I think what you remember were protests saying “Do not hurt us.” These protests took place about a **week after **the attack.
Wow, it only took them three and a half years after Sept. 11 and a full year after the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings to issue this. I must admit, they are really on the ball! Good job! Very prompt!
Cites?
Well, let’s go back to the one major source of information we have about muslim attitudes in the US, the Pew poll. The Pew poll states that 80 percent of US muslims states that suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam cannot be justified. That is more than a clear majority of muslims. As I stated before, in my personal experience, the muslim people I know are peace loving, completely agree with US democratic values, and were horrified by the actions of 9/11.
So 20% of American Muslims feel that suicide bombing can be justified to promote Islam. That is a huge number. I suspect that if you asked Christians is suicide bombing is justified to promote Christianity, the number of those supporting it would be considerably smaller.
Yes you did and so did the survey. My mistake. However, I do not believe that makes a difference to my point.
I think Elric’s clarification is an important one. There is a difference between violence to defend one’s religion and violence to promote one’s religion. The poll really isn’t specific enough about the conditions under which these respondents would consider suicide bombings to be justified. And you certainly can’t conclude that these respondents think its okay or justified for muslims to blow themselves up here and now in the US to defend Islam. Though I admit it is disquieting to think that anyone would find suicide bombings an acceptable warfare tactic.
Given the context of my statement, that is not what I meant and I’m sorry if you misunderstood. I clearly did not mean lowering ourselves to the violent tactics that Al Queda uses. But by adopting an intolerant attitude towards muslims, we would be lowering ourselves to the intolerant attitude that Al Queda has towards Christian’s and Americans. Al Queda would love nothing more than that because they know that such a show of intolerance by the US would further divide Christians and muslims and create more violence and chaos in the world.
True, that is why the Catholic Church has the Just War Doctrine, and why America has the CIA, FBI, NSA, DNI, Homeland Security Department, and local police departments.
I’ve always found the term ‘Islamic extremism’ interesting, and I wonder how people in the Moslem community interpret it. I think in the media and in our culture generally, we associate it with terrorism. However, if you were to call someone a Catholic extremist, I think an orthodox Catholic would consider that a compliment. I just wonder how the muslims polled interpreted extremism.
I think that is already happening. I’m sure the FBI, CIA, DHS adn NSA keep extremely close tabs on suspect individuals from Middle Eastern countries, who are predominantly muslim.
I’m glad to hear that you are not advocating an absolute exclusion of muslims to this country. There are quotas in place in terms of how many people can immigrate from each country every year. I’m sure that people applying for immigration from Middle Eastern countries go through extremely close scrutiny post 9/11. I wouldn’t support quotas based on religious affiliation because is is abritrary and leaves the impression that Americans think most muslims are violent individuals. However, I am sure that people applying for immigration from Middle Eastern countries go through extremely close scrutiny by DHS before they are permitted a visa to enter the country for national security reasons.
