[Morrigoon]

I didn't imply they weren't educated. What I'm getting at is really that if their countries weren't in that bad a shape, they wouldn't have reason for resentment to grow.

As far as education, I heard an interesting point from someone at a Mensa gathering that I (of course) had no idea about. Apparently (and feel free to confirm or refute this claim) the mere act of learning another language is enough to make the educated middle easterner become "isolated" and "different" from his peers. The reasoning behind this is that apparently the language (I assume he meant arabic?) has no past tense. Everything that ever happened in the past happened "now" in a sense, in the way it's spoken in the language. (This would also explain why they're mad at *us* for Crusades that happened centuries ago). So when someone learns other languages, they have to learn to separate the past from the present in their minds, which makes them different from others in the culture, identity wise. This isolation can cause unhappiness and identity crises for the educated. So they take up a cause.

Anyway, I don't know if it's true or not, but if it IS true, then it's a fascinating insight into the culture. And as I said before... that little language quirk (if it exists) explains why they act like the crusades happened just yesterday.