East vs. West

I think the torture scenes in this film point out something not pointed out often enough. The popular depiction of East vs West is that of American/European/Israeli actions and attitudes toward the Muslim world and the Muslim world's radical attitude towards these countries. However, if you notice, Pakistanis tortured Hassan (albeit with the complicity of the CIA). This points out the "war within" the Muslim world: secularism vs. radical religiousness. It is not just a matter of religious radicals being anti-Western; it is also a matter of these radicals being against secular leaders who are corrupting Islamic civilization and morality by trying to emulate Western leaders while violently suppressing their own people. Many people in the Muslim world believe, with some accuracy, that Western hands are soaked in the blood spilled in the secret prisons of Tehran, Baghdad, Riyadh, Cairo,and, in this case, Karachi. These secular leaders in turn believe, also with some accuracy, that this new religiousity ("Islamism" is fairly modern) is a detriment to the prosperity of the countries they are trying to build/restore, and therefore believe that any means are necessary to erase this detriment. A good example is Saddam Hussein's secular regime in Iraq or the pre-revolution government of the Shah, which was propped up by the CIA.

I think it is important that the West realize that not all evil in the Middle East or other Islamic countries is caused by religious zealots. Much evil is also caused by governments that we support simply because they are "moderate". It is good and well that we criticize the Afghan government for wanting to kill anybody who converts to a different religion, but we should also be wary when we hear on the news about the Pakistani army raiding villages for terrorists, which is ironically similar to Israeli actions in Palestine and, perhaps, American actions in Iraq. We are quick to point out that the 9/11 hijackers were from our allies (i.e. business partners) in the Middle East and Pakistan, and that therefore these governments are behind this; I think the opposite is true - these governments would gladly kill these people, which may explain a little bit as to why 9/11 had to happen.