Yes, we most certainly do. Awful doesn't even quite begin to describe how most of us feel about it. It's sickening to think people have this much hatred to do this to another human being. This reminds of the SNL w/ Janet Jackson. There's a skit where her character is playing the stereotypical black person, and the white guy asks another black guy to "please talk to her" and he's like "hell no man, I'm just as scared of people like that as you are." That's exactly how most all Muslims I know, talk to, interact with feel like.
I've read a couple of posts referring to the fact that we can't blame all Muslims for beheadings such as this. I largely agree with that statement, but I really would like to see more American Muslims outraged over stuff like this. I would like to see protests held and important Muslim leaders speaking out against these terrorists. I'm encouraged to hear that this is starting to happen in Saudi by some of the religious leaders over there. Where's Louis Farrakhan in all this? If Muslims don't want to be associated with these lowlifes who are beheading our innocents, then they should be the ones speaking out against it the loudest. Their religion is really getting drug through the mud right now due to these fanatics, and one would think they would want to do something about it.
I'm glad the tragic death of an American citizen didn't turn into a pages-long argument filled with name calling and hyperbole. Thank God we have this board as our voice of reason.
War or no war terrorism was going to increase. It is going to increase until all of the women of the world are wearing shrouds or whatever the hell they call those things. It is going to increase until all Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Catholics, Hindi, Mormons, Taoists, Gypsies, Sikhs, peaceful Muslims, are dead. They do not want “separate but equal”. They want the rest of us dead. They want my 7 year old son to die a painful death because of who and where he is. They hate us. They do not have a belief system that allows for tolerance. They are not capable of anything outside of blind devotion to a false God. Let’s leave religion out of this? How in the world can we? It is at the core. Those people, because of their religious beliefs want to kill us. They cut off that man’s head because he was subhuman to them. They feel this way because of their religious beliefs. I am not arguing from a religious perspective. I save that for Sunday School class. I am saying that as a human, this breed of confused, robotic Muslim extremist must be exterminated and Iraq, with a former leader (with or without Al Qaeda ties & WMD’s) that supported this type of animalistic behavior, not even animalistic – that is being too kind to animals – this filthy behavior was as good a place as any to start. This evil came to our shores. And this element will continue to bring its wraith to our country, inevitably. But the changes we have made have slowed its eventual acceleration. Bush had to act swiftly and he commanded from the information he was given. His subordinates were faced with a difficult task and I will concede that they acted wrongly by giving bad information that Bush wanted to hear rather than solid information that was accurate. But the attack on the U.S. was lauded by all of those fundamentalists. It was praised by our enemies. It required an immediate response against all of the evil that spawned it. And I cannot speak for all of the right, I can only speak for myself, but we say the war is against terror. We personify this terror by saying Al Qaeda. But the war is against radical Islam. And peaceful Islam should start doing a better job of distinguishing itself. It was encouraging to read rockit's post. Thank you from the bottom of my Christian heart. I hope this man’s sacrifice strengthens our resolve and unifies us as much as those planes did in September of ’01.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1083&page=NR See the website (http://www.cair-net.org). Look at the public service announcements being done by this organization (I believe it's the largest Muslim awareness organization in the US). Look at the PETITION DECLARING THAT THIS IS NOT ISLAMIC IN ANY WAY. Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam are not considered a traditional part of the Muslim faith (in the same way David Koresh wasn't considered a Christian leader even though his theology was based on it).
Louis Farrakhan is a leader in the Nation of Islam, which is essentially a cultish off-shoot that has very little to do with regular Islam. Asking him to condemn this as a representative of Islam is like asking a Moonie to condemn something overseen by the Catholic Church. I think that it would be good PR if Muslim groups denounced these acts, but then again, the official Christian church bureaucracies don't condemn people like Pat Robertson when he blames gays for 9-11. Why? Because neither the peaceful Muslims nor the Church bureacracies view the fanatics as examples of themselves. Tedwhite made the mistake of comparing the beheading to the prison abuse - both crimes are awful and need no comparison to determine their moral repgnancy. But his "big picture" point is correct - people cannot retaliate violently without expecting violent consequences. That doesn't mean we should try to hold hands with the terrorists and sing "Cumbaya," but it also means we should think twice about calling for indiscriminate retaliation. Better we wish that the perpetrators are brought to justice in the most humane way with as little collateral damage as possible.
muslim leaders should be going out of their way to condemn and combat terrorism, no doubt about it. but don't confuse the issue. they beheaded him because they are the ones who are subhuman, not because they are muslims. get the distinction?
To clarify - this link is to a press release indicating that there is indeed a condemnation coming from a large Muslim organization as people here want to see. And for those who are Houstonians - CAIR-Houston exists. CAIR-Austin also exists. So do other local branches. If you're Muslim or care about hearing the grief and anger the Islamic community feels about this crap, perhaps you should take a step and go check it out. We are sickened just as much as you are. I cannot see how I can make this more clear to some of you.
Peace is always the way. ALWAYS. There is no discussion there. But because it's inconvenient and hard on our ego, we meet violence with even more violence. Which, of course, is greeted with more force and violence. In essense, we're allowing our "enemy" to tell us what to do. If we want to win this "war on terror," we're going to have to take a long, hard look at ourselves. Whether we admit it or not, we *do* play a role in this cycle of violence and terrorism. Our role can be to perpetuate it, or it can be to end it. It's that simple. If we want peace, make peace. We set our standards and our course of action, not others.
Someone made a Branch Davidian reference...that was hundreds out of billions. The problem with the extremist Muslims is that it is millions out of hundreds of millions. Proportionatley more disturbing.
Me too. I will be dulling the cold hard truth within 5 minutes of arriving home from work later this afternoon!
Absurd. If this were true, the United States would still be a British colony. Texas would be a part of Mexico.
They feel the same about us. They feel we are evil and that they are the good guys. If both sides feel the other side is a lost cause, perpetual war and violence is the result.
so don't say they are religious, clearly they are not. they claim to be religious, are you saying they are right. they are desperate, hate-filled animals, nothing more nothing less.
