Disturbing, though highly unlikely to get receptive audience here

Submitted by Lee Bender (United States), Nov 24, 2004 at 19:12

Islam has a long, long, long (improbably long) way to go in this country to convince the hearts and minds and souls of Americans that it is truly a religion of peace, that it is prepared and willing to accept all infidels with dignity and respect and live in equal co-existence.

Since 9-11 (and the 20 years preceding, beginning with the 1979 Iranian takeover of the American Embassy), the distinct impression we have here of Islam is one of violence, intolerance, intransigence, terrorism, extremism.

I agree that we must be vigilant against the tactics cited herein, and to nip it in the bud, so to speak. But I do not see the infiltration of a wholesale conversion to Islam taking place here in the good, old USA, especially with the political clout we have just seen wielded (thank G-d) by the Evangelical/Christian Right community here.

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