Here it is eleven years later, the same Americans that were naïve back then are naive now, while again calling me naive for being cautious. They've never read the Koran. They've never learned anything about Islam's past or present beyond what some tv commentator told them. They don't know about the decades of Islamic butchery and conquest that necessitated the crusades. They don't know about the Arab slave trade, which was mostly a sex slave trade, that was justified using the Koran, which made American slavery look like a trip to six flags. They don't even know about the message of Muhammad that there is only one god, and that idolatry is wrong, and that we are supposed to treat each other well. They really know nothing of Islam except that they're being told that Muslims are being terrorized by white people, and that, understandably, makes them mad.
I read the Sharia Project website before it got scrubbed. It was friggin' scary. I have looked at Koranic and hadith scripture to see for myself whether it talks of peace or of terror. (The answer is that it commands both.) I am actively educating myself so that I can reach an understanding that works for me. At this point, that means that I am cautious because some of the things that I have found are quite disturbing, and I can't deny that. I have also found hope in the good things commanded by the Koran, and I do understand that, like with the Bible, there are things in there that were meant for that moment only and cannot be applied to modern day, and if they are, like is being done by terrorists, bad things happen. I am cautious about some specific Muslim individuals because I am not naive, and have actually done my homework. Whether or not Islam is a religion of peace doesn't change the fact that some Muslims find justification for evil there because they want to, and at the same time many people are good people because it teaches them to be that too. But we shouldn't be so naive as to pretend that Islam doesn't command terror and war, because those parts are in the scriptures too.
I am not naive to the fact that Muslims, like ALL people, are self-justifying individuals, just like I am not naive about some Christians who believe in a perversion of Christianity, and should likewise receive our mistrust. Christians who believe in collective salvation, for example, use the Bible to justify their belief, even though it is not in there and is antithetical to the message therein. People of all faiths are individuals and should be treated as such. Some Muslims find a call for violence in their good book. Some Christians, likewise, find calls for evil in their own good book, like when they justified slavery with the Bible. We have to be cautious of individuals who have crazy ideas, who incite, mean to offend, and act ungodly in the name of religion, from wherever they come, even when all they are doing is taking literally the commandments in their scriptures.There are church leaders in this country who are actively creating offense for publicity to build up their own followership, gain fame, and spread their own putrefied versions of religion, doing so in the name of and under the protection of the first amendment, stomping on the hearts of those who refuse to follow them down their ideological sink holes as a religious rite. I refused to say that I was "for" the mosque on ground zero, even though I defended the constitutional right, and now I am glad that I took the stance that I did because I would likewise have to be "for" the Koran burning if I was to have any intellectual integrity. Both are publicity stunts, intended to offend, defended as a practice of religion, protected by property rights as well as the first amendment, stupid, mean, and unwise.
It is not hate to be cautious of individuals that believes they must subvert, conquer, kill and /or enslave. Individuals killed 3000 people on 9/11, but it would be naive to forget that they did it because they felt that their own scriptures told them to. We'd be naive not to look into their own scriptures for some answers. I'm cautious because I'm not naive, and caution is not hate. I do believe that most Muslims are really good people. I have known a few. But we need to beware of the crazies, and expect the non-crazies to excoriate and help us identify the crazies,(and they are not doing that) and not just let them go on murdering and pillaging because of tolerance. Tolerance is a good thing for the most part, to a point, but beyond that point it just becomes naive. We cannot afford to be naive in the name of tolerance, but rather, we need to be tolerant tempered with knowledge. Looking at the ideologies of the majority of Muslims and the ideologies of the terrorists and comparing them is a fair thing to do, and under no circumstances is that hate. Pretending that one is supreme and that the other has no clout is naive.
Being fair to Mohammad, 1400 years is a long time, and in my opinion, he was just a man who lived in a barbaric civilization. Is it unreasonable to think that perhaps some of that barbarism managed to get itself into the Koran after his death? Our own civilization can't agree on the message of Thomas Jefferson and we have his own writings. HECK, we can't even agree on the ideology of Martin Luther King, and we have his own family members telling us what he believed and we can watch him speak on video. If people were to remember me in 1400 years, I couldn't in any meaningful way expect them to get me right. I can respect Mohammad the man and at the same time be disgusted by the inhumanity done and taught in the name of his god by the people who believe his message 1400 years later. A lot of these people still live in the stone age and that could account for some of their actions..But then we have Boston.. NO EXCUSE
At the end of the day, a Sharia state and our constitution are incompatible. The way to fend off the conquest of America by pretend moderates is to defend and uphold our constitution and never give in to changing the law or making special concessions for a religious group in the name of religious tolerance or fear of future terrorism. I fear we are doing jus that....
