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Report: Nearly Half Of Surveyed US Citizens Feel Islamic Values Are Incompatible With American Values

» 75 comments

A new study done by the Brookings Institute finds a post-9/11 America ”grappling with the questions Islam poses to America’s founding principles and way of life,” and shows a nation seemingly glued to their televisions.

According to their report, 88 percent of Americans agree that “America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular.” Nearly half — 47 percent — of those asked, however, said that they feel Islam and American values are incompatible.

More specifically, “two-thirds of Republicans, Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement, and Americans who most trust Fox News agree that the values of Islam are at odds with American values.”  That the majority of Democrats, Independents, and CNN or public televisions watchers disagree probably comes as no surprise.

Additionally, nearly six in ten Republicans who most trust Fox News believe that American Muslims are trying to establish Shari’a law in the U.S., while, accordingly, the attitudes of Republicans who most trust other news sources tend to be similar to the general population.

In it’s disaggregation, this study most interestingly indicates that Americans tend to adhere as closely to their favored news source as they do their chosen political party. It also indicates that these two institutions may hold sway in the way we understand. Tucked away in the study is a clause that suggests many Americans don’t necessarily have daily interactions with the diverse populations they are faced with on the news (only 16 percent of senior citizens, for example, reported speaking “at least occasionally” to Muslims). Which makes you wonder how, exactly, Americans intend to cope with the challenges diversity poses to our principles of religious freedom. From the sounds of it, most will just turn on the news.

 

(H/T ThinkProgress)

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  • http://thefunemployed.blogspot.com/ rance

    Does this have to do with values or laws?  Sharia laws are incompatible with US constitutional laws.  That’s not an opinion, that is a fact.  Obviously, you’re not familiar with Sharia law.  

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LDO6LIQBI2JQ4Q5MWLWBKGKSJY bensanity

    You’re right they are incompatible. A democrat cannot be pro-Islam and pro-feminism.

  • Anonymous

    Zara,
    You cite two statistics (the number of people who believe “America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone” and those who said “they feel Islam and American values are incompatible”) implying they contradict one another. However, they don’t contradict one another.

    You can believe that Muslims have a right to believe what they want, while at the same time recognize that many Islamic practices (executing homosexuals, poor treatment of women, for example) are incompatible with American values.

  • Rance_IsDumb

    Obviously you are not familiar with reading comprehension. Stop defending Fox news for 30seconds and at least try to understand what the article is about.

  • http://capitolcommentary.com Harrison

    Duh.

  • Anonymous

    Or pro-gay.

  • huffnnruffln

    Being both pro-Islam and pro-feminism means being pro-freedom.

    Freedom means more than just doing what you want.

  • Guest

    Cliff notes to this article:  47% of America is correct in their assessment of Islam…

  • huffnnruffln

    We’re closer to Christofascist law being passed than Sharia law.

  • Tony the Fist

    Yeah, like Thou shalt not kill, or steal, or lie. Horrible bastards.

  • http://impossibledreamsmedia.com Chris Jones

    Islamic values are incompatible with American values. That’s a fact. It doesn’t matter if Democrats disagree. They’re idiots.

  • Tony the Fist

    I don’t think it’s so much about “values” as it is “rule of law.” I’m sure a good amount of American Muslims have much the same values as anyone else, but you can’t institute a new rule of law when one is already in place. Laws need to apply to everyone, not just to people who believe a certain way.

  • Anonymous

    only “nearly half”???  i would think it would be way more than half.

  • Anonymous

    but how does the practice of these values (executing homosexuals, oppression of women, etc.) play out in the american culture?  i don’t believe in these practices and believe they should not be tolerated in the u.s.

  • Anonymous

    If you click on the H/T at the bottom the study was cited by Think Progress.  One of the most intolerant sites, ever.  A site that can’t accept that there’s a such thing as diversity of thought.  And a site that routinely calls Fox/conservatives/Tea Party people un American.

  • Anonymous

    We have seen the enemy and he is scary.  And grabbing our valuables. Let’s talk tough about them. Whoever they are.

  • Anonymous

    You have shown awesome knowledge of Sharia Law. Except you don’t. 

  • Anonymous

     I agree that “America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular.” I also think that Christianity as well as Islam are incompatible with American values.

