Darren re #7147-
As I probably have posted before, I work with a Muslim, I do business with Muslims, some of which I was surprised to find out were muslims, and see them all over. They coexist and go about their daily lives as do any other Americans. In my area, there are also islamists preaching on the streets, getting arrested for plotting terror (just this past week in Queens), and all sorts of things in between. As you also know, I am against islamism. Recently on this thread the question came up regarding which side the moderates would take if the islamists got the upper hand. The question disturbs me because I couldn't guess the answer. I've seen it posted on the internet that "The reason the West distrusts Muslims is that we can observe their behavior change, as they become more powerful within societies throughout the world. In small numbers they claim victimhood (1%-US), in larger numbers, they feel emboldened to freely spout hate speech (3%-England), then comes organized violent resistance (10%-France), then comes political assassination and attempts to overthrow democratically elected governments (Lebanon), then comes persecution of religious minorities (Turkey), then comes threatening to wipe opposing religions off of the face of the earth (Iran)."
Also, alot of the available information is contradictory, and everybody has an agenda, myself included.
So, do we assume that Muslims acting as moderates today will threaten us in the future? Can't say. My only reasonable solution is to combat islamism as an ideology, and be vigilant about it. There are military(not using current methods), educational/PR, economic ways to combat it. Our current government is not even close to combatting it and seems to be enabling it. Mitt Romney, Giuliani, Fred Thompson and other politicians have said things recently that are encouraging, but until we elect people like that, we're headed the wrong way, in my opinion.
Darren , I think that you have not dealt with any Muslims, for you to feel that moderates don't exist. If you look around, you can find moderates, even on the internet. I hope you have read my many posts on the reasoning that the moderate voice is not heard, and plans for encouraging it. I have no answer to Saudi funding of the Muslim interest groups and Muslim interests here, but think it is a very big problem for the anti-islamists. Pipes' writings are convincing to me, and most of the other scholars seem to have a similar view, though if they are wrong, we're all in deep.
Slightly related to the above, the article "We need a return on this fantastic investment" by Hugh Fitzgerald at Jihadwatch, on what money could do in this war. I don't necessarily agree with his take on the war, but it is interesting reading nonetheless. See jihadwatch.org |
