I bet you anything that you want that the roots of "home-grown" terrorists are at school.
The reason why young men decide to blow themselves to bits for a cause that no one seems to understand is mostly likely to be because of the treatment they receive from other kids in their childhood. For instance, they may start making jokes about their families, the way of life in their countries of origin, and maybe even make the stupidest remarks about the colour of their skin, their language or even the very sound of the name of the country they or their parents may have come from.
I know from experience how annoying this can be. I come from Sri Lanka, a fairly large island in the Indian Ocean. How many of you knew that? How many of you would drag up another member of the class and tell you "Hey he's from India. You're from the same place!"? How many of you still would laugh and say "Ha - what a stupid name for a place!" before deliberately making pathetic misprononciations of the name? How many of you still would say "Oh - that's nice" and ask a silly question like "Have you seen a coconut tree?" (the answer to that would be yes - they're quite common and are still a major yet declining export) before forgetting and asking again in 3 weeks.
I can understand the fact that, yes, in the grand scale of things, Sri Lanka is perhaps not the most important and recognised player in regional geopolitics. And yes, India is in close proximity to Sri Lanka. It may be polite to ask. But gee, is it absolutely infuriating to have someone make fun of a country that probably has more civilised history than your own culture. If you keep on doing it, as well as being an absolute bigot, then you probably should watch out if you're in any public place at all.
I am perhaps a very extreme case - I am not too sure if many Sri Lankans can be proud of their country in light of recent events: they are more likely to be concerned for themselves and their family, cos they actually are facing a kind of terrorism at the moment. And in reality, I perhaps am a rather meek character. But that may not always be the case. I hate to say this, but try to be a bit (but not too much) PC about other people's culture. Atleast see what they think about if first.
