(Sigh.) OK. Let's have this stupid argument for the 100th time. You ask, "Where are all the moderate Muslims?" and I repeat the same old things.... There are roughly 1.25 billion Muslims in the world, or 19% of earth's population, and 99.9% of them are not committing any violence or supporting violence. Not billions, not millions, not even thousands of Muslims are sending bin Laden and his ilk checks in the mail for support. Al-Qaeda is largely self-financed, with some large donations from oil sheiks whom the U.S. supports.
The fact that our Western media and think-tank hucksters play up all the scares and violence and none of the everyday life and words of regular Muslims is OUR problem, it's OUR short-sightedness, it's not THEIR problem. After all, what efforts have you made lately to show Muslims in Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan that you're really a peace-loving guy who doesn't hate Muslims, and doesn't want to make a new Crusade against Islam? None. You haven't done anything. So, don't demand more from others than you're willing to do yourself. You see yourself as the aggrieved party after 9/11 who deserves all manner of apologies and assurances, but if you could just get out of your own skin for 2 seconds, then maybe you would see that Muslims have many more reasons to suspect us and YOU of hating them and wanting to oppress and destroy them. Their suspicions are wrong, (I hope), but they have more bases in fact than your fears about them.
Now read this post from today:
Poll: 93% of Muslims Worldwide Condemn 9/11 Attacks - 0% Approve of Attacks on Religious Grounds
I don't deny there is a small number of very dangerous Islamists out there who are beyond redemption, they just want to kill as many Americans as they can. But I must reject gibberish terms that mean nothing, like "Islamofascism." I'm in agreement with Rush Limbaugh that "words mean things," so let's use words properly. Fascism , or at least its historical characteristics in Germany and Italy, has been well defined, and political scientists and historians are in agreement on that. Putting "Islamo-" in front of a very powerful word is useful for scaring people, unifying them, and mobilizing them behind your cause, but it's callous and deceitful. More generally, I'm against Americans alluding to Nazi Germany and WWII every time we face a national challenge, as if we the people lack the ability to see that threats to peace can come in many shapes and sizes, as if we are so dense that we must be given re-packaged notions of things we already understand in order for our child-like minds to understand new ones. In doing so we distort the meaning of the new and the old thing, simultaneously. In short, words like Islamofascism make us dumber.
However, to deny that Islamofascism exists, on a however small percentage, is again having blinders on. How many times has Osama Bin Laden , and other radical groups, specifically stated that they desire the world to turn 100% to Islamic faith and that military action and violence is justified to accomplish same . It may be a small percentage of the billions of Muslims who adhere to the action of violence to accomplish the conversion of the world to Islam, (and we have had this discussion before,) but where are the billions of so-called moderate rational Muslims who allegedly believe otherwise and why do not the billions of other Muslins not condemn Bin Laden etc and why do the billions of "moderate Muslins" continue to financially support Bin Laden etc so as to keep the violent part of Islam going. To not acknowledge these facts is again a refusal to open your mind.
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