"The Great Satan"

As many of you may know the United States was called "The Great Satan" by the Ayatollah Khomeni of Iran. I was always puzzeled by this reference to our Country, what did he mean by this designation? Another person who used the term was Osama bin Laden during his missives to explain why he set up the 9/11 attack. I have recently read a translation of some of those missives and was surprised at what it means. For the Islamic religion, Satan is a temptor who tries to get a believer to sin. What is it that the Islamists are concerned about as far as the U.S. is concerned? What they see are the Holywood Movies that glorify sex, alchohol, homosexuality, feminism and the dissolution of the family, particularly the male as the head of the family. They do not understand our divorce rate which leaves so many children with a single parent. They find absurd our placing our children in the center of family decision making. As religion is central in their lives, they find it abominable that the vast majority of our citizens do not practice religion. Also, they find our courts very lenient and prefer Sharia Law. In attempting to protect their culture from that of the West, in this highly technological world, they desire a separate sphere for themselves. However, modern technology is exposing Muslims to the decadence of the West. We are tempting them to sin. The Mullahs are resisting this Western culture and bin Laden decided to defeat us militarily because, in his estimation, we were soft and Americans would not take casualties. So there you have it, the changes we have seen in our society in the last 60 years has obtained for us a new name, "The Great Satan."