It is a matter of degree FD, support comes in varied, and many forms.

I cannot help but think of the old joke where the guy asks a girl if she would have sex with him for a million dollars?
She says, "Yes".
He then says, "Here is twenty bucks, let's do it"
To which she replies, "What do you think I am?"
He answers, "We have already established that, now we are just haggling over the price."

Quote:


Apply this to Ireland.

The vast majority of Irish people have sympathies (read: non implicit support) for the IRA, even though the vast majority of Irish people would not join or fight with the IRA.

I honestly feel a very significant percentage of Muslims support terrorism and are anti Western.

easel wrote on Jun 14^th, 2008 at 5:20pm:


Another example exactly similar would be the Maquis in France during the Second World War.

They used very similar tactics to the IRA during this period.

The IRA might have classified British occupation of Northern Ireland as hostile.

How do you define terrorist activity as opposed to guerrilla warfare or freedom fighters? Does it depend on who writes the history?

Don't get me wrong here - I'm against violence of all kinds.

On September 11th 2001 I was on a flight between London Heathrow and Dakar Senegal. There was an amazing sense of celebration in the air the next day. The anti-American feeling in Africa runs deep, and the horrific events of the day before were seen as some kind of twisted victory. I deliberately refused to acknowledge some of the taunts on the streets. People automatically associated Caucasians with Americans. I stopped responding in English and put on my best French Gitan/Midi accent, and they stopped bothering me.

Two days later I was in a market in Bamako Mali, and the biggest selling items there were Osama Bin Laden teeshirts.

It wasn't about sponsoring terrorism. It was about the fact that the US, the World Police, suddenly looked vulnerable. It was an ideological victory, but it had nothing to do with religion. 

In largely Christian Ghana, I sensed a similar feeling a week later, although it was not quite so blatant.

Yeah, they all hate America, yet their the first ones they call for help and aide, they love American money though.

The biggest seller in many of these countries is second hand clothes from the US. Many US teenagers just wear their clothes once, and the second hand versions on sale in Ghana, Guinea and Senegal are as good as new.

Of course they try to sell the same items to Caucasians for more than the new price.

Its usually corrupt governments, army and police that make these countries poor, not to mention civil war every five minutes. Its a big world, there are other countries to trade with. Free trade is not free, its for the rich to get richer quicker, even the poor dont benefit from it.