Hi Rob,

You bring up a very interesting topic and some good points. However, the Middle East is not undersexed as a whole, but rather the poorer and younger segments of the population are. Harems and multiple wives are the privilege of the man who can afford them. Of course this leaves the poorer and younger Arabs with time and a certain amount of frustration. This frustration and lack of access is what created a historic subsegment of the younger, poorer population which is homosexual, despite the will of Allah, because the women were sheltered away.

The escape mechanism is age old. Whether it be sex, booze, drugs or even television, movies and internet surfing. All need the outlet to relieve themselves of daily stresses and pressures. Without such convenient escapes, most individuals become even more fanatical or polarized. The austere individual packs his escape mechanisms into short intense periods and then goes back to the suppression of desire. The religions that disallow marriage for priests has created these type of intense escape mechanisms towards whatever is handy.

So your premise that the Middle East needs a Las Vegas is in some ways very true. However because of the religious grip on the region, you have many individuals who believe their reward lies in heaven with the virgins. Think about it Rob...try and really believe that 72 virgins await you if you live your life in a certain manner and obey certain rules that your God has laid down for you. You see how many minds can be controlled by the promise of reward in the afterlife. They will fight tooth and nail against the west because they really believe that they will be rewarded after they die.

Ignorance and religion in the region create these suicidal fanatics. The western mind with a bit more education, awareness of many religions, and his/her own indoctrination can scoff at the Muslims' beliefs as backwards and pagan. However, for those indoctrinated in these beliefs since they were young - and without the ability to read to absorb ideas which counter them - they will go from birth to death convinced of their validity.

The terrorists that visited Vegas before they went on to kill themselves are an interesting study. Did all of them go there to fully partake of the pleasures of Vegas? Or did they go there to confirm all the evil and decadence which exists in the west and fortify their belief that the west must be destroyed? (even if some of them succumbed to the western tempatations) I asked myself that after having found out about their stay there. If they did succumb, perhaps their programmed guilt made them even more dangerous.

A Baghdad Vegas would do good business and at the same time would be the target of all these thousands of austere types who suppress their pleasure and for whom fanaticism and violence has become a form of escape mechanism.

Yes, violence can be added to the list of escape mechanisms. In America during the epidemic of 'juvenile delinquency' (circa 1940-1970) young gangs would form and their escape mechanism consisted often of violence and not pleasure.

The youthful volunteers that serve Al-Sadr or join Al Qaeda often seek relief of these unnatural pleasure suppression through violence. A young, pleasure suppressed male, with deep bile and frustration carefully directed at a particular target by manipulation is a very dangerous individual.

This is why we see suicide violence by the young and poor in the Middle East. It is a uniquely Muslim creation and supposedly supported and encouraged by Allah. In the rest of the world such manipulation of the young is an abomination.

Indeed if a 'Baghdad Vegas' could take hold it would reduce the suppression in the long term, but for those who would continue to believe, or harbor guilt complexes, it would also spur and be the target of many incidents of horrible violence as well.

Bottomline: Education & Literacy first. Reading can also be used as an escape mechanism - an inexpensive and vastly diverse one. Once the masses and young can read, and have access to many books, the whole world and its varied beliefs and pleasures will be opened up to them. Then I think the suppression will diminish and each generation will be freer than the previous ones. Vegas may not then be necessary, but I suspect 7-11s will.