So the focus on Gaza and Islam in this article is very misleading, I would argue that it has almost no real impact compared to the real reason right here: It's literally just about money, and...
So the focus on Gaza and Islam in this article is very misleading, I would argue that it has almost no real impact compared to the real reason right here:
Yet even those who spoke highly of America could not point to specific contributions the country had made to Cambodia apart from its support of civil society groups.
It's literally just about money, and specifically top officials getting their cut. The kind of thing where official state salary is 400 bucks a month...obviously enough to own three Bentleys.
China throws money and massive infrastructure development at these countries. Laos is basically a vassal state. Myanmar is so fucked that money alone earns a sort of mercenary loyalty.
The way it works is China traps these countries in loan or operations agreements where there is basically no way for the country to ever pay the loan back, or China gets to collect the majority of the operation's earnings, or both, but it doesn't matter because the extremely corrupt government officials get their cut, while the country itself and regular people are screwed.
Myanmar and Laos are also both basically massive crime syndicate safe havens for Chinese criminals. They provide an outlet for very well known gangsters to basically operate with impunity in their own mini-fiefdoms. This in turn eases the movement and laundering of illegal money in and out of China earned from drug, wildlife, and human trafficking. Top officials in these countries obviously get a cut.
The reason Vietnam is still somewhat "pro-america" isn't because they like the US, they just hate China more because China has been fucking with them for 1000+ years (more really).
For Cambodia they are probably starting to realize what a shitty deal it is to be in business with China, as they just got a bunch of low quality condos in Phnom Penh, ruined beaches, and a shit load of wealth extraction.
Thailand is basically an ally due to...well rolling over whenever there's a war (Japan WW2, USA Vietnam), but also because the CIA loves easily controlled dictators and monarchs and we already had bases and joint operations training centers there from Vietnam (and still do). We also helped start/improve their higher education system ~100 years ago.
So to me it seems fairly obvious this change in ranking isn't due to Islam, but instead because the US doesn't do much of anything for anyone unless you let them run military bases out of your country.
How bizarre that Muslims in Southeast Asia would prefer alignment with China vs. America due to American support of Israel in Gaza. I also disagree with how the Biden administration is handling...
How bizarre that Muslims in Southeast Asia would prefer alignment with China vs. America due to American support of Israel in Gaza. I also disagree with how the Biden administration is handling that conflict, but do China's treatment of minority ethnic groups within their own borders not get reported in Southeast Asia? I understand no culture is a monolith, but is there a schism between Uighur Muslims and other Muslim groups around Southeast Asia I don't understand?
If you note the exact wording of the response, what they really have issue with is support for Israel, not necessarily any particular actions against the people of Gaza. A Jewish nation is...
If you note the exact wording of the response, what they really have issue with is support for Israel, not necessarily any particular actions against the people of Gaza.
A Jewish nation is fundamentally at odds with traditional Islamic belief. It’s very explicit that Jews are one of the enemies of Islam, and that their ultimate fate in Islamic belief is to be vanquished once and for all. Thus any state helping a Jewish nation is hampering Islam’s purpose.
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah!, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!" – But the tree Gharqad will not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.
Gaza aside, the US is preventing the “the last hour” from occurring by providing arms and support to a Jewish state, as they must be eliminated first.
I suppose, in the end, that seems to trump sympathy for another Islamic minority being eradicated by the CCP. Enemy of my enemy and all.
Good God, this is exhausting. You quoted a Hadith, which is essentially gossip of what the Prophet said or did in his time. The Hadith literature is expansive and often contradicts itself or even...
Good God, this is exhausting. You quoted a Hadith, which is essentially gossip of what the Prophet said or did in his time. The Hadith literature is expansive and often contradicts itself or even the Quran. Here is a quote from the Quran:
Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. [2.62], repeated in [5.69] and [22.17]
There's also the famous quote, which was the basis of religious pluralism in the Islamic world throughout history:
Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood. So whoever renounces false gods and believes in God has certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing hand-hold. And God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. [2.256]
Of course, things are not all sunshines and roses. The Quran talks about the Jews in many other instances, but mainly to say that they are ungrateful, arrogant, and are going to burn in hell, which is par for the course for a proselytizing religion.
