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The notion that a Muslim could be the president of the country (and therefore the commander of our military) but could not be in our Armed Forces is absolutely ridiculous.
That is a very, very good point. However, a military career carries with it certain presumptions of capacity to serve, which are different from those of president. A blind man can be governor or New York, but would be at a particular disadvantage as a soldier. Franklin D. Roosevelt and William Howard Taft would have been 4-F, at best., and worse than useless in a foxhole.
It is true that military personnel can be assigned to non-combat duties, but as we have shown in Iraq, it is just as efficient if not more so to have non-combat functions carried out by the private sector. One wonders why the army needs its own psychatrists in the first place, when they can be hired as needed from the outside. A great majority of the people working in the Pentagon are civilians, and who knows or cares how many of them are Muslims?
If the army restricted the corps to persons capable of combat duty and relied on the private sector for all non-combat functions ancillary to the business of fighting under arms, we could restrict the recruiting of the forces those who meet the requirements of field-readiness. Including the emotional and personality characteristics of the recruits.
Wow, every time I start thinking that most people are pretty reasonable and there's only a small number of really vocal and extremely uniformed, bigoted people out there I look at debates like this (which I shouldn't; it really turns my stomach) I realize that there really ARE a lot of bigots out there, although I still hope they're a small minority.
There are some really scary Christian extremists out there, too; maybe we should ban everyone of any religion from the military? Oh, that would leave only the atheists, and I don't see people going for that, either.
There are some really scary Christian extremists out there, too; maybe we should ban everyone of any religion from the military? Oh, that would leave only the atheists, and I don't see people going for that, either.
As I pointed out before, no atheist that I know of would ever go to war, so that might be the solution. There is a reason why there are no atheists in foxholes. They would refuse to go there in the first place.
The minute we discriminate against an entire group of people based on religion then we are no longer upholding the principles this country was founded on. It goes to the very heart of our identity as a nation.
Now that's the best argument I have heard for keeping Muslims in the army.
I still have a problem with the leaders of Islam supporting and proclaiming jihad against America - and this group being free to roam. To me - they, as a group, have lost their privilege to exist here as long as this particular view of jihad continues to exist - otherwise they will destroy us.
Do you understand that in the end, the aggressive use of force will rule the day? And that we will be done as a country if we don't deal with these actions properly?
Wow, every time I start thinking that most people are pretty reasonable and there's only a small number of really vocal and extremely uniformed, bigoted people out there I look at debates like this (which I shouldn't; it really turns my stomach) I realize that there really ARE a lot of bigots out there, although I still hope they're a small minority.
There are some really scary Christian extremists out there, too; maybe we should ban everyone of any religion from the military? Oh, that would leave only the atheists, and I don't see people going for that, either.
Don't the Muslims have to drop everything they are doing to be excused to pray at certain precuse times every day?
The ones who work in factories state that is a requirement of their religion and thus walk off the assembly lines during those times of prayer.
Don't the Muslims have to drop everything they are doing to be excused to pray at certain precuse times every day?
The ones who work in factories state that is a requirement of their religion and thus walk off the assembly lines during those times of prayer.
Do the Muslims in the military do this also?
That depends on how religious the people are, what kind of work they do, what percentage of the workforce the make up, etc.... ( believe it or not, in some of those factories Muslims consist of over 50% of the work force).
Somehow i doubt Muslims in boot camp are doing their 5 prayers on time, but I could be totally wrong about that. It would really depend on the Muslim and how devout he/she was, not to mention doing the fasting during Ramadan.
Not all Muslims believe that they are guaranteed a spot in Heaven if they kill an infidel. The radical Islamists that DO believe that should never be allowed in the military. I would go so far as to say they should not be allowed in the country. The Imams that teach this belief should be identified then hunted down and killed. Anywhere in the World.
GL2
I have Muslim friends who successfully balance work with religion. I also have Christian and Jewish friends who do the same. It's impossible to say "all Muslims do X or Y," as that's not true. I think it's reasonable that certain accomodations for religion (whatever religion) can be made, but people also know the requirements going in, and if it's clear that their particular religious beliefs can't be accomodated then they shouldn't go into the military. It is not up to the government to declare an entire group of people to be banned from serving because of some biased out-there opinion that all, or even most, Muslim Americans are secretly just biding their time waiting for an opportunity to act on behalf of some extremist viewpoint that most don't believe in.
If there are specific people who have stated explicit views that are a potential danger to the nation's interests (and that doesn't mean just Muslims; there are extremists of all kinds) then we can address those specific people/threats.
Banning Muslim citizens from entering the military would be about the best way to frame things explicitely as a holy war between Christianity and Islam, which I, for one, don't think that it is, at least not on the American front.
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