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By the way, how many "Our Fathers" for blowing up 168 innocent people?

That would have been a Hell of a confession..."Forgive me father