Salam to all,
I wanna draw ur attention to this issue...

US has released a vidio tape in which British soldiers r showen while beating Iraqi youth mercilessely & in the background there is a soldier's voice who is encouraging them...

This thing shows double standerds of Eourpians ...they blame on Islam that it teaches extremisim & hate 4 other religions to its believers....but they never xplain their own brutal acts i.e wt they hv done in Abu ghareeb jail & nw in this vidieo.....

2ndly this tape is released to pressurise the muslims ...so that we become afraid of them....

moreover they want to inflame the sentiments of muslims to make them hyper by showing this..if muslims will react against it as often we protest through "Gairao & Julao" this thing will help them to show that muslims r extremists & terrorists...

anywayz we all should pray to God to help us out of all these remidies becoz Muslim Umma is passing from a v tough phase...

remember in prayers...
with regards,
Muskan

I would not neccessarily call these double standards.
Some facts we have to accept. Im sure everybody here would say that the war is unjust. But we cannot turn the time back and we have to accept the fact that there is a war going on. And in all wars there are victims and rules are broken.
Crusades were no different for both sides.
Going back thousands of years, both sides fighting the war have taken advantage of others.
Even when the world got more "civilized" and drew up the tracts on how to treat the prisoners of war, rules were disregarded.
And when videos are released of American and other citizens being beheaded with a dull knife on a tv, its not going to help the european/western sentiment towards the middle east. (i understand that the videos were probably fakes, but the majority of the people will eat whatever the media tells them).
No true religion ever preaches violence, its the people who misinterpret it or who dont understand it, act on its behalf and mess it up for everybody else.

Dear all Salam,

I agree that most of us in this forum will state that this war is unjust and whats done is done and that is obvious that we are in no power to reverse the time, and like other wars there are victims and some rules have broken in this war too, but i am afraid i call all this double standard of west because the P.O.W treatment rules was first introduced by the west and west is breaking them rules.

Yes i agree some people eat whatever media tell them, but why are few soliders been punished in America and U.K i m sure the investigation teamd in U.S and U.K do not eat what media gives them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4716280.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/4718328.stm

I certainly agree no religion teaches violence but this unlawful invasion of middle east, afganistan and iraq has been very violent, so obviously these westners are not following any religion.

I will definately call this double standards of west towards muslims as i was thinking few days ago when was the last time they had a war in their teritory? when was the last time their kids became orphaned? when was the last times their weddings been bombed? when was the last time their school been bombed with a laser guided missile? When was the last time an ordinary family became a victim of misinformation of C.I.A or MI6.

Yes there are some facts we have to accept whether we like it or not and western double standard is one of them.

Kind Regards

__________________
Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.!!!

Very often we ourselves do many such things which may be considered to be "double standard" from the point of view of others. A common American citizen actually thinks his country as being on the right if it successfully prolongs the present uni-polar world.

I try to explain it while supposing that I am an American. Being an "American", I am feeling that my nation is endowed with this divine responsibility that it has to maintain global peace at any cost. I also think that it is due to the efforts of my country that international peace forums like United Nation etc. are "effectively" functioning now. The role of my nation is that of an active, good and successful policeman. It is due to the efforts of my country that now nations throughout the world do not indulge themselves in wars. Now powerful countries do not occupy the territory of weak countries. Iraq for example did it once. But it was due to the efforts of my country that it had to pay heavy price for it and the sovereignty of Kuwait was restored as a result of the efforts of my country. There are many fanatic people living in this world. They forcefully interrupt the peaceful lives of other nations. For example there were Nazis and Communists. If my country did not become the supreme military power of the world, then either Nazis or Communists would have become. What if Nazis were the supreme military power of the present world? Obviously the relationship between Nazis and rest of world would have to be that of master and slave because Nazis are “racially superior” to all the others. I would think, as a good American, that role of my country as a super military power is really very positive because it is after all not preaching any idea of racial superiority. My country is trying to promote democracies in the whole of contemporary world. Since democracy is good, it means that my country is thinking for the goodness of other countries of the world. Our country has saved the world from Communist Devils. They wanted to forcefully over-throw the peaceful governments of other countries. They wanted that other countries also follow their insane economic and political system. A Communist system does not allow liberty of thought to the populace. It is our country, which is the strong advocate of, and vigorously confederates the freedom of thought. Bertrand Russel was right in his analysis that people under the communist system cannot be allowed to deviate their minds from Dialectical Materialism. In USA, on the other hand, people are free to choose any ideology or creed whichever satisfies their thirst of wisdom. Thus in our country, there are Christians, Jews, Muslims and others as well as people of our nation follow such wide range of ideologies as positivism, pragmatism, materialism, idealism, existentialism and so on. If our country were not the super military power of the world, the ruthless Arab Muslims would have eaten-up relatively very small group of Jews who just want to live in their “promised” land.