It's quite ridiculous to read SEA countries shopping around for allies and/or holding the US account for its support of what is either an ethnic cleansing campaign or a genocide as Jew hatred. It's also ridiculous to suggest that the Islamic world is any sense fundamentally violently opposed to Jews, when the Jews have been treated worse in the West on average over the course of the last 2000 years than in the Islamic world.
yeah, as always America is losing support around the world because it is a failing empire run by bad people. it's really that simple. Even the role Islam plays is that America's chosen Other...
yeah, as always America is losing support around the world because it is a failing empire run by bad people. it's really that simple. Even the role Islam plays is that America's chosen Other ("radical Islamic terrorism") does have consequences. Turns out Muslims don't like it when you're really racist about other Muslims! wow, what a concept, what will these white people think up next?
Sometimes it feels like America forgets that the world existed before American global hegemony, and that the world will continue just fine after it ends. That its actually a shockingly short time in geopolitical terms.
The United States has recently been touting its “convergence” with Asian partners. At the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin titled his remarks the “New Convergence in the Indo-Pacific.”At the Brookings Institution the following month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken maintained that the United States enjoys “much greater convergence” with key Asian partners, citing improved ties with Japan and South Korea and the strengthening security links between NATO and the Indo-Pacific. And, also in July, at the Aspen Security Forum, Blinken reiterated that he had “not seen a time when there’s been greater convergence between the United States and our European partners and our partners in Asia in terms of the approach to Russia, but also in terms of the approach to China.”
But the truth is that the United States is losing ground in important parts of Asia. Each year, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute—a research institute funded primarily by the Singaporean government but that conducts its work independently—polls between 1,000 and 2,000 respondents in academia, think tanks, the private sector, civil society, nonprofit organizations, the media, government, and regional and international organizations from the ten countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The survey is the closest thing the region has to a longitudinal study of “elite opinion” on regional and international matters, providing a good sense of the trajectory of perceptions, even if some might quibble with its finer details. In the poll this year, the majority of respondents picked China over the United States when asked whom ASEAN should align with if forced to choose between the two. This was the first time respondents picked China since the survey began posing this question in 2020.
Breaking down this year’s result by country shows that since the 2023 poll, the United States has lost the most ground to China among respondents in Laos (a 30 percentage point decline), Malaysia (a 20 percentage point decline), Indonesia (a 20 percentage point decline), Cambodia (an 18 percentage point decline), and Brunei (a 15 percentage point decline). The United States has also lost ground in Myanmar and Thailand (10 and 9 percentage point declines, respectively).
The United States still commands very high support in the Philippines (where 83 percent of respondents selected it over China) and Vietnam (where 79 percent did) and solid backing in Singapore (62 percent), Myanmar (58 percent), and Cambodia (55 percent). But only in three countries did respondents’ preference for aligning with the United States over China grow from 2023 to 2024—the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam—and these increases were small. Given the question’s framing, the United States’ loss is always China’s gain. In other words, respondents—including government officials—in many countries in Southeast Asia, including one of two U.S. allies (Thailand) and two of four partners with which the United States’ Indo-Pacific Strategy seeks stronger relations (Indonesia and Malaysia), now report that they would choose China over the United States if forced to align with just one of the strategic rivals.
So the focus on Gaza and Islam in this article is very misleading, I would argue that it has almost no real impact compared to the real reason right here:
It's literally just about money, and specifically top officials getting their cut. The kind of thing where official state salary is 400 bucks a month...obviously enough to own three Bentleys.
China throws money and massive infrastructure development at these countries. Laos is basically a vassal state. Myanmar is so fucked that money alone earns a sort of mercenary loyalty.
The way it works is China traps these countries in loan or operations agreements where there is basically no way for the country to ever pay the loan back, or China gets to collect the majority of the operation's earnings, or both, but it doesn't matter because the extremely corrupt government officials get their cut, while the country itself and regular people are screwed.
Myanmar and Laos are also both basically massive crime syndicate safe havens for Chinese criminals. They provide an outlet for very well known gangsters to basically operate with impunity in their own mini-fiefdoms. This in turn eases the movement and laundering of illegal money in and out of China earned from drug, wildlife, and human trafficking. Top officials in these countries obviously get a cut.
The reason Vietnam is still somewhat "pro-america" isn't because they like the US, they just hate China more because China has been fucking with them for 1000+ years (more really).
