Why is it that some (I emphasize SOME as in not all) from the leftist/socialist side of the political spectrum can be counted on to resort to what seems to be their trump card in any and all discussions? They pull out, what appears to be their answer to all disputes - the smear of RACISM! Weren't we all told that we were now in a post-racial America? To say, as someone here has said, that Muslim's in this nation live "under a pervasive atmosphere of racism" is a disgusting attempt at smearing the overwhelming number of good, honest, moral God fearing and God loving Americans of all faiths! This nation is not perfect since human beings are not perfect. To call America and Americans as a society pervasively racist is a disgusting smear which I reject and to which I take offense! Those who resort to such smear tactics to bolster their positions are cowards who are not worthy of my time or effort! GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
AMEN! The FACT is that even the least tolerant Americans are far more tolerant of the religious beliefs of Muslims than those in Muslim controlled nations are of people of other faiths. I haven't seen a lot of mosques burned or Muslims stoned to death on the way to services in America.
Try opening a church or Iona sattelite campus in Saudi Arabia and see how much tolerance you will receive.
Also, claiming that saying that Muslims are generally not tolerant is "racist" is like saying it is "racist" to say that most Nazi's are not very tolerant.
Now, I'm sure there were Nazis who were secretely tolerant of Jews and tried to help them where they could. There were also Germans who resisted the Nazis (and likely paid with their lives). In the same way there are people living in Islamic countries who are kind, compassionate people, who go through the motions of Islam and would try to defend a Jew or Christian if they could. Others openly resist, and are generally jailed or killed. But these are not the norm.
Fortunately, I think that a fairly high percentage of Muslim immigrants in America are these types. They came to America because they largely rejected the dark side of Islam. On the other hand, there are those who have come with the intention of infiltrating and eventually taking over.
In Western Europe those seem to be the majority, and they are causing tremendous instability and unrest. It has gotten so bad that many European nations previously so Liberal they would make Nancy Pelosi blush, have recognized that multi-culturalism has been a disaster and have expressly rejected it.
to keep it im perspective. My brother was a great ballplayer, he played Div 1 ball at St Francis in Brooklyn. he beame a fieman in 1999 and his house was engine 16 on 28th and 2nd ave. On (9/11 all of the guys on duty in his house died, my brother was off that day. Thank God. BUt now, the disease is creeeping back. The FDNY forced him to retire, hes 40 years old and visits the boys in the nuthouse after the war.
I'm glad to hear your brother survived, but sorry to hear of his affliction. I was a few blocks away when the "peace plane" and "tolerance plane" crashed into the WTC. Thankfully, I was far enough away to not be in any real danger.
My best friend's son followed in his father's footsteps and enlisted in the Marine Corps to serve his country. He was a great kid, a devout Christian, who despite their best efforts, could not be corrupted by any of his fellow Marines.
Last year, while he was serving in Afghanistan, he was tortured, mutilated, killed and urinated upon by a group of those peaceful, tolerant fellows.
. . . This nation is not perfect since human beings are not perfect. . .
GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
There is much common ground between me and Mr. Doom. (Having said that, I'm still on your left side. No, a little further over. )
This country has opened its arms to all peoples, and even protected the right of all people to practice their faith.
Where I think we get ourselves in trouble is when we allow individuals to take their faith from the home and/or place of worship, and impose that faith on the rest of us. Hence, my strong reaction to my WalMart experience.
While I can understand and even sympathize with that checker who struggles with her principles every day; I expect more leadership from, in this case, the executives of WalMart. By making the "accommodation" they chose; they put this young lady in a position of scorn from me and others.
You guys are really helping me work through this. Thank you!
And I promised myself to never reply to one of these political posts again. Guess I can't keep my mouth shut. So here goes. Gaelman, Doom, I know your good guys and I get that you are patriotic and respect your opinions. I simply don't agree. I still believe stating That most Muslims are intolerant is Racist. If you had said "Most arab countries have intolerance towards christians and jews, that would not be racist and I would agree with you. These countries feed off of racism and encourage terrorism. The Nazi analogy doesn't hold water. Nazism is a political ideology, not a religion, and while yes a great many Germans became Nazis, not the Germans who lived in the USA. In fact there were many German/Americans fighting in the war. So IMO you need to clarify your statement. Muslims are intolerant, the Jews have all the money, Blacks are lazy, Asians can't drive, all those kinds of generalizations are racist. OK, so I did not say that the overwhelming majorityof good, honest God fearing and God loving Americans were racist. Don't think you need that to have a pervasive atmosphere of Racism. There are annually 4 times the number of hate crimes directed at Muslims as there were pre-2001. Now those crimes aren't exclusive to Muslims, Jews and Gays still are regulary victims of these types of crimes also. I agree, most Americans are good, tolerant people who open their arms to all people. This is the greatest country in the world, in allot of ways the most progressive. It is not perfect. I never called America or American society pervasively racist, that does not mean that Muslim Americans do not live in fear because pretty much anywhere they go there are racist people, which is to say that their world IS pervasively racist.
According to the latest hate crime statistics available, there were 1,606 hate crime offenses motivated by religious bias in 2008. A closer look: 65.7 percent of them were committed against Jews. Against Muslims? 7.7 percent.
Depending on which population estimates you accept for Muslims (anywhere between 4 and 7 million), hate crimes are committed against Jews at a rate three to eight times greater than against Muslims. Yet something tells me that despite all these hard numbers — as opposed to Time’s “anecdotal evidence” – that magazine is not going to run a cover anytime soon asking, “Is America Anti-Semitic?”
>>>Nazism is a political ideology, not a religion,<<<
Islam is both a religion and a social/political idealogy, and an extremely intolerant one at that. Read the Koran and read history. There are tolerant Muslims, but Islam is unquestionably and intensely intolerant. Muslims who are tolerant are not following their relgious or political idealogy of Islam when they behave that way.
I've actually read both those articles and the Koran and the Bible. You are correct there are references to violence and intolerance in the Koran, there are also references that could be interpreted that way in the bible. If you make the point that Islam is an Ideology you would have to agree that Christianity is an ideology also. Just look at any of a number of these Televangilists. They point to any number of bible passages to defend there political ideology. If the statistics in those articles are correct, what then is your point? Hooray we are worse to the Jews then we are to the Muslims? Not sure I ever trust "facts" stated by any Phillip Anschutz publication. Has played fast and loose with the truth more then even Rupert Murdoch.
0 Muslims were murdered 0 Muslims were raped 5 Muslims were victims of aggravated assault 30 Muslims were victims of simple assault 48 Muslims were "intimidated" (in many cases someone probably called them "intolerant" and asked them to ring up Guiness at Walmart)
These are ALL the reported bias related attacks on persons, against Muslims for the year. Only 35 involved any violence at all, only 5 involved serious violence, and 0 involved murder or rape.
There are over 300 million non-muslims in America, so in 2008, only about 1 in 60 million Americans committed an act of serious violence motivated by anti-muslim bias and only 1 in 10 million committed a minor act of violence.
I wonder how many "honor killings" Muslims committed against innocent, Muslim women in the same period? I wonder how many Americans were assaulted or killed over parking spots or being cut off on the road that year?
The idea that there is atmosphere of anti-Muslim discrimination and violence in America is pure mythology, concocted by CAIR and the Left Wing media.
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