| I'm not qualified to really answer your questions, but as far as your comments about conflict, no matter which of the more preffered "true" histories you ascribe to, most of it was spent killing folks. Judging by pure time span, barbarism and cruelity are the "normal" way to spend a human life. This is not something unique to the fertile crescent. No matter which culture you study, you'll find war and death.
In my opinion, there's a lot of reasons why they "hate us so much." But the primary one is fanaticisim. When you're a fanatic, reason and logic aren't important anymore. Fanatics aren't restricted to religion. For an example, watch any news channel when they bring in speakers from any political party. Won't take long to see a fanatic. He's(or she's) the one spitting his hatred and illogic and trying to talk over the interviewer. They're easy to spot, and they come in all colors shapes and sizes. When you let your emotion rule your mind that way, its really easy to forget compassion and mercy. And eventually, you don't even remember what they felt like.
When you're so loyal to your ideology, political or religous, that you won't even stop to think about it, you can do anything. To anyone. And it doesn't matter. Because you were right, and they were wrong. Theoretically, there should be fanatics who aren't fed by hate and cruelity, but we don't see them very often these days. They don't get TV time. |