Al Qaeda appears to have taken two American servicemen hostage in Iraq. American servicemen have hundreds of al Qaeda terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Certainly you've noted that the two groups treat their captives in a very different manner? The Americans feed and clothe the al Qaeda prisoners, and provide them shelter, medicine, and religious materials. Al Qaeda murders American prisoners. Every good person hopes this fate will not come to the two U.S. servicemen captured by al Qaeda. Every intelligent person expects that it will.

The media and human rights groups treat America and its enemies differently as well. Certainly you have noticed this too? Minor indignities perpetrated by Americans against suspected terrorists, such as female interrogators brushing against prisoners, generate headlines and organizational protests. Al Qaeda murders don't elicit such sustained outrage. And, as one argument posits, that's the way it should be: we should neither expect equal things from American servicemen and al Qaeda terrorists nor would protesting terrorists in the West result in improved al Qaeda behavior the way protesting America in the West influences America's military behavior for the better. That's perhaps the best argument (there are good counterarguments) for this glaring double standard.

Another double standard deserves more discussion, and more outrage. In the Arab world, protest against America is frequent but impotent. Protest against al Qaeda, on the other hand, could be potent but is almost non-existent. If the critical introspection that is pervasive (to a fault) in every Western nation exists in the Arab world at all, it does so behind closed doors. Vocal Arab dissidents are usually Arab immigrants.

Why do Westerners often protest comparatively minor offenses while Arabs occasionally celebrate absolutely massive atrocities? Could it be that the two different standards prevail because two different religions prevail? The West, though much of it operates as if in a post-Christian age, still retains Christ's imprint: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." If such a maxim exists in Islam, it carries little weight among the Arabs who follow that ancient creed. The true religion of peace is the one that embraces the Golden Rule.

It is the absence of the Golden Rule that fosters Arab indifference to beheadings, suicide attacks upon civilians in pizza parlors, and rail-station bombings. It is the presence of the Golden Rule that triggers Western offense at Abu Ghraib and other American military misdeeds.

Too late.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/20/D8IBVC3O1.html

These people are just f'ing primitive animals who should be exterminated and I have no problem starting with our pampered terrorists at Guantanomo.

The only thing these pieces of s#$% understand is strength through violence, so why not show them we mean business and treat them appropriately bad.

Roll them in bacon fat and hang them.

"Vocal Arab dissidents are usually Arab immigrants."

Yes. Because once they've immigrated they go to countries with governments that respect and protect free speech. The practices of Al Qaeda are not that far removed from the practices of many Arab leaders themselves - beheadings, mutilation, etc.

I should have qualified that "one reason for that might be that because once they've immigrated (emigrated) they go to..."

Your comments about the Golden Rule are spot on.

Where is the cowardly Pinch Sulzberger and his editorial staff at the NY Times? Where is Jimmy Carter? The ACLU? Amnesty International? The UN?
The double standards and hypocrisy of the "hate america" left continues.

Make no mistake about this, John Kerry,Ted Kennedy,Russ Fiengold, Dick Durbin etc. want the USA to lose the war in Iraq. Like Vietnam, these people are fully aware of the consequences of an early American withdrawal.

Very good take on Golden Rule!

Recently, an Iraqi terrorist leader was talking about the desecration of the Koran at Guantanomo by the U.S. Doesn't matter that it never happened, just that the enemy believes the fiction that was reported by the leftist press and supported by un-American leftist politicians with an agenda. But, this type of thing is exactly what the primitives who we're fighting in Iraq believe and are inspired by.

Support it or not, we expect our troops to fight a war or at least protect our interests and security. In the meantime, our press and politicians undermine them by making them out to be worse than the people they're fighting against.

Our troops are certainly more resolute in their mission than people at home are but how long before they start to wonder what they're fighting for?

The old Viet Nam mentality has not died and thanks to a contingent of old left over war protesters there seems to be no concern for our military.

The Islamic version of the golden rule is actually a principle of bigotry. It calls for reciprocity only between Muslims. The link you posted cites the hadith:

"None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.
--Number 13 of Imam "Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths."

But "brother" here explicitly only refers to "Muslim brother." See for instance this translation.

The Koran, verse 48.29 makes this explicit:

"Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those with him are firm of heart against the unbelievers, compassionate among themselves."