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One of the terrorists mothers says her son didn't mean to kill anyone and may have blown himself up because he was stressed. For those that think there are good Muslims on our side this is reality
It is a bit difficult to explain what Islam is as it is not a religion in the concept of the English word Religion. It is not an organization or a structured form of dogma and beliefs. It is not the name of something tangible, it is the performance of an action. It is the action of submitting to God(swt). More specifically submitting to the best of our ability and knowledge. As we have no way of knowing if anyone is doing that, we can only assume that everyone who says they are Muslim (A person who performs Islam) is performing Islam to the best of their ability and knowledge.
Being Muslim does not require any form of "Membership" or even attending a Mosque.
You keep saying this as if it justifies or validates or proves...something - not sure what.
If you yourself - a devout Muslim - can't even accurately describe Islam in a way that the average person could use to identify ANY Muslim, then how can you expect average people to be able to differentiate between the radicals and the moderates of Islam?
Funny - Muslims seem to have no difficulty in determining who is Sunni, or Shiite, or (fill in the blank). And you can say Islam doesn't require attending a mosque all you like, but the local mosque and school are filled with self identifying Muslims who are clearly members of a Muslim community, so though they may not fill out a registration card, they have figured out a way to identify themselves and to create a close knit community within our community.
I think there are more identifying factors than you'd care to admit, because if I use your definition, then I'm a Muslim. I mean, I submit my will to God, to the best of my ability and knowledge. I'm being very serious - that's what I do within my faith. Am I performing an Islamic action? And if I perform an Islamic action, am I Muslim?
I don't mean to speak for anyone else, but I think what's being glossed over is the fact that if ALL Muslims were radicals then things in the world would be a LOT worse than they actually are. There are a lot of Muslims in the world. CLEARLY they could do more than have 20 young guys in Europe plan an attack. Many of these extremist groups are in hiding in their own countries. Good, regular people don't want this violent and extreme version of their religion to be the dominant one. That's one of the reasons for all these civil wars in the Middle East. If ISIS==Islam, what would there be to fight about?? So while, yes, these terrorists are motivated by their religion, theirs is not the primary interpretation of Islam. Why are nearly all the extremists young angry men? Maybe because they have less to lose?
I don't know...in my mind it's kind of like this: mass shootings in America are disproportionately committed by young angry men. Do I then live in fear of ALL young men? How do I tell the angry ones from the mildly irritated ones? How do I identify the ones who are about to snap? Or how about rape? Thankfully I have never been raped, and I don't want to imagine how horrible it must be. When I think about it, I am SCARED of being raped. I know the VAST majority of rapes are committed by men. Do I then live in fear of ALL MEN because a statistically tiny percentage do commit this horrible crime? No. I make rational, common sense decisions while going about my daily life amongst men, not suspiciously eyeing each one of them like they're about to get me.
Let's use your examples of mass shooters.
No, it makes no sense to be afraid of all young white guys because most mass shooters are young white guys.
But - if most mass shooters were also members of one particular religion, that might raise a red flag. If most mass shooters were young, white guys who were members of one particular religion, who shouted "Praise (fill in the blank)!" while murdering hundreds of people, and left videos extolling that particular religion for their families, and if radicals from that same religion were wreaking havoc world wide and had millions of dollars of revenue, weapons, sophisticated marketing, etc. then I think it would be foolish to ignore the young white guys' affiliation to that particular religion.
Here's my application, personally:
When I'm boarding a plane, I don't pay much attention, if any, to guys who may "look" Muslim. I'm intelligent enough to know that Islam is a religion, not a race. But I am going to be paying closer attention to anyone, especially a young man, who seems nervous, who is sweating, mumbling to themselves, etc.
If I go to a theater, I'm going to pay more attention to anyone, especially a young man, with bulky clothes, who may seem nervous or who is acting strangely.
I live in a community that has a high percentage of practicing Muslims. They are very active in our business and social community. I don't live in any sort of fear of these folks. I pass their very busy mosque and school every day, and I don't shudder or worry as I pass it. But I expect our local law enforcement to closely monitor our community, and that community within our community, for any signs of radical, violent activity. So far so good. In fact, in the wake of 9/11 our community rallied around the local Muslim community in a protective way, and I was proud of that response. We have an active interfaith community which encourages open dialogue and visiting and interaction between local Muslims, Jews, and Christians, and so far so good.
I do feel that many people within our local Muslim community would be the first in line to lay their heads on the chopping block if ISIS ever got hold of them, though, because they are assimilated and "Americanized" Muslims and apparently that's not "good enough" for the radicals.