  • Tony the Fist

    Pler?

  • expatpatriot

    I know MY American values are challenged by Islam. And by Christianity, and Hinduism, and Scientology and (I’m guessing here) Zoroastrianism. Buddhism, not so much.

    Values based on fairy tales just make me uncomfortable.

  • Anonymous

     Maybe you should re-read it yourself before sounding off about “comprehension”. The ENTIRE article is about how the influence of media (FOX specifically) political affiliation and religious tolerance are perceived. I have pasted little qoutes to help you:

    “two-thirds of Republicans, Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement, and Americans who most trust Fox News agree that the values of Islam are at odds with American values.” 

    Additionally, nearly six in ten Republicans who most trust Fox News believe that American Muslims are trying to establish Shari’a law in the U.S., 

    In it’s disaggregation, this study most interestingly indicates that Americans tend to adhere as closely to their favored news source as they do their chosen political party.

    Americans intend to cope with the challenges diversity poses to our principles of religious freedom. From the sounds of it, most will just turn on the news.

  • AAkmal

    Like usual FOX CNN blablabla……….. who guess they’re say something good about Islam or muslim?

  • Anonymous

    But aren’t there plenty of Christian laws that are incompatible as well? What about the 4th Commandment? There are millions of people working on Sunday. I say we stone them!!

  • Anonymous

    Oh come on, surfgrl.  Here’s the most telling of that survey.

    “Ninety-five percent of Americans agree that all religious books should
    be treated with respect even if we don’t share the religious beliefs of
    those who use them.”

    In other words, most people, including Fox viewers understand the importance of tolerance.  You should understand that it’s ok to believe that something runs counter to American values. 

    I happen to think that the idea of a big government is counter to American values.  That doesn’t mean that I dislike big government proponents or want them somehow silenced. 

  • Anonymous

    It would be interesting if the study had cited how many stories on Muslims, Sharia, honor killings, the Ft. Hood Massacre etc… were featured on each network. How many different perspectives/facets of the Muslim faith were shown? We all know the media influences our perspectives on issues and people, so what is being shown makes a difference in capturing the interest of the viewer.

  • DEFENDER-90

    Jesus Christ become our sabbath under the new covenant. yes you can work on sunday.

  • http://smallthoughtsfromasmallmind.wordpress.com/ Small Thoughts

    What a surprise. Americans think honor killings, subservient women, gay killing, and stonings are incompatable with American values. I wonder how much that survey cost, and who was the moron who had it made?

  • http://www.facebook.com/bulletproofcharm Andrew Geonetta
  • richs

    Or pro dogs as pets!

  • Anonymous

    I thought that was true. Then why do Christians say they can’t work on Sundays? Just laziness?

    Different people have different interpretations of things. Ever met a traditionalist Catholic? A Muslim can pretty easily interpret Islam in a way to allow them to live peacefully in America.

  • Anonymous

    I thought that was true. Then why do Christians say they can’t work on Sundays? Just laziness?

    Different people have different interpretations of things. Ever met a traditionalist Catholic? A Muslim can pretty easily interpret Islam in a way to allow them to live peacefully in America.

  • Anonymous

    I thought that was true. Then why do Christians say they can’t work on Sundays? Just laziness?

    Different people have different interpretations of things. Ever met a traditionalist Catholic? A Muslim can pretty easily interpret Islam in a way to allow them to live peacefully in America.

  • DEFENDER-90

     yes could be Laziness or ignoance.

  • bulletproofcharm

    I think a number of you are missing the broader point, which is that a lot of Americans are making these judgement calls (you included, maybe?) on values and the people who adhere to them based on what they watch on TV rather than having any kind of direct experience with said values or people. 

    If everything I knew about Muslims or Islam was based on TV alone, I would certainly have something of a negative view. And that’s too bad. The people that are being portrayed on TV, for the most part, represent radical Islam. The beliefs and value systems of radical Islamists I don’t believe are compatible with American values…or any sane person’s values for that matter.

    Though I don’t necessarily believe this, I believe the majority of Americans would say that America is founded on Christian values. Yet the Westboro Baptist Church calls themselves Christians. Are the values they adhere to compatible with American values?

