Are People Really That Stupid?

I recently read something on Faiza's blog A Family In Baghdad that made me laugh. The following describes the current conditions in Afghanistan.

The rebels come from the school, (madrasa), inside Pakistan, which was established since the times of the Soviet Union fighting, when the later used to occupy Afghanistan… these schools were financed by the United States government, and some of the Islamic governments, which helped Bin Laden to go to Afghanistan, making him a religious hero to fight the infidel communists … there was a strong campaign in many Arabic countries, supported by governments, this campaign was led by the clergy in those countries, in cooperation with the governments, they waged the campaign of Jihad (struggle) against the enemy in Afghanistan, brain washing the minds of thousands of Arab young men, pushing them to go there, (at the beginning of the 1980s), paying for the fees of their transports, study, and arms training in camps belonging to those religious schools that teach Jihad.
What is Jihad, according to these schools?
It is fighting the non-Muslim only, training to kill them.
Those young men, whether Afghani or Pakistani Muslims, they do not understand what the Holy Quran says, but read it only, not understanding the meanings, and their teachers instruct them that killing the non-Muslim is your sure way to heaven.
Of course, then the enemy was an infidel communist, who do not admit to religion, so, the story is reasonable; kill your infidel enemy, and not only an infidel, but an occupier…
So, those young men, young in age, experience, knowledge, and education, were exploited, forming an effective weapon to push out the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan…
But the problem is that those schools are still there, giving the same lessons, spreading the same poisons in to the minds of simple people, telling them that Islam is a religion of violence, killing, and terror against all non-Muslims…without understanding the Quran, and what's in it, of a great humanitarian message, of peace, and love.
How come that we, Arab Muslims, have lived since thousands of years with Christians and other religions, in our countries in peace, without violence?
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict isn't religious, but they tried to put it in the guise of religion. (Muhammad was Arabic, living in our land, the books talking about him are many, clear and comprehensible.
The Holy Quran is Arabic, and comprehensible.
Why weren't we terrorists all our lives? Why was a deformed picture of Islam sent there? Why did the American government support manufacturing that deformed picture? Why was that picture used in the Media, so that whenever the word "Islam" comes into the news broadcast, we hear words like "extremist" or "fundamental" with it? As our British teacher…..from South Africa says?
Why weren't we, the Arabs, with the message of Muhammad living among us, implemented in our lives, the sample of Muslims in the Media?
Why was Islam deformed, making it the enemy No.1 after the fall of communism?
Why do we see, since 1990, that most conflicts in the world have an Islamic party? And it wasn't like that before the fall of communism?
Even the war between Iraq and Iran, two Muslim countries, started by the devising and encouragement of the American government to Saddam Hussein.Even the backwards government of Taliban, that deformed Islam, assumed power in Afghanistan by the support of the American government.
Do the people are stupid?? (my emphasis)
When people come to our countries, they find out the amount of peace in the hearts of Muslims, and the amount of mercy. The Arab and Islamic people still honor the guest, respecting and welcoming, even if he was a citizen of a western country whose government is an enemy, and their history is full of injustice against us…
But Al-Zarqawi and Bin Laden are the deforming children of Islam… they are the children of the American government; she produced them, raised them, and then turned them into bombs, planting corruption, destruction, and evil, in the name of Islam….
Islam is innocent of all that….
And one day, the truth shall be revealed to all….

Yes, Faiza, many people are idiots. They neither know nor care what anyone else thinks. They're lucky to be able to form an independent thought. In my country they voted for Bush twice. In your country they're blowing things up. It's scary what fear can make people do. President Franklin Roosevelt told the truth when he said "We have nothing to fear except fear itself".

But then again, perhaps we do have something to fear. President Bush will be within sight of my house in little more than three hours. I live in a small town, with well under 30,000 people. He was here during the campaign, but at that time I was sticking to the moral high ground. Now I'm so pissed off I would love to make a big scene.
(for future legal purposes, I have no intention to kill or maim the President)

Having said that, if I could make him slip on a banana peel I would.

Does it seem a little wierd to anyone else that President Bush never goes near Americans who don't already agree with him? No wonder he was so proud of his "mandate". In his mind it was unanimous. Dissent has been ignored. He still implies that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.

More of the Republican Trick. When faced with the truth, stick to your lie. Call the truthteller "unamerican" and/or "liberal" and the stupid people fall for it every time.