America is God

From Alaa's Third Law, Oct 8, 2006: "Just listen to any standard discourse of our Arab commentators, for instance. You will hear the word America or something to do with America, in every other sentence; if not in each one. America is deified, demonized, believed to be the source of everything that is happening. My son once told me that one of his teachers (of wahabi sympathies) emphatically told his pupils in class, that it was America that caused the Tsunami that struck the shores of Asia. Ordinary American folk may not quite realize or understand this; it is rather like some of these fairy tales when some quite ordinary person finds himself crowned as King or something of the sort."

An Iraqi on Sunday's bombing: ''We don't know whether it's the political parties, al-Qaeda, neighbouring countries or the Americans,'' said Ridah Mahdi Mohammed, 41, whose nephew was run over by a vehicle speeding away from one of the bombings. The Americans were primarily to blame, he said, because ''they control everything, from the sky to the ground''.

Iraq Pundit today: 'Few seemed to react today when a group with al-Qaeda links took credit for Sunday's suicide attacks. Iraqis are so exhausted that an old man swears that bystanders spat upon the deputy speaker Khaled Attiyah as he passed by. "Curses upon you and your politicians," the man said he heard them shout. "Curses upon you and your turbaned colleagues!"

When asked how he plans to vote in the upcoming elections, the old man said it did not matter. He said, "Jesus said you want it one way, I want it another, and what matters is how God wants it to be." Okay, no problem. "If I may borrow from that saying," he said. "You want it one way, I want it another, and what matters is how America wants it to turn out." '