  • Anonymous

    In the 50′s we were taught to hate the baptists, in the 60′s it was the catholics, in the 70′s it was male, chauvinistic pigs, in the 80′s it was the feminists, in the 90′s it was the blacks and other scary brown skinned ones, and now it’s the muslims…. will it ever stop?

  • Anonymous

    And your point.  Oh yes, sharia is so compatible with freedom.  Give me a break. 

  • Anonymous

    And don’t even get me started on the stench.           
     
    Do yo know why muslims smell the way they do??????……..So blind people can hate them too.

  • Anonymous

    I totally agree with you. I was only highlighting direct quotes from the article that expressed the  correlation between FOX, new outlets with regard to political affiliation in response to other comment. Most of which ironically focused (at least in mediate article) on Republican responses. Definitely Not what I perceived as the most telling aspects of what could be gleaned from the study. 

    I wonder if they could include our newest network, Al Jazeera viewers in their next study on the compatibility of American values in a Sharia Law? 

  • Anonymous

    You know correlation is not causation, right?

  • bulletproofcharm

    I agree with you. Radical Islam…radical Sharia law…is incompatible with American values and American freedoms. 
    But you are assuming  that every Muslim believes in the most radical interpretation of Sharia law. Are you aware that millions of American Muslims are fully reconciled with democracy and the protection of minority rights?

    Again, you could assume that same thing about Christians. Do you assume to believe that every Christian believes in every radical interpretation of the Bible?

    And this is a major sticking point of the article. You are taking everything you know about Muslims, Islam and Sharia Law from what you see and hear on television. You cannot assume that every Muslim believes that it’s cool to stone another human being, just like you cannot assume that every Christian believes in fundamentalist ideas. 

  • Anonymous

    Hardline interpretations of Sharia law are oppressive to women and gays. how are these things compatible? We tolerate fundamentalist islamists and feminists at the same time? Do they ever have to sit at the same table? 

  • Anonymous

    And I agree with you as well.  But do you really thing the good Muslims will ever take a stand against the radical muslims.   Forgive me, but I just don’t see it ever happening.  The good practicing Muslim people are not brutal as are the radicals and I think they are just as much afraid of them as non-Muslims are.

  • bulletproofcharm

    This is strictly my opinion…and I appreciate you keeping the discussion friendly :)

    I think we need to remember that perception is everything, and right now, I think the perception of ALL Muslims…good or otherwise…has been adversely affected by the dramatic actions of those that hold more radical views.  

    Another thing to remember is that human psyche pays attention to extremes. The best analogy is a car wreck. Who cares about traffic that is moving on the highway? That’s normal. But when there’s a car wreck, people slow down, look and really pay attention. 

    Finally, stating the obvious here, news relies eyes to make some cash. 

    If perception is everything, human psyche is drawn to extremes, and news needs to get your attention to make money…then they are going to give you an overabundance of extreme content…hence the reason why you see the majority of the news you see about Muslims being focused on all of the crazy aspects of Sharia law & general acts of terrorism.  

    I believe the same thing to be true of any ethnic stereotype. Afterall, that’s how a stereotype is born…

    …but I’m digressing pretty hard here. 

    My point of saying all of this is that…yes…I do believe ‘good’…or ‘more reasonably minded’…Muslims take a stand against radical practices of Islam every day. It’s just not quite as newsworthy or exciting or emotion-inspiring as it is to present stories about the radical ones blowing themselves up in the name of Allah. Again, if that’s all I’m seeing every day in the news, then OF COURSE I’m going to be more inclined to think that that’s all Muslims want to do.

    We are afraid of what we don’t understand. The majority of Americans have no reason to want to understand Muslims and Islam and are therefore more liable to take positive or negative extremes at face value. Let’s use a Christian-driven case. What about Anders Behring Breivik? The self-proclaimed Christian Swede who killed all of those people recently? What makes him any different than a radical Muslim terrorist? Nothing. But the reason why we don’t go and condemn the entire Christian faith for his beliefs is because we know more about what the Christian faith is about. It’s even easier to write it off as an isolated incident because we actually know a number of Christians who aren’t like that. 

