From: the.wise.one@abel.co.uk   
      
   Excerpt from: "Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?"   
   by Morgan Spurlock, 2008...   
      
      
   ...I kept looking for signs of Osama in Riyadh.  I went back to the   
   street I'd passed earlier, a place where young guys hung out, and   
   thought I might spot him there, cruising for new recruits for his jihad.   
     I was blown away when I got there.  It looked like Anytown, USA.  The   
   street was lined with strip malls, and they were packed with American   
   fast-food joints.  In this one strip alone, maybe a block long, I saw   
   Starbucks, Applebee's, Chili's, Häagen-Dazs, Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin'   
   Donuts, Domino's, Quiznos, Subway... and a GNC, where you could get   
   herbal remedies for the tummy ache you got from eating in all those   
   places.  The only un-American thing about these places was that the   
   seating was segregated into sections for "Families" and "Singles," like   
   all restaurants in the country.   
      
        I sat with a quartet of hip-looking young guys -- Mohamad, Ahmed   
   (popular name), Mansour, and Faisal -- who were hanging out in front of   
   Quiznos, smoking cigarettes, sipping Pepsi and Lipton iced tea, shooting   
   the breeze.  Their ages ranged from eighteen to twenty-two, and they   
   looked fully Americanized -- from Mohamad, with his long rock hair and   
   black Metallica T-shirt, to the more hipster Ahmed, who had short,   
   chopped hair and wore little designer glasses.  A couple of them had   
   visited the States, and they all had friends or family there.   
      
        "I'm looking for Osama bin Laden," I told them.   
      
        They all laughed.   
      
        "He orders a lot from Domino's Pizza," Mohamad joked, pointing at   
   the nearby store.   
      
        "So Quiznos is the wrong place to look?" I asked.  "He's a Domino's   
   man?  No wonder I didn't see him at the Pizza Hut.  Well, if I'm not   
   going to find him, what do you guys do for fun around here?"   
      
        "Mostly, we hang out at anyone's house," Mansour said.   
      
        "Just cruise up and down the street," Mohamad said.  "You can find   
   people hanging out at cafés and just talking.  They don't give us much   
   to do, which is a problem.  Personally, I just stay home.  There are no   
   recreation centers you can go hang out at.  Malls are strictly for   
   families -- they won't let bachelors in.  They have a specific day for   
   bachelors, and it's only in the morning."   
      
        "There's nothing else to do," Ahmed agreed.  "They complain about   
   the youth, saying the youth are wasting their time on the streets doing   
   nothing.  Well, you didn't leave us much choice, did you?"   
      
        We shot the breeze about how hard it was for them to date girls,   
   about their favorite bands, movies, and TV shows ("'South Park' is   
   probably the greatest American literature that ever came out," Mohamad   
   declared), and about how, like a lot of young dudes everywhere, you   
   basically had to drag them to the mosque to get them to pray.  Somehow I   
   wasn't surprised to hear that there's a branch of the religious police   
   that does just that, cruising the streets in SUVs in search of   
   rebellious youths to haul off to prayer.   
      
        These were four young Muslim males that I couldn't see getting   
   attracted to radical, extremist movements anytime soon.  Extremist heavy   
   metal, sure.  Radical partying, uh-huh.  But Al Qaeda?  Mohamad claimed   
   that he didn't even know what it was...   
      
      
   from:   
   "Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?"   
   by Morgan Spurlock   
   Random House, 2008   
   Chapter 11: Saudi America   
   pages 189-190   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)