What position do you take concerning living in the Middle East?

I grew up in the Middle East, the UAE to be precise.

As far as I know, the Arabs there are a very rich lot and they really dont go to the US of A for an education and neither do they settle down there.

They study till they are 18, settle into the family business and take it forward from there.

I didnt see any sort of "jehad" oriented stuff there.

Which country in the Middle East are you referring to? Because it definitely isn't the UAE-Bahrain-Qatar-Saudi etc region. Those regions are already immensely rich.

I wouldn't want to live there so long as the area is a bloody battleground between Palestinians and Jews, and in too many other areas a perpetual battleground among Shiite, Sunni and Christian Arabs over land and political power.

I haven't visited any country in the Middle East, however, so I can't testify from experience.

I have talked to two American Jews, both of them former idealistic Zionists, who worked for a year or two on a kibbutz in Israel and returned to the US enormously shocked and saddened by the mistreatment of the Palestinians under Israeli rule.

The two former Zionists I'm thinking of are the most ardent anti-Zionists I know, and somewhat resemble Noam Chomsky, another former Zionist turned critic of Israel, in the way they think about the chronic Middle Eastern conflict.

Apart from that, all I know about the Middle East comes from books, magazines and TV and radio news. The novels of Naguib Mahfouz have given me an interest in Egyptian society, and Thomas Friedman's superb journalistic book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" makes Beirut sound like it was a perfectly fascinating society to live in before the early 1980s.

I like Orhan Pamuk's semi-autobiographical book "Istanbul" also.

But I still wouldn't want to live over there. I'm afraid it would resemble the place of perpetual bloodshed and heartbreak that is portrayed in the journalism of Robert Fisk. OTOH I'm getting to have a real enthusiasm for Lebanese restaurants here in the US.

I take none. Personally, I am quite happy where I am; though I can see where the Middle East could be a nice place to live depending upon where in the Middle East. Likewise, Alabama could be a nice place to live depending upon where.

One of my best friends growing up was from Pakistan and her family was very well off. My husband's family is from Portugal, and they've done very well here. I know a lot of people whose families have come from foreign countries because they believe that in America there are many great opportunities -financially and spiritually. In some middle eastern countries women aren't allowed to drive. The United States has certain freedoms that aren't allowed in some countries. It is not a negative thing.

Duh i am from the Middle East {Dubai} and many of my cousins are in London and US { its their choice ,, they aren't forced by parents } to study there because the education there is stronger . Sometimes their parents go n visit them every 4 month. Whats the Big Deal ?

Why move back to a backwards, third world, totalitarian dictatorship when all of your sinful desires are here for less?

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