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We ought to run them out of the country! How do we know which ones are about to commit mass murder or blow up an airport terminal? It's going to happen here again. It's just a matter of time, and it might be soon.
I have a very hard time with the issue of Muslims. (I know...such a hard "problem" to have...)
But I do have such mixed emotions about the issue.
When I lived in Chicago (this was in the early 1990s) many of the families in my apartment building were Muslim. They were--every one--as peaceful, intelligent and kind as could be. I'm talking about dozens of people I lived with closely. I was invited into their homes, offered food, friendship, etc.
Likewise, I lived and worked in Oregon more recently (2009-2013) and many of my co-workers were Muslim. Again, perfectly nice, pleasant people.
In my estimation, the Muslims I have actually met and gotten to know and spent time with would be utterly aghast, shocked and saddened by the actions of some of the more extremist/jihadist/radical members of their religion. I've seen this happen, in fact, numerous times.
I DO NOT BELIEVE in any way that the majority of Muslims are violent freaks. I do believe the vast majority of Muslims, here and abroad, mean no harm and are anti-violence.
At the same time, I personally believe (and I don't intend this to be offensive) that religion can often be a sickness...a mental health issue.
I feel religion CAN and often DOES do a great good--regardless of which faith, what denomination, etc.,--religions can offer fellowship to the lonely and lost, a warm light in a world that is often too dark to bear, it can engender feelings and actions of humility and charity, it can stir philosophical thought. Religions can and do cause good to happen in the lives of many people.
But somehow, on a larger scale (the local home church as opposed to huge chain mega-churches, or the micro-version of religious faith as opposed to the more global/macro-version) religion has very often throughout history (and again, across all cultures and belief systems really, though I believe Christianity and Islam likely have far more blood on their hands than other religions) been the impetus for genocide, torture, brazen conquest, the marginalization or maltreatment of certain groups, power grabs, treasure-hoarding, and so on.
I respect the religious beliefs of others. I truly do, to an extent. If anyone attempted to impede someone's religious freedom in this nation, even as a nonbeliever myself, I would be the first to fight against it. I do not claim to have all the answers and I am well aware that I could be very wrong and a person of one religion or other could be right. I am live and let live.
But when people use their religion as a shield for their own bigotry, or seek to enforce the way others live based on their own personal religious beliefs, etc., they don't get a pass. And I see a lot of this in both Christianity and Islam.
I do not in any way want this (rather pointless) rant to sound as if I am condemning Christians and lionizing Muslims. People are individuals. One in a hundred Christians COULD be the type of person who feels justified in blowing up clinics or murdering doctors who perform abortions. Heck, they could be KKK members. One in a hundred Muslims COULD be terrorists looking to blow themselves up, taking as many innocents as possible with them.
But how do we know? Who can tell? How do we separate Muslims who are here peacefully and responsibly and who make America a better place from the heinous, vicious jihadist terrorists?
I just don't feel that keeping all Muslims out of the country is the answer (as if that were even possible.)
Again, I don't claim to have the answers...it is just a subject that weighs on me a good deal.
I WILL say, though that I do believe the majority of terrorism and this kind of focused violence in the world is committed by Muslims (again--this is where religion becomes a sickness and a brutal tool for control) and I honestly feel that anyone who is found to be a member of Al Quaeda, ISIS, hizbollah, boko haram, etc. should be executed on sight.
People who would kidnap, torture and publicly behead journalists, blow up populated places, go into a dance club or other facility full of people and start shooting, etc. don't deserve trials. They don't deserve consideration. They are mad dogs fueled by religion (which can be the most powerful methods of controlling people or instilling violent thought in people) and should be put down as such.
There are times I think liberals (press, politicians, and ultra-leftwing people) have more sympathy for muslims than their victims.
Some of us are able to have compassion for more than one group at a time. I feel truly sorry for you if that's not the case for you.
I have sympathy for the victims. I also have empathy for Muslims who are being grouped with radical Islamists and are facing violence as a result. I have close friends and family who have been on both ends of this equation, while also experiencing Islamist terrorism firsthand myself. Have you?
Some of us are able to have compassion for more than one group at a time. I feel truly sorry for you if that's not the case for you.
I have sympathy for the victims. I also have empathy for Muslims who are being grouped with radical Islamists and are facing violence as a result. I have close friends and family who have been on both ends of this equation, while also experiencing Islamist terrorism firsthand myself. Have you?
Too many conservatives can't think in nuances like this. When a handful of Muslims commit acts of terrorism their minds go immediately to, "MUSLIMS BAD!" That's as far as their train of thought is capable of traveling.
I, too, feel for both the victims of these acts and the billions of innocent Muslims who will now be demonized by the simple-minded as being guilty simply by association.
times? pretty much every waking moment as well as all sleeping moments.
Can you or anyone else spouting this find quotes here on this forum or elsewhere where anyone is expressing sympathy for a violent, extremist, jihadist Muslim who has committed a heinous act or atrocity?
I think (from what I've seen) that the bulk of people who seem to be "apologizing" for Islam are merely pointing out that the violent, extremist, jihadist Muslims are not representative or indicative of Muslims as a whole.
I have yet to see--anywhere--anyone saying anything like:
"Well, I feel bad for the victims, but they weren't kow-towing to every wish and whim of the Muslims who moved into their neighborhoods, so they got what they deserved."
or
"Won't anyone think of the poor Muslim who shot or blew up all those people? They must have been so misunderstood...must have had such a difficult childhood. Of course they were justified in killing a bunch of innocent victims."
You folks DO know that crimes against American Muslims rise after every incident abroad, right?
You think that's fair? That they should pay for sins idiots in other countries committed?
If you do think it's only fair, have you paid slave reparations yet?
Another sympathizer! Soon the muslims here will get the message and consider self-deporting.
Then there won't be any crimes against muslims after every incident!
America is fed up with the apologists that are putting us at risk.
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