I haven’t yet read the responses below so I can give an honest, unbiased opinion. I don’t care what Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives or libertarians say about Muslims…I know from experience that there are good ones, and there are most certainly bad ones. Muslims are people, but they have a different philosophy, and more importantly a different ideology, than most other people in the world that haven’t been exterminated through history of war and so forth. This isn’t a testament them by any means, only a reality. Some of the Muslim countries still live like they’re in the Middle Ages with their savage treatement of women and innocents. It’s absolutely sickening.
Islam is a philosophy more than a religion, imo. Having read many passages of the Koran (not from some rhetorical book, either), I learned enough to know that Islam is a religion that demands its practitioners to not evolve or adapt, not at all. It’s surprising to see some things in there you hear is either false or hearsay, yet when you read the words, you realize the intention of the movement is a non-stop extermination of everyone else not Muslim.
Again, to reiterate, I know moderate Muslims who are decent, hard-working and oftentimes America-loving individuals. Hell, one of my Muslim friends even has a Christmas tree during Christmas and exchanges gifts…something you would likely never see in so many Muslim countries. Not saying synchretism ought to be a goal; orthodoxy is up to an individual and what do I care?
But you can certainly do a comparison with the other western religions, Christianity and Judaism, but know that as enemies, Muslims can be a combination of the worst of the Japanese and the Nazis. The philosophy they adhere to is so freaking much like the Borg it’s ridiculous. Their philosophy demands converts, and if you don’t convert, they kill you. Like the Japanese, they kill themselves in order to kill you, and like the Nazis, they exterminate anyone who isn’t like them.
To maintain that Muslims hate us simply because we occupy their land with warfare is short sighted. Granted it might be fanning the flames more, this philosophy has sought to replace all other belief systems by force. Hatred is its fuel, and conversion is its route and the systematic deterioration of our resistance in combination with the infiltration of our engineering and education industries are its catalyst.
The mere fact that some people, whether they be liberals or libertarians, can defend their “freedom” when they condemn their own government seeking to enslave them is pure stupidity. How can you condemn one tyrannical movement yet ignore or support another? Absolute hypocrisy. So many people cannot have a discussion about Islam without pulling a PC maneuver by including Judaism and, of course, Christianity to nullify the ground. So many people are afraid to discuss the intentional genocide of this group of people, and to ignore it on some basis of “Oh, it’s just another religion,” or “If we left their area, they wouldn’t hate us anymore.” Absolute rubbish.
These are the same a$$holes that destroy Buddhist statues and temples*. Buddhists*! Buddhism, one of the few mainstream religions still in existence that only had one small battle (ironically over the Siddhartha Gautauma’s possessions, which is completely contrary to the Buddhist ideal of overcoming desire and attaining samsara) and never, ever fought in a war. The philosophy of Islam is what it is, and it should be watched carefully. Get to know people and you can see beyond titles, true…but it doesn’t change the philosophy of the religion. I’m sure there were nice Germans and Japanese during WWII, but did that change the fact that the Japanese shoved bamboo up people’s fingernails or Nazis putting people in the gas chamber? Absolutely not.
DO NOT IGNORE THE INTENTION OF ISLAM. No amount of nullification by comparison to other religions, time periods, et cetera can change the fact that their methodology is convert or destroy.