I don't know...in my mind it's kind of like this: mass shootings in America are disproportionately committed by young angry men. Do I then live in fear of ALL young men? How do I tell the angry ones from the mildly irritated ones? How do I identify the ones who are about to snap? Or how about rape? Thankfully I have never been raped, and I don't want to imagine how horrible it must be. When I think about it, I am SCARED of being raped. I know the VAST majority of rapes are committed by men. Do I then live in fear of ALL MEN because a statistically tiny percentage do commit this horrible crime? No. I make rational, common sense decisions while going about my daily life amongst men, not suspiciously eyeing each one of them like they're about to get me.
Mass shootings are statistically irrelevant. A better point would be that the vast majority of ALL crime in the US is committed by men. This is a large part of the reason men are perceived as more of a threat than women and this can be expanded into racial lines as well. This state of vigilance is not unwarranted. It does not mean you should avoid contact with men at all costs but that you should be aware of your surroundings when in public.
Well, I'm sure I could do the math if I felt like it: how many terrorists have been killed, arrested, blown up, or escaped since...when shall we say? 2001? 1993? Then just figure out what percentage of the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims (disclaimer: number pulled from this thread, not verified) those terriorsts make up, and voilà : an estimation as to the number of "crazy people" among Muslims.
Again, I'm not going to do the math right now, but I would guess it's less than 1%
I call that "a few"
Yes …
In any human population there will be a small percentage (SMALL, thank God) of persons who are misfits, anti-social, psychopath, narcissistic who are inclined toward evil deeds by virtue of the way their brains and lives are *wired* by genetics and environment …
They can and will and do try to foist various justifications for what they do, but what they do is NOT NORMAL for any group ...
In any human population there will be a small percentage (SMALL, thank God) of persons who are misfits, anti-social, psychopath, narcissistic who are inclined toward evil deeds by virtue of the way their brains and lives are *wired* by genetics and environment …
They can and will and do try to foist various justifications for what they do, but what they do is NOT NORMAL for any group ...
Why do so many of them reside in the Middle East and follow the same religion?
Regarding the question I bolded; i absolutely agree that is the fundamental question. Because whatever we decide the answer is, it informs every choice we make.
Globally, I have NO idea...but small-scale: my son has been learning about the Middle East in school, and my husband just travelled to the Middle East for the first time on business (and had a long layover in Paris Friday night--most scared I've ever been...) But before the trip my son had some questions about how safe his dad would be. We told him: people travel there all the time. Yes, violence happens, but it's highly unlikely anything will happen to Dad. We talked about how Dad is a frequent and savvy traveler--he knows and follows common sense personal safety tips. He's not naive. However, there's nothing you can really do to stop a suicide bomber from being where you happen to be. It's sounds harsh, but it actually helped all 3 of us feel better about the trip. I mean, because really, how do you stop someone who can't be reasoned with, is totally committed to their cause, and is absolutely willing to blow themselves up?? You can't. So you just live your life. Living fear would mean turning down trips to the Middle East, never traveling to Paris again, and becoming suspicious of every Muslim person we know. We don't want to live that way.
There are practical applications - there are not just two choices - "Either live in paranoia or don't pay any attention to common factors."
For instance, my husband decided to stop working internationally after repeated terror attacks and kidnappings of Americans (he was working a lot in Nigeria, west Africa, and the Middle East). Believe me, neither of us are "living in fear," but we also know that unfortunately sometimes real situations force us to adjust our lives accordingly.
The deciding event was this: My husband was working offshore in Nigeria, and told me, "Honey, don't worry - we're not working in the area where they're kidnapping Americans. We're offshore." He came home, and a few days later an American worker was kidnapped from the VERY SAME OIL PLATFORM he had been working on a few days earlier. Enough is enough. He was sleeping under company issued Kevlar blankets in some of these locations. He was caught in a big revolutionary revolt in a country at one time and had to literally take shelter in a hallway and spend thousands of dollars in cash just to get a ticket out of there (he was "missing" for 24 hours and the US Embassy had to find him - they found him holed up in a BP office while all hell broke loose outside - he got a big kick when the phone call finally got to him and the US Embassy official told him, "We can't tell you how we found you, but you need to call home.").
That doesn't mean we don't travel internationally - we do, and enjoy it. But it DOES mean that we won't be making any trips to the Middle East any time soon. It means that when we travel to Europe, we get off the beaten path and generally avoid crowded venues and major cities (we don't like big cities anyway so that part's easy). It means that when we travel, we're observant about our fellow travelers, their bags, etc. We're not living in fear. We're just using common sense.
He's recruiting and organizing teams with members from mostly France and Belgium, but somehow happens to be conveniently based in Syria to justify the bombing raids. The relatives being rounded up for interrogation are in Brussels. The French already had the aircraft carrier in place for ten days which is impeccable timing.
If the planning occurred in Syria, he's probably not the person or organization that's ultimately responsible for financing and providing the supply of weapons.
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