For Cambodia they are probably starting to realize what a shitty deal it is to be in business with China, as they just got a bunch of low quality condos in Phnom Penh, ruined beaches, and a shit load of wealth extraction.
Thailand is basically an ally due to...well rolling over whenever there's a war (Japan WW2, USA Vietnam), but also because the CIA loves easily controlled dictators and monarchs and we already had bases and joint operations training centers there from Vietnam (and still do). We also helped start/improve their higher education system ~100 years ago.
Would you like to know more?
Inside Southeast Asia's Criminal Empire:
https://youtu.be/fZbmeW3nyN8?si=b1H-i0b3LZNFg3dU
BBC on Mong La Myanmar:
https://youtu.be/xqbw_7Vo_eA?si=Te1M8fiL1s1ccyRM
Meth Cheaper than Beer:
https://jclao.com/meth-now-cheaper-than-beer-in-laos-as-myanmar-chaos-fuels-trade/
Myanmar Scam Call Center:
https://youtu.be/Ti7YDegRMYE?si=wsLkw5i6FwhPA3ab
Laos Scam Call Center:
https://youtu.be/U4m92pGnf60?si=AToKhI08TARJiJS9
King Romans Group:
https://youtu.be/MO29RHhlS6g?si=2iktagPH0G1_aP1w
USA Actually Doing Good Stuff:
https://th.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulate/chiang-mai/history/then-now/u-s-thai-friendship-in-education-culture/
Chinese Railway (Belt and Road):
https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-in-southeast-asia-the-next-decade/
Compared to USA COVID Vaccine Donation:
https://la.usembassy.gov/united-states-donates-more-than-one-million-covid-19-vaccines-to-lao-pdr-through-the-covax-facility/
So to me it seems fairly obvious this change in ranking isn't due to Islam, but instead because the US doesn't do much of anything for anyone unless you let them run military bases out of your country.
How bizarre that Muslims in Southeast Asia would prefer alignment with China vs. America due to American support of Israel in Gaza. I also disagree with how the Biden administration is handling that conflict, but do China's treatment of minority ethnic groups within their own borders not get reported in Southeast Asia? I understand no culture is a monolith, but is there a schism between Uighur Muslims and other Muslim groups around Southeast Asia I don't understand?
If you note the exact wording of the response, what they really have issue with is support for Israel, not necessarily any particular actions against the people of Gaza.
A Jewish nation is fundamentally at odds with traditional Islamic belief. It’s very explicit that Jews are one of the enemies of Islam, and that their ultimate fate in Islamic belief is to be vanquished once and for all. Thus any state helping a Jewish nation is hampering Islam’s purpose.
Gaza aside, the US is preventing the “the last hour” from occurring by providing arms and support to a Jewish state, as they must be eliminated first.
I suppose, in the end, that seems to trump sympathy for another Islamic minority being eradicated by the CCP. Enemy of my enemy and all.
Good God, this is exhausting. You quoted a Hadith, which is essentially gossip of what the Prophet said or did in his time. The Hadith literature is expansive and often contradicts itself or even the Quran. Here is a quote from the Quran:
There's also the famous quote, which was the basis of religious pluralism in the Islamic world throughout history:
Of course, things are not all sunshines and roses. The Quran talks about the Jews in many other instances, but mainly to say that they are ungrateful, arrogant, and are going to burn in hell, which is par for the course for a proselytizing religion.
It's quite ridiculous to read SEA countries shopping around for allies and/or holding the US account for its support of what is either an ethnic cleansing campaign or a genocide as Jew hatred. It's also ridiculous to suggest that the Islamic world is any sense fundamentally violently opposed to Jews, when the Jews have been treated worse in the West on average over the course of the last 2000 years than in the Islamic world.
yeah, as always America is losing support around the world because it is a failing empire run by bad people. it's really that simple. Even the role Islam plays is that America's chosen Other ("radical Islamic terrorism") does have consequences. Turns out Muslims don't like it when you're really racist about other Muslims! wow, what a concept, what will these white people think up next?
Sometimes it feels like America forgets that the world existed before American global hegemony, and that the world will continue just fine after it ends. That its actually a shockingly short time in geopolitical terms.
I think you have to source this one. I don’t think that’s supported by Islamic religious texts. They aren’t besties but vanquished? Hmmm