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Where are you getting your facts?Reader comment on item: How the West Could Lose Submitted by Noah Wilk (United States), Jan 10, 2007 at 20:34 Bryan Jackson wrote: "Hard-core Islamists are 20% of the world's Muslims? That's a crock, I would wager they aren't even 2%, and not all Islamists are Taliban-types." Where are you getting your facts? Seems to me you're pulling them out of your hat! How do you explain the fact that in Jordan (in 2005), 88% of those polled via a Pew Center study argeed that violence against civilians is ok when "defending Islam" (for example, when someone publishes a cartoon of Mohammed)? How do you explain the fact that the same poll in Pakistan generated 44% condoning violence against civilians? Or the 53% in Egypt? Why is it that people like you deny reality in favor of statistics that you arbitrarily pull out of a hat? Next, you wrote: "Moderate Islam is not a myth, it is the form of Islam preached in places like India, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Turkey" Really? You mean India, where millions of Hindus have been killed by those moderate Muslims? Or Egypt where Islamic Jihad was born and where they pump out terrorists faster than the Saudis pump out oil? And go back to those poll numbers for Jordan and Egypt I just quoted. You call that "moderate"? Next, you ask: "What do you all suggest we do other than Pacifism? Kill Muslim civilians every time some jackoff terrorist with no brain thinking he'll get a hundred virgins for killing an "infidel" blows himself up in a nightclub or shoots up a resturant? That'll do absolutely nothing." We can avoid the whole issue simply by forcibly deporting all Muslims from western lands. Sure, some will riot and try to stay, and we'll be forced to kill them. Oh well. They're the ones here subverting our culture and plotting genocides and mass terror attacks. I don't pity them at all. Next, we hear the same tired claim: "People who are convinced of extremist beliefs will stay convinced. The task for the West is to stop these people from becoming hooked on these ideals, and to spread peaceful Islam, like how peaceful Christianity kicked aside radical Christianity in the 1600s." And for the 16,000th time, I will ask...where is this peaceful, moderate Islam? I personally challenge you, Bryan, to show me one single Islamic country where there is no religious intolerance, where freedom and happiness flourishes, where people are not living in poverty, where extremism does not exist. If you can't do that, your opinion is worthless. "There is no military solution to Israel and Palestine" There is. Force the Palestinians out. They have no claim to the land. "The Radicals have to be stopped - the fueled the fires in Lebanon and Iran and they are fueling them in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and Indonesia right now. But that will not be done with bombs and guns. That will be done with better standards of living, an end to idiotic war-mongering foreign policies (of which the US and Israel are guilty of but they are far from the only ones) and cultivating better leadership than the narrow-minded idiots that led the US into the mess in Iraq that they are in now." Oh, so the billions of dollars in aid that we send Egypt is not enough? I guess they don't have much left over after funding all those terrorist organizations like Islamic JIhad, huh? Gotcha! Well what about the so-called Palestinians? Ooops! I forgot. We gave them millions of dollars a year, then intercepted a ship loaded with millions of dollars worth of weapons for the jihadis among them. The rest of course is still in Arafat's personal bank account. Give me a break! Their low standard of living is 100% responsible for their impoverished Third World existence. The only way to reform them is to isolate them like the cancer they are and tell them that they will not be allowed to interact with the civilized world unless and until they reform. If they try attacking or migrating, we will kill them. Call it tough love on a global scale. "Hire Moderate Muslims to run schools for students that teach moderate, forward-thinking values in Muslim nations." How are you going to determine which ones are moderates, when they all lie? Look at the guy who shot up the Jewish center last year, or the guy who ran his SUV over people at the college. Everyone who knew them claimed they were very polite, peaceful people. Try looking up info on sleeper cells and how they act. "Shove every one of the hardheaded autocratic Arab regimes - including "friendly" nations like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Morocco - towards better democracy, freedom of the press and freedom of association." Another brain .... How are you going to do that? You, like others, refuse to give details. Probably because you have no idea how to achieve your idea. How do you convert Saudi Arabia when you cannot even bring a Bible into the country? "Make the world a better place for them and radical Islam will die off." And how, pray tell, do you make the world a better place for a group of people who believes they are mandated to suppress women because their prophet told them to? How do you improve the lives of people who cling to an outdated, dark ages death cult? I hear lots of answer, but little thought to back those answers. "If a man sees American money build a school for his children and provide a job for him to support his family and make something of himself, is he gonna hate Americans? No." How nice it must be to live in Fantasyland! What about all the aid money (BILLIONS) going to Egypt to improve lives? What about all the millions going to the so-called Palestinians to improve their lives? They love taking our money, but that has never stopped them from hating us. Remember...Muslims in Israel have far more freedom and prosperity than they can ever imagine having in any Islamic country, but they still hate the Jews. People need to wake up to reality! "If the US forced Israel to give the West Bank to the Palestinians and then built infrastructrure to make Palestine a state on par economically with Israel would the Palestinians hate Israel so much?" Yes. And try paying attention. The enemy (Hamas) has already publicly stated that it is an incremental goal. First the West Bank, then Gaza, then all of Israel. You really don't know the enemy very well. "If the US created a nation of Palestine in the West Bank today American flags would be flying in Amman tommorrow." There's a word I'm thinking of now. It's called "delusional". Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (2112) on this item
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