  • Anonymous

    It is doctrine in Islam that it is the duty of every Muslim that he attempt to convert every person he meets three times.  It is doctrine that every Muslim attempt to establish Sharia Law where he lives.  Under Islam, there is no separation between mosque and state.  Sharia Law IS the law.  If you think that Islam is compatible with with the Constitution of the USA, I don’t think you know what is in the Constitution.

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    or pro daughters attending school

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    “Freedom means more than just doing what you want.”

    What If I don’t want to worship Allah, am I still free?

  • Frod

    Yes, unlike hardline interpretations of the bible which are beacons of reason and inclusivity.

  • Frod

    Pro-Islam? What does that even mean?

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    “You cannot assume that every Muslim believes that it’s cool to stone another human being”

    Then why don’t we see Muslim “activists” trying to stop it. How about you go over to Pakistan with your John Lennon glasses and your peace song to try to stop the barbaric act. Write a will before you go though.

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    “You cannot assume that every Muslim believes that it’s cool to stone another human being”

    Then why don’t we see Muslim “activists” trying to stop it. How about you go over to Pakistan with your John Lennon glasses and your peace song to try to stop the barbaric act. Write a will before you go though.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Farax-Shirwac/100001414842261 Farax Shirwac

    You took it over the edge you moron.

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    Baptists were not beheading people in the 50s, Catholics were not flying planes into building in 60s; Stop your political correctness BS. Nobody is telling people to “hate” Muslims. After 911,  GW Bush went to a mosque to reassure American Muslims and Americans were not attacking Muslim people on the streets, inter faith services were held for the victims. This has been the case even after every other attack carried out by a Muslim fundamentalist. You write this dumb stuff from the comfort of your home but I’m sure you’ll be the first to act flip out if a Muslim garb wearing passenger was chanting Alahu Akbar on a plane you were in. GTFOH

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    Baptists were not beheading people in the 50s, Catholics were not flying planes into building in 60s; Stop your political correctness BS. Nobody is telling people to “hate” Muslims. After 911,  GW Bush went to a mosque to reassure American Muslims and Americans were not attacking Muslim people on the streets, inter faith services were held for the victims. This has been the case even after every other attack carried out by a Muslim fundamentalist. You write this dumb stuff from the comfort of your home but I’m sure you’ll be the first to act flip out if a Muslim garb wearing passenger was chanting Alahu Akbar on a plane you were in. GTFOH

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    Ironic that lefties embrace Islamists who mistreat minorities and women and behead you for your lifestyle but get bent out of shape for a Christian saying they oppose certain lifestyle for religious purpose. The former is depriving you of your dignity/freedom/life while the latter is only exercising his God given freedom of expression as enshrined in our constitution. Liberals are dumb hypocrites.

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    George Soros

  • http://twitter.com/osajulian osajulian

    George Soros

  • Anonymous

    What American “values” would those be???

  • Anonymous

    What American “values” would those be???

  • FreeMike

    “Numbering an estimated 600,000, Muslims now represent one of the fastest growing religious communities in New York City,” said Peter Awn, co-principal investigator and Columbia University dean of the School of General Studies.”

    Must be that leftie MSM that’s keeping all those beheadings and stonings out of the news, hey?  BTW, when did God give you “freedom of expression”?  Why didn’t he give it to everyone?

  • bulletproofcharm

    I’m not talking about Muslims in other countries that are primarily Islamic. I think it’s pretty safe to say that a more Islamic country is going to be more apt to follow the the letters more specifically. Thanks, I’ll stay out of Pakistan. No, I’m talking about the US. Again, extremists or any kind of extreme thinking has no place in American society. And you can’t honestly believe that every Muslim here wants to kill you.

    No need to get nasty.

  • bulletproofcharm

    Look…not ALL Muslims believe in beheading or stoning. If you really believe that, then you must also believe that every black person must be a thug, every Italian from New York is affiliated with the mob and every Catholic priest rapes boys. I don’t embrace or defend any extreme Islamists the same way I don’t embrace or defend those mentioned above.

    If you really believe that ALL Muslims are how you describe, isn’t that bigotry?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K47R2KNGRYXOECLVDSESRNL2ZE sam

    Written
    on August 16, 2011 by da Tagliare
    Rick Perry Has Some Explaining to DoFiled under
    Culture,
    Islam,
    Politics,
    ReligionComments (284)

    402Share

    I’ve often been told that you can accurately judge a person by the friends
    that they keep. Using this premise, let’s take a look at some of the friends
    Presidential GOP candidate Gov. Rick Perry has kept and still keeps.
    In 1988, President Ronald Reagan had already served his two terms as
    President and was ineligible to run again. The Republican Party ran then
    Vice-president George H.W. Bush after a hard fought primary campaign against
    Senator Bob Dole. The top Democratic candidates included Gov. Michael Dukakis,
    Sen. Al Gore and Rep. Dick Gephardt among others. At the time of the 1988
    campaign, then Democratic Rep from Texas Rick Perry served as the Texas campaign
    head for Al Gore. After Bush handily defeated Dukakis for the White House, Perry
    switched parties and became a Republican in 1989, but still kept ties with
    Democrat Al Gore – inventor of the internet and crusader for a one-world economy
    and government.
    In 1999, Perry became
    Lieutenant Governor of Texas and Governor in 2000. As Texas’s governor, Perry
    has openly courted relations with a number of Islamic leaders.
    One of Perry’s friends with Aga Khan, the multimillionaire head of the
    Shi’ite sect of Islam known as the Ismailis. As governor, Perry has used his
    association with Khan and other Ismailis leaders to establish cooperative
    programs with them and the state of Texas, including an education program to
    help teach children that Ismailis Muslims are peace loving people.
    Perry has also been known to be friends with Grover Norquist. Norquist is
    married to a Palestinian wife who is the director of communications for
    Norquist’s Islamic Free Market Institute. He has been on the Islamic payroll
    before and after 9/11. Just fifteen days after the 9/11 attack on the US,
    Norquist arranged for President Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic leaders who
    were supposedly rejecting violence and terrorism. However, a number of those
    Islamic leaders have been supportive of Hamas, Hezb’allah and the Palestinian
    cause to eliminate Israel from existing as a nation and who have called for the
    destruction of all those nations who support Israel, including the US.

    Gov. Perry claims to be a conservative Christian, just like Obama claimed
    before he was elected President and we have seen Obama’s track record of
    supporting Islamic peoples and nations while distancing the country from our
    Israeli allies. One can’t help but wonder if Perry is following a similar
    pattern
    Let’s face facts. Islam considers Christians to be infidels and peace
    loving or not (heavy on the not) does teach that infidels should be
    exterminated. Many Islamic leaders have taught the same and have vowed a Jihad –
    Holy War – against the US for being a nation of infidels.
    So why would a professing Bible believing Christian be friends with people
    who have openly supported the destruction of Christianity, Judaism and the
    United States? I know Scripture says to love your enemies, but it does not say
    to make them your friends and to court their ways.
    The Republican Party needs to
    pin Perry down and find out exactly where his allegiance is and whose side he’s
    on before any more voters head to a primary, unaware of his background.

    402Share  I  heard  someone  state,Perry   strongly  supports  Shariah  law!   I   do  not  support  u.N.  law  or  shariah. See  more  on  Obama  ,perry,  and  Congress:   http://www.meetrickperry.com,www.commieblaster.com,www.jimmars.com,www.infowars.com,  on  you tube  Perry getting  stop  by a  Dps  state  trooper  on  Dash  cam-  His  rant!Perry  is  a  liberal  and  not  a  conservative.  He  will  lie  after  lie!  Cover up  facts.No  Obama  copy  cats!See   the   real  newth  gingrich  at :  www.vimeo.com/6445068  .  Please    get  your   money  back  on  that  trashy  book  perry  made  or  used  it  againist  him!   Perry  is  a  very  poor  choice.  Thank  you.

  • Guts1234

    Do you even understand Islamic Values? Other than the five second sound bites you get from Fox, Please educate yourself as to the actual beliefs and values of a people as said by their people as opposed to someone else. Would you like people to get information about Christianity from a Rabbi?

    Some Islamic Values, honor your parents, honor your neighbor, be just, don’t lie, cheat, backbite, want for your brothers and sisters in humanity what you want for yourself, 

  • Glutton

    What are “American values” anyways?  The notion that all our jobs should go overseas?  Believing in a higher power to solve the droughts and economic woes facing this country?  Electing a half black president thinking that will erase memories of slavery and segregation?  I personally can’t stand religion (especially Islam), but I wouldn’t be too upset if someone said my views are not compatible with American values.  That just goes to show that I’m not a complete moron.

  • CarmanK

    Because not all Muslims are Jihadists and there are a lot of decent people out there who have nothing to do with violence upon their fellow man, no matter their faith. It is rediculous to say that more Muslims in the US are out to spread their religious beliefs by force. The EVANGELICAL right brings more violence on the people of the US than the Muslims have. Look at the violent hateful rhetoric spewed from the mouth of so called christians: against blacks, against returning dead soldiers, against women and their right to health care, against women: who should have to bear the spawns of rape and incest: it just goes on. It is not the Muslims who are driving the hatred and justifying in religious terms the starving of US children to save money . It is all about power and nothing to do with GOD, love of neighbor or virtue. The Koran recognizes Jesus and preaches peace and non violence. It is the men who alter the interpretation of holy books to meet their goals of domination and subjugation. Remember, it was okay at one time to offer thousands of VIRGINS to the gods of the past in order to appease the angry gods. Who delivered the message to the people, that such violence would appease a god. The spiritual leaders , the men of power who wanted to keep the people in line and obedient.

  • Anonymous

    Dear Lord, CARMAN, I am sick of hearing that nonsense!  The term is called “guilt by omission.”  

    Where are all the “decent people” (Muslims) actively, overtly helping America and the west dismantle the “Jihadis?”  Where were all the Mosques and the faithful coming together to help us fight the Bad Guys?

    What about the Muslims in the Military, who are asking for Conscientious Objector status, once faced with the possibility of having to kill a fellow Muslim?

    Lastly CARMAN, I wonder how your daughter will look in that stylish new Burka?

    Purveyor

  • Anonymous

    America was founded on Christian Values, not Islamic.  Islam has contributed nothing to our founding or our history, I don’t give a damn what Obama tells them, he is lying and full of feces as usual!  Sharia Law comes from Satan, who Islam worships.  Allah is Satan and it is so obvious by the sickness and violence of the belief.  No so-called “religion” is capable of delivering Spiritual Enlightment while advocating violence in every form, which is what Islam does.  It is the only belief that should be banned from the shores of America.  It is insane that we allow them into our country when they will not assimulate or obey our laws.  The end of Islam in America is the only way to end the insanity!  Maybe if America led in that action, Europe may follow.  Islam should be contained in it’s own lands and let them murder one another, no problem there!

  • Anonymous

    Another research that tells us something we already know. That Fox and the Republicans are ignorant, bordering on bigotry. What’s new? We saw it clearly last year and still going on with the Park 51 mosque. And am not going to make excuse for the ignorant people that trust Fox, because people tend to follow a path that confirms their psychology. Fox is just feeding on the market not the other way round, in summary they both deserve one another. These phonies will tell us they believe in the constitution, but I doubt they can tell the difference between the constitution and the bill of rights, that they are behaving exactly the same way as the people the pilgrims fled from (due to religious persecution). Fackwards! 

  • CarmanK

    You are just sick and afraid of life. the muslims aren’t the ones harming this country right now, it is the Christian EVANGELICALS who are trying to rob women of their equal rights and arrogantly they have the right to exercise PUBLIC DOMAIN over a woman’s UTERUS. the Christian EVANGELICALS parade meanfully at soldiers funerals, and thank their GOD they are dead. the CHRISTIAN EVANGELICALS preach hatred and fear, all for the purpose of dominating and scaring others. Not one single muslim that I know has brought harm to this country. As for the burqa, My daughter is a gorgeous woman who would look good in anything, but she prefers jeans these days. I won’t tell her father, that some stranger hiding behind his internet anonymity made derogatory about his Princess.

  • Anonymous

    Thats quite funny!  Well done.  

    I have had conversations with with people at dinner parties, whom I did not know well, yet the conversation somehow wound around to Politics, frequently a dichotomy between how the west views and treats women compared to Islam.At times, just for the shock value, I boldly state how much I despise Islam, which, based on facial expression, immediately exposes those with Liberal inclinations! LOL  

    However, before I let them reply, I tell the dinner guests, primarily the women is my abhorrence of any culture that would treat women the way Islam does?  That usually changes the mood as no matter what, as most women agree how shockingly awful Islam treats their women.