With the fall of Communism, another kind of fanatics, the extremist Muslims now want to rule the world in their own very ignorant style. They do not want that women, out of their masses, be given proper education. They inhumanly treat those who belong to other religions. They consider it their religious duty to destroy even the archeological remains. They do not allow that other religions be preached in the countries wherever they may establish governments. When they assume power, they require from their masses such insane things as to keep beard of a certain length and to wear dresses having designs which come up to certain specifications. They want to promote a thing, which they call “jahad”, which is very wicked, harmful and dangerous for other “peaceful” nations. Jahadies consider it all right that civil buildings of other countries be destroyed by bombs. They do not feel guilty if innocent women and children also die as a result. They want to employ WMDs in their terrorist activities. It is our country, which is so dedicatedly fighting against this global level terrorism.

Obviously when I would think all these things, as being a good American citizen, I would feel not much bad of what my country did in Hiroshima, in Vietnam, in Iraq and elsewhere. I would feel then that this is actually a price, which have to be paid for attaining and maintaining the global peace etc. etc. And it should be noted that it is true that Americans really do not feel much bad of their acts in Hiroshima or elsewhere. Because, in my assessment they think in above mentioned way.

Now I stop assuming that I am an American. I actually thought over the issue of so called “double standards”. We do not feel good of these so-called “double standards” wherever we see them. Problem however is that we (obviously others also) can see “double standards” in the acts and policies of only others. Normally one group of humans cannot see its own double standards. USA is no exception. I think that ‘double standards’ exist in two main forms. First can be considered as ‘value preference’ whereas other can be regarded as pure double standard.
The concept of ‘value preference’ can be seen as functional in our own daily lives. There are many things, which we consider as ‘valued’. The way of thinking, action, behavior and attitude, which we consider ‘important’, are our values. We prefer telling the truth to telling a lie. Truth for us therefore is more important. Normally we shall continue preferring telling the truth to telling a lie but only up to the point where our truth remains in harmony with the rest of our value systems. For example I prefer telling a truth to telling a lie. This is my ‘value’. I possess some other values also. For example I want that my friends may not suffer any severe loss. My wish that my friend may not suffer severe losses can be considered to be another of my ‘value’. And sometimes I may face such situations where I would be needed to prefer one of my values to the other. I value truth and at the same time I also value my friends. Sometime there may arise conflict between these two of my values. Sometimes I may prefer the value relating to my friends to the value relating to the truth. This seems to be a ‘double standard’ but I like to call it as ‘value preference’. When I have to prefer one of my values to the other, I justify myself on the basis of comparing the difference between what I get and what I lose, in ethical terms, in this way. If my minor act of telling a less wicked lie saves my friend from a grave loss, then I can ethically justify myself in telling a lie over telling the truth. In other occasions I still continue preferring telling the truth over telling lies. Someone may point out that I am practicing double standard. But as I said earlier, I do not think so as I know that my behavior in this case is characterized by ‘value preference’ and not by any ‘double standard’. And I find nothing ethically wrong in this type of value preference because here we are bound to choose between two evils. If we really face this situation and then who choose the option which is less wicked it means that we can justify our-self by thinking that we are still ‘good’.

‘Double Standard’ is quite a different thing. It is such a way of thinking that I myself want to live a honorable life but I want to humiliate others. When I humiliate others, I get no extra benefit of it. So pure double standard is actually a pure selfish behavior.

When I apply this analysis to the study of the behavior of contemporary Muslim and Western world, I find that about all the behavior of Muslims which is considered negative by the western world, is actually a matter of ‘value preference’ for the Muslims. Muslims, how much bad their behavior may be seemed to others, in my complete honest and impartial opinion, fall in the category of ‘value preference’. They value so much to the honor of Prophet (PBUH) that they may not feel bad of their violent strikes. Even the extremist Muslim sects actually value their particular creeds so much that they become ready to even kill the people who belong to different sect. This extreme negative behavior can be regarded to be the result of their ignorance of the true Islamic teachings but it cannot be regarded as any pure selfish behavior.

Behavior of western powers, which seems bad to us, however cannot always be considered to be ‘value preference’. When there were reports of CIA that Iraq actually does not possess any WMD’s then the decision of initiating military attack on Iraq was a pure selfish decision. During the war time, when USA was pretending to act like as if it were just doing ‘value preference’, i.e. when USA’s aircraft were throwing evil weapons and ‘good’ food and other necessaries at the same time, USA’s this act cannot be considered to be ‘value preference’ in any way. Iraq was not so big a power that could pose any real threat to the security of USA. The dictator ruler was also not bad in himself because he was given the punishment for those acts, which he committed when he was USA’s ally. So in this case, a powerful country only humiliated a weak country without any moral objective. It is very important to understand that USA tends to commit 'double standards’ under the disguise of ‘value preference’. In the case under review, they did it using the propaganda of WMDs.

The negative behavior of Muslims mostly is the result of their present state of ignorance. They sometime value some those things, and in such a manner, which actually do not come up to the standard of original and pure Islamic teachings. Muslim world is facing two main challenges which are first, the curse of their own ignorance and secondly, the ‘double standards’ of western powers. I intentionally have ordered these challenges so but reasons for this order cannot be covered in a short reply to a post.

Thanks!