Mojo2,
et al,
Closed system thinking.
Okay, here is some waaaay outside the box thinking. In recent days I have sensed a strange reaction to accusations of racism against Muslims. There aren't any outward signs I can point to, but whenever non-Muslims accuse Muslims of being racists they demure somewhat and they don't come back with one of their 'patented' pre-processed talking points replies.
This has gone on for weeks. I believe there IS no suitable reply which doesn't demean islam and Muslims in the eyes of non-Muslims.
(COMMENT)
There is no real (enlightened) reason to demean Islam either as a faith or as a philosophy. It is totally unnecessary. But that is not to say that fanatical interpretations of Islam are not without deserved criticism. As an outside observer, one can see some of the drawbacks to the fanatical interpretations of any religious belief system. It doesn't mean that any religious belief system is beyond respectful debate, or out of range with questions on the basic concepts embedded in each belief system. It is all part of the learning process.
I think we each see Islam from a different perspective.
I am not interested in Islam or Muslims.
I'm no Muslim. I'm not trying to achieve a Kumbayah moment with Muslims. I have no scholarly or academic fascination with Islam.
I am not trying to make a case to be kind and nice and accommodating to Muslims.
I just don't want to have to worry about their extremists killing and intimidating America into Dhimmitude. And while I am willing to be respectful and polite to individual Muslims, modern man has yet to devise a way of establishing Muslim populations anywhere on Earth and NOT be bedeviled by Islamic extremism.
If I'm not mistaken, your familiarity and fondness for Islam and Muslims stems from your own personal experience serving in the US military in the M.E.
What you have to ask yourself is why are Muslims and why is Islam so appealing to you when you are in the desert?
What I'm getting at is that you can't judge Islam by how it appears in an Islamic country, one which has been Islamic for hundreds of years.
You may have enjoyed wonderful relations with those you interacted with in Iraq. But that doesn't mean islam doesn't pose a risk to non-Muslim cultures and societies.
Bringing your fondness for Islam home with you is one thing. Allowing the Ebola-like religious and political threat into our society without better learning what dangers Islam poses to America is unforgivably irresponsible of you.
Ever see videos of the jumping fish?
It looks like fun and everything is all fun and games and laughs in the first video.
But the second video highlights the lesser appreciated threat posed by the Asian Carp.
Right now many people still look at the Muslims as poor, innocents who are just like you and I and just wanting to live life like anyone else in peace.
I have no problem with that except when adopting THAT perspective blinds you to any possibility that these innocents are merely irrelevants who provide cover for the extremists.
Bottom line, you can't permit ANY large sized Muslim populations to grow in the USA because there is no way we've found to eliminate or prevent the extremists from also forming within those groups.
Therefore, the best way to prevent the bad guys from forming is to prevent or limit the size of large Muslim enclaves as a way of preventing and/or limiting the growth of extremist jihadis.