delta1 wrote:I worked closely with several Muslims at the college where I worked. I considered them good friends and patriotic Americans. I remember that they flew off to Washington DC on the morning of the 9/11 attacks, volunteering to help translate for the FBI to hunt down the terrorists.
Over-generalization and intransigence can have disastrous results and missed opportunities... less than 100 years ago, laws were specifically passed to keep my ancestors from immigrating to this great nation, by people who believed we were aliens, and called us that in the laws they wrote...now many of my "brothers and sisters" who made it here and settled have contributed to the progress of our country...
Look at the history of Christianity...the scourge of the earth in the days of the Crusades...and then a few hundred years later...
The overwhelming trend in the modern world is something the Europeans have themselves to blame, since the days of Columbus: globalization...whether peaceful or violent, the process is inexorable and will not have a pure, homogenous result...only a mixture of amalgamations...
Man, this is a hard post to respond too, I've already deleted my 3 attempts.
Let's start with the Christian / Crusades reference... I don't think canon law has any place in government either. I believe our constitution was written in a way that attempted to keep canon law out of government, because the people that came here wanted to be free from the religious persecution and dictatorships that ultimately spawn from such laws. I don't find them infallible though, because they obviously didn't give a sh1t about the people that were here before them. In any case, with all it's history, I think this countries system is far better than most, and I think we as a country over time have influenced other countries to follow suit to build a better system.
The problem with fundamental Islam is like I said before, it governs and micromanages the lives of it's followers. It's not equivalent to anything else we've seen through history, because like a virus, it tries to attach itself to everything that it touches. They try to instill Sharia law in every place they have a significant population.
I think of fundamental Islam as being akin to a virus. It basically creeps into every facet of the lives of it's followers, and as such, it's followers try to instill it everywhere that it is not... and left unchecked, it will kill the host.
Almost all active conflicts in the world involve some sect of fundamental Islamists, where most of it is them fighting each other because they can't agree on who the ruler of a would be caliphate should be... and once a group does gain power, they all rule with an iron fist... because that's what their religion dictates.
What I'm trying to say is, you're not comparing apples to apples.
