Muslims in the West

Submitted by Bryan Jackson (Canada), Sep 12, 2006 at 13:13

CAIR is another organization that people believe in. But they are winning a hopeless battle because until the Muslim world understands us and accepts who we are, they are gonna have to live with our misconceptions.

Are all terrorists Muslims? Absolutely not. Baruch Goldstein, Timothy McVeigh, Gerry Adams, and Pieter de Koch were terrorists too. But the issue with Muslims is that do any of the above have leaders who condone terrorism? No. Militias like McVeigh was a member of do not support terrorist actions. The Israeli governemnt fights terrorists. The IRA is history and South Africa is now a multiethnic nation.

Does any of this apply in the Middle East? Iran is a distributor. Islam can coexist with the modern world, as Christianity does, as all the other major religions (Judaism, Shintoism, Buddhism) do. it's a matter of finding the line between Islam and modern life. In Turkey and Qatar they've found it. Muslims in North America by and large have found it.

All of Islam needs to change how they act and live. Their customs don't bother me or anyone else, but another 9/11 or bigger attack and the simmering Islamophobia in the West will explode into the open, and the consequences of that will be terrifying. We don't want that, or at least people like me who don't think anyone is inferior to anyone else.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".