that all out.)
0 Nerd-Its
thought experiment
keeping in mind that the foot is considered dirty--pretend, if you will, that in support of one of our relief efforts we issue a catholic country jockstraps emblazoned with images of a smiling jesus christ. (or, for a little more subtlety, make it son-of-man stamped kleenex.) then as general background on top of that--add that we've been driving around shooting things and occasionally blowing things up for a while. then pretend, regardless of whether or not we actually cared, that we _already knew_ these were the touchiest people on the planet.
would we be surprised people in our hypothetical country were pissed off? i don't know. i wonder sometimes if we have an agency organized to spread cultural not-awareness.
DISCLAIMER: this post does not reflect my own views. the only thing that offends me personally is running out of red meat and cigarettes when i'm drinking in public with andrew dice clay, the wu-tang clan, and a girl scout troop plus on the roof of the nearest abortion clinic. (do i really think any of you care? no, but i wanted to type that all out.)
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AH! We Suck Again by Bortnyk :: NR6 :: Show
Sometimes I wonder if we just blunder from diplomatic failure to policy crises cause we're just plain bad at it or if the Middle East is the most sensitive continent on Earth.