I say this with a lot of hesitation, so no flames please. I have thought twice (actually more than that) and now I will post once. I am slowly coming to the realization that despite all efforts at remaining PC, we are going to have to accept that we are at war with Islam. It's not Christianity vs. Islam though. It is Western Society (spawned largely from Christianity) vs. Middle Eastern Society (spawned largely from Islam). Anyone who does not see this is in for a rude awakening. It is not a religious war, per se...yet religion is involved on the periphery. I have traveled a good bit. I've been to 13 different countries, and 19 different states. I have met people of all walks of life, from all faiths. I have many atheist friends, several Jewish friends, a whole wagonload of Christian friends, and 3 Muslim friends (2 from Jordan, 1 Born in the USA American). In short, I'm not some dumb backwoods redneck who is clueless about the world around him, so save your condescension for someone else.
We are essentially at war with most of the world's Muslim population, we just don't know it yet...and quite frankly neither do they. It is a clash of cultures, born of different religions. Ours is very tolerant, and despite Christian bashers attempting to paint us as fanatics who want to force everyone into our churches, will remain so. Their society is not very tolerant. It has more to do with the tradition of their faith than the reality of what most of them believe. They are conditioned to accept certain things as political reality, just as we are. I don't think that even 10% of the Muslim world is actively seeking to destroy us. But I do believe that 99% of them will not shed a tear or bat an eyelash over our destruction. So you end up with a situation much like 1930s Germany. A minority starts acting wacky, while the majority gives consent through their silence because they've been conditioned a certain way.
We've seen war progress from man vs. man, to family vs. family, to tribe vs. tribe, all the way to nation vs. nation. We've already had religion vs. religion. It was small potatoes compared to what we are faced with now. This is a clash of cultures, and I fear that while our people are stronger, the limitations placed on us by our culture will be our downfall. Obsession with political correctness, debating semantics, blindly blaming religion and those who are different, open dissent, etc. are all products of our culture. So while half of us spend all our time trying hard not to offend anyone, the other half is arguing about the definition of common terms, protesting anything the .gov does, obsessing over "them dern muzlims" and "the evil Christian Right", and otherwise being generally divisive, the enemy is united. There is no dissent, because it's not acceptable to their culture. There is no argument about religion, because it is accepted that Islam is THE religion and others are treated much like we treat our occasional cult...they largely ignore it, to the point that it passes for tolerance. There is no arguing or debating semantics or silly little details, because they have better things to do and bigger problems to worry about. Not living in the great land of plenty will do that to you. In other words, we are stronger as individuals, but they are stronger as a group. We need to stand united, not as Christians or [insert favorite group], but as Americans. We need to accept that we're all in this together. Muslims living here need to understand that, to a man, they are targets just like the rest of us. They don't need to try to reclaim their religion...because I fear that that is a lost cause and will just lead to another debate over semantics. We need to rally, in a big way people, and I think it needs to start in the Muslim community here in America. I don't know exactly what it is that they need to do, but I'm quite sure that they are the only segment of society that can provide the spark needed to rekindle the fire that is the spirit of America. Without their strong public support, we remain divided. I'm pretty sure the rest of us are essentially together...but we are so busy trying to be PC that we're losing sight of the real enemy. The only way we're gonna get past it is for a drastic change to take place. We all need to start thinking like Americans again...and drop all these stupid hyphens, lest we all perish!
Forgive me for rambling. I've been thinking about this for some time, yet I still can't find the words to express what I'm thinking. This is as close as I could get. Sorry if this is a thread hijack. It seemed an appropriate place to post, given the sentiments expressed here.