Quote:
Originally posted by bilmore
I, like Pony, would kill "them all". I would define "them all" differently, though, limiting the group to all who participate, help, support, cheer on, and even those who remain silent but perfectly willing to accept the world domination of Islam should the Islamicists prevail. Unfortunately, they don't all wear signifying funny hats.
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Radical Islam gets a pass on its support for terrorism because people never kick the underdog. In the rest of the world where the US is disliked for heavy handed foreign policy, radical Islam, as loathesome as it is, is viewed like the Loyola Marymount team the year Hank Gathers died. I think a lot of people in the moderate Islamic world are torn because they believe Islam does need to assert itself against Westernization, but the methodology presently employed is pretty awful. They want to deride the messenger without slamming the message. This seems to have created a lot of apologists - people who say "Yes, it is awful. But how else can these people stand up to the US?" We're considered unbeatable, and our invincibility provides the excuse for whatever radical Islam does.
All this said, I still think the root of it all is economic, not religious. Religion is a filler for lack of money, which creates lack of hope. Give most of these Islamists a life worth living and they'll drop the Koran like a dirty dishrag. That, however, is a battle we can't wage and can't win. I don't see any way to drag their economies into the new millenium. I'd focus instead on Africa, and try to bring that continent forward, and leave the Arab world to its devices. Pull out, walk away... give them an infidel-free peninsula to behave like barbarians.