    I like your “backhanded” sense of humor, as I use similar techniques to make a point, i.e., play the antagonist to show your opponent how absurd and dangerous ‘their’ position really is…LOLConversely, The Conservatives claim to be the “Party of Reason,” but, they too have exceptions, such as euthanasia, abortion, prayer in school and other “social” issues.  In other words: “equal protection” is a great idea until “your Ox is gored”, so to speak.  

    When an issue is particularly important, then one wants to make exceptions, do you agree?As for your “princess,” I sincerely hope that a Government based on Religious and/or Political ideology, NEVER, imposes its will on her or anyone for that matter.

    The Purveyor of Rhetoric

  • Hagen619dj

    Why is this even a question?  We Americans have our religion and it doesn’t forbid women and children to do certain things. Sharia Law is a law to crusify their title given us as infidals. The virgin belief is one of the more stupid laws ever written. This country has gotten along fine without any interruption from Islam belief. we don’t believe murder and maime is a reason for anything to justify their law.

  • huffnnruffln

    Dumbest question ever.

  • Anonymous

    Edmond Burke once said:  ”All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is that good men do nothing.”

    Like I wrote earlier, “guilt by omission,” makes most of Islam is complicitous, to the horrors perpetrated by that culture.  Ergo, and curiously, Mr. Burke’s admonition is still credible and, also, crosses cultural lines.  Or, are you relying on a “moral relativism” that equates the West and the Mid-East?  

    If so, the difficulty is the relative ages of Christianity and Islam come into play.  Islam is 600 years younger than Christianity, yet has modern military equipment the West did not possess in the 1400s.  Also, Islam is comprised of an archaic culture that can’t seem to contain itself.  Christianity, has already gone through the tribulations that Islam is currently enduring.  The problem is, Islam is our next door neighbor and shares the planet with us.

    Miraculously, Christianity survived and is moving forward, if Islam doesn’t survive, will that culture destroy us, along with itself?

    Lastly: the “anonymity” of the internet works both ways?

    Purveyor

  • Mtobrady

    I agree with Burke that all that is needed for evil to prevail is for the good to stay silent. It has been a quote, I have often used and  live by. However, there is no relativism in my thinking. Islam is “younger” than christianity, but  their primitive behaviors in modern society have more to do with the fact that 60% of the practictioners in the Middle EAST are illiterate.  Tribal leadership prevails and the behavior of the people depends on the extremism of its leadership. There are many in the Middle East who do not follow the strict constructionism of the TALIBAN or the mindless imposition of SHARIA LAW.
    The IMAM in the US are preaching to a more educated population. Therefore the practice of Islam by an educated muslim american citizenry correlates more with the peaceful and merciful teachings of the KORAN. Islam in the US  is far different from Islam is Saudia Arabia where the Princes prevail, etc… American Muslim citizens are entitled to their rightful place of equality in our society and they have a right to respect for their religious beliefs. That is my point. To be muslim is not to be an enemy of the US of AMERICA or to be an advocate of harm. And as AMERICANS we have to be ready to distinguish between them and act accordingly if our society is to remain free and equal.

  • Anonymous

    I have found a whole new world lately, respectful and coherent people that, at least somewhat, disagree with me. My compliments, thank you.

    Your point “that 60% of the practitioners in the middle east are illiterate,” gives me pause, BUT! And I think you already know the logical retort–How many “Christian” adherents that attacked Jerusalem, could read and write latin? Furthermore, how many of the pathetic, semi-homeless children of Central and South America are literate?

    Yet, an Army of illiterates conquered the Holy Land… (Note: Many if not most nobles could NOT read or write during the Middle ages)

    So, in conclusion, illiteracy is NOT a pre-requisite for religious fervor and violent predilection.

    As to last half of your post regarding affluent, intelligent (well bred?) Muslims, you miss the core of my original assertion: “Culpability by omission”

    I have yet to see a substantive congregational activity by Muslims, condemning Jihadis? Until I see and hear American Islam castigating and turning in those they may know to be planning crimes, ISLAM, will remain suspect. And should!

    Purveyor

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