Okay, I realize there are several corrupt 'peaceful' lobbying groups, but does that mean the millions of good-willing people in muslim countries also support terrorism? It's hard to weed them out, but we can't let their actions reflect on the religion as a whole, unless we want to perpetuate this apparent 'war of religions.'

 

No. It is IMPOSSIBLE to weed most of them out. By "most of them" I mean the worst ones, not the ones funding them or the ones with vague ties to an militant organization. This is why most Americans are reserved towards Muslims. By the time this [your quote below] happens we obviously know they have connections with terrorism: The problem is that it's too late by then:

 

Sure, too late to prevent that person from committing heinous acts, but not too late to refuse to acknowledge that the acts were in the name of a widely-held, established religion, which many peaceful muslims would like to identify with and not be tied to terrorism. Even our attitude regarding the charred remains of some extremist are important to give thought to. By agreeing with him that he was acting in the name of islam, you're doing him a favor and perpetuating the ideological gap between the west and the muslim world.


So, what do you want us to do? From that last quote you posted (which I do agree with for the most part), it seems that you're advocating we question and be careful dealing with every possible muslim that we come across. And as for a country that has islam as their national religion, there's absolutely no trusting them.... right? I gotta say, this is a major problem that is extremely difficult to deal with. ...There may be a reason why it the most prominent and destructive conflict our nation currently is experiencing.

 

You think I don't understand this when I clearly do. But how in the hell can this be done? Sure, the radical anti-American views are not widely-held. But those that have these anti-Western type of views are not a force to be overlooked. They may be miniscule in comparison to what's acceptable with the majority (I know this). But the fact of the matter is they're still Muslims that have significant strength in numbers.

Think of it this way...there's estimated to be a little more than 1,000,000,000 Muslims on the planet. If we we're to assume only .1% (there's a decimal before that one) of this population was capable of turning against the USA or already hated the USA to the point of terrorism, then that's still a staggering 1,000,000 Muslims. Not exactly Billy Bob’s militia down the road, is it? This is all speculation but anyone willing to bet that number is higher than .1%? Again, how can we possibly tell?

So how do you separate the Progressives and traditionally peaceful Muslims from those radicals and fundamentalists that are very well capable of havoc? It can't possibly be done so most Americans have no choice but to tread lightly and be more indiscriminate than we'd like to be. What if we went and asked every single Muslim if they were a terrorist? There's no way they'd tell you the truth because it could blow their cover and possible operation. This is assuming they gave you an answer after physically or verbally attacking you because of an offensive question. So where's the trust? It's very limited. It disappeared somewhere around the first thousand attacks in the name of Allah (give or take a 100 attacks).

Do you get the dilemma yet? Are you still surprised why Americans think this way? Can you blame them?


Sorry I missed this: Bingo! This is what i'm trying to say.

There is no quick solution to this problem. As the attacks in the name of Allah decrease the trust will increase. It's that simple.

 

...and as the trust decreases, anti-american sentiment increases, and, in turn, extremism rises and becomes more prevalent.

So, by the time everything is played out, we will have absolutely no trust, and every muslim would be an extremist wishing death on americans. I don't think that's what we're shooting for.

Like you said, it will take time. But in the meantime, we must do what we can to see both sides and not shut-out all muslims from our culture. I guess it's okay that we don't trust them. We just have to do what we can to hide this fact and pretend to be the 'open-armed' America that has compassion for all.


...and if you say 'how can we possibly tell'? regarding the percentage of muslims with the possibility of turning against the US, then why couldn't it be much less than .1%? Also, what we do, how we deal with issues, and our general attitude toward 'would-be anti-american extremists' has a much greater effect on what that percentage may be in a few years than one may initially think.

 

Yes, I agree. And given the circumstances I think we're doing a relatively good job at this.


btw, I edited your post because I mistyped it. It doesn't make sense the way you have it and is not my intended view. please edit it.

 

Relative to what? I think we could do [could have done] much better, IMHO.

 

??? where? edit what?

 

What do you mean relative to what? Muslims have it easy here. I have one neighbor in my court that was an Israeli tank commander and another that's Muslim. Their kids play together with my nephew in the middle of the court! They are both friends with me and with eachother. Your view of anti-Islamic sentiment on American soil is seriously flawed.

 

No worries. I did it for you.

 

what did you do? I looked for changes and couldn't find anything... was it just a typo?


anyway, I came across another article pertaining to our discussion -- I know this means nothing, but what else do you want them to do?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...7/s1425214.htm

 

Yeah it was just a typo.

There's nothing they can do. Again, as the attacks in the name of Allah decrease the trust will increase. You play the waiting game and cross your fingers.

Reading article...

 

Now what, we trust them? You can't argue both sides, now. This is the exact lack of apprehension I was referring to which needs to be more common. And by 'relative to what'?, I meant what are you comparing this 'good job' we're doing to.

You say that our trust should be decreasing, but you also speak of personal experience of a wealth of trust in your own neighborhood. So, if terror attacks 'in the name of islam' increase greatly, would you consider not allowing your nephew to play with their children?