Criticizing the governments of Middle Eastern nations (Saudi, Kuwait, Syria) is entirely justified, and we should be doing everything that we can to defend global democracy worldwide. We should be promoting freedom of expression in Iran (which is a democracy, btw, despite the overwhelming power of the mullahs), freedom of, well, ANYthing in Saudi, freedom of religious expression in Turkey, and so forth. We should be supporting Indonesia (world’s largest Muslim country, a republic, and one with no mention of Islam anywhere in its constitution) in its nascent democracy, as its citizens only had their first direct election in 2004. Regardless of whether we trust Pakistan, the Pakistanis are our most valuable allies in the war on terrorism, and will be for decades to come.

Put another way — there are more than a billion Muslims in the world. Although a tiny porton of Muslims worldwide support it, radical Islam is a very real threat, both to our nation, but more importantly to all free nations and the cause of freedom worldwide. We as a nation that fights for and preserves those freedoms must engage those billion Muslims to help us in that fight. And the best way to do that is to show them that we, as a free, polyglot nation of immigrants, can and do safeguard their inalienable right to practice their religion as they see fit.

It’s simple math and basic strategy. Isolate your enemy (radical Islam) by enlisting his enemies (all other Muslisms) as your allies.

Or, put even more basically — do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I’m sure I’ve read that somewhere recently.

“…Islam is about submission and has no tolerance for others” – Bob is absolutely right on this. Look at what Muslims do NOT what Muslims say.

Quote “Saying all Islamic entities are bad because of Iraq is like saying all Christian entities are bad because Hitler and Mussolini were Christian” Unquote

I don’t think Bob was saying all Islamic entities are bad but most are. Hitler and Musssolini are Christians like Mao and Pol Pot where Bhuddhists. One has to compare the actions of Hitler and Mussolini to that of Christ to put things in perspective. History and their ideology tells me they were proud Atheists. Atheism is the worst ideology human race has come across. Atheism through history (and still is) has killed 300+ million men, women and children to establish utopian Atheistic societies around the world.

http://www.atheisticviolence.wordpress.c om is a good place to start.

Was Hitler a Christian?
http://townhall.com/columnists/DineshDSo uza/2007/11/05/was_hitler_a_christian&Co mments=true

- Posted by Mitch T

I also find it silly that so many Americans draw invalid correlations between points that are COMPLETELY irrelevant.

“How many of us would opt for living with the political situations in Turkey,Pakistan or India today?”
Really? You mean the Turkey that very recently lifted a Hijab ban, a government that frequently parades itself as being secular as hell? Pakistan, one of the most corrupt governments in the Middle East, where political opposition is frequently MURDERED by the likes of the ISI? India? INDIA? Muslims are a VERY SMALL MINORITY in India, less than 15%. You remind me of an elderly woman that began to argue with me over verses in a translated Qur’an, who chose to IGNORE a footnote over a verse saying “Kill them…(In a case of double treason to the government)” because she told me “that’s what they want me to believe.” Who are “they?” Does she know what the American government wants her to believe about the treatment of prisoners of war? Here’s a shocker, we waterboard our prisoners; check a Quran, 76:08, command to feed and cloth the captives, and there are numerous other verses prohibiting torture, most specifically by fire. Through the example of the Prophet Muhammad, after a war was over, prisoners of war were allowed to pay a ransom for their freedom, and sometimes just set free. She of course ignored my arguments, and the verse I showed her, and was extremely surprised to find out I was Muslim. She asked me why I didn’t have an accent. Maybe because I was born in Boston and have lived in the United States my entire life? Jeez…

And then people wag their fingers at the people of Arab countries in the Middle East. Point the blame at the corrupt governments if you know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what correlations you can draw between a corrupt monarchy (cough Saudi Arabia *cough*) and Islam. Arab Nationalism is also not to be confused with Islam; the morons running Syria, Egypt, etc. are some of the most corrupt leaders in the world; Hosni Mubarak won an “election” in Egypt by some insane odds, like 99.9%, I do believe his opponent was jailed. Half of the Middle Eastern countries we have problems with NOW are governments the United States and her allies established in the area after WW2 or during the Cold War.

And then the most disgusting thing is seeing people associate the rampant ignorance and cultural backwards-ness in the region with a religion of over one billion. Would I then be logical, in making the connection that since many white, Christian Americans treated blacks like second class citizens less than 50 years ago, that 2 billion Christians worldwide were all racist bigots?

None of this comes to me as a surprise; for a nation that’s historically been racist as hell, with mentalities in its history like McCarthyism, it makes perfect sense to label one billion people worldwide as terrorists. Fact of the matter is, until I’m proven guilty of some crime in a court of law, I am guilty of no crimes, and just as innocent a law abiding citizen as any of you, if not infinitely more decent because regardless of what you might think, I have the decency to live my life without making unjustified assumptions and labeling enormous groups of people based on the actions of a few.

Do you not think that Christians, namely Catholics, harbor ideological elements?

Living in America where Christianity is the predominant religion, I must say they do share very similar ideological elements.

The fact is, because Christianity is the major religion in America it gets away with carrying on its ideological stances.

How many “loving, caring’ Christians assault women verbally at Abortion clinics because they view that as wrong and immoral?

How many ideological Christians have fought to get Creationism installed in public schools, where religious views are supposed to be absent?

I’m sorry but to sit there and claim that the Muslim faith is different because of its ideological elements and then turn around and portray other religions as not having ideological elements is mis-representative.

ALL religions have ideological elements, as that is the nature of religion as a whole idea.