Thoughts of an American Muslim September-October

what has been forbidden. Worse, they took to the city streets in a demonstration. Many were arrested and thrown into jail. A sorry state of affairs, in a country which considers itself the greatest in the world. How did all this come about? The reasons should be of special interest to Muslims all over the world, especially to those attracted to the glamour of things American. One of the chief reasons is not far to seek—Hollywood. It is difficult to believe nowadays that at one time amorality was largely confined to cinema screen. People then had a moral ethical sense. One has only to compare crime figures to those of today. Nowadays, movies and television shows are so highly emulated that at times it is difficult to distinguish between what is happening on the screen and what is happening in real life. Show business dominates this country. Movie and television stars are worshipped. The stars consider themselves sacrosanct. When the Reagans moved into the White House, they behaved like royalty and talked of the Carters as common people. Another important reason is one that created an enormous chasm between what happened before and what happened afterward World War II. It was a war then, to quote Nietsche ‘everything was permissible.’ It was, as everyone knows, the most brutal war ever fought. It was during that period that compassion disappeared. Other countries might have recovered it, but not the United States. In addition, that brutality and that freedom to do anything one wanted without any restraint whatsoever did not disappear in this country with the end of the war. Both persisted and, worse, increased. The Americans were basking in what then appeared to be a perpetual and luxurious sun. The United States had gone into