THEORY AND REALITY
Kuwait Times, Thursday, January 12, 2006
Arabic Press Review

By Dr. Sami Alrabaa

In an earlier article for Al-Qabas (Jan 5) Al-Baddah expresses indignation when British, American, or French officials come to Kuwait and "lecture us on human rights, political and social rights for women, democracy, freedom of speech, fairness and religious tolerance." Al-Baddah says, "We have all these values in our own religion, Islam. And we do not want the West, which learned all these things from us, to lecture us on our own old values, which we have developed and spread across the globe." Al-Baddah describes George W. Bush and Tony Blair as the worst dishonest people in the world and concludes, "Osama Bin Laden is right in his massive war on the West. We wish him all the best in this war and all the victory of the world and Allah bless him!"

It seems that Al-Baddah confuses theory with reality. Islam, certainly, teaches all the above values in one way or another, but in practice, are they really applied?