Chris, you're whitewashing

Submitted by Pat (United States), Jul 7, 2007 at 13:26

Chris,

The argument that we just have to listen to what they say doesn't hold water. Actions speak louder than words. We have Somalis, Saudis, Iranians and many other Muslims living in the US and other Western countries. They are not always open about their views. Often I won't know which of them believes suicide is "righteous jihad" until he sets off a bomb.

The Heaven's Gate cult is a bad example. They were not looking to destroy a city in order to reach Hale-Bopp. If Muslims were willing to commit suicide to reach heaven that would be their business. That they want to take ME with them is another matter. I can't tell who is who. I am not blessed with the gift of omniscience.

You say there is very little reason for a non-Muslim to go to Mecca and Medina, but that's not the point. They are ancient cities of historical interest. They have a heritage that predates Islam and no one should be banned from entering them. Instead, the Wahhabists are eliminating that history as idolatrous.

Catholic cathedrals all over Europe are open to non-Christians at times when services are not being conducted. There are ancient Buddhist sites all through Malaysia and Indonesia, but no non-Muslim can get to them without putting his life in danger. They stand there. That Muslims didn't destroy these sites in the past is immaterial. They might not have had the ability. Now they do. See what they are doing with it. The ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan, which may have predated Mohammad, were blown up. Muslims might not have been able to do that in prior years.

I read the history of Islam and I am willing to discount everything that went on in the past (it was a different time and we all have sins to atone for). I look at what is happening today. I thank you for the reference materials and I want to research some more, but the fact that Muslims are silent in the face of this barbarism (every terrorist has family and friends and acquaintances who know exactly what he is up to) says even more about them than it does about the jihadists.

That any society would still practice dhimmitude is reprehensible. That a fatwa would be issued because a man wrote a book and that a nightclub would be attacked because women were inside and that a second bomb would be planted to kill first responders and that cities would be ravaged by violence because there were cartoons published months before in Danish publications, all in the name of Islam, is something you cannot deny and it is savage and it is something we cannot ignore.

America is slowly losing its own freedoms all to cater to Muslims who decide that they cannot live on our terms and would instead impose theirs on us. They were welcomed here. I know of no one who would have met Mohammad Atta the day before 9/11 and not believed he was as interested in freedom and peace as they were. They were welcomed in Britain. Once they attain strength in numbers, the demands start coming. It will happen in America, maybe at a slower pace but it will happen. It has already begun to happen in places like Dearborn and Detroit, and in Minneapolis, where Somali cabdrivers refused to take customers who were carrying alcohol. Their religious beliefs do not give them the right to disrupt our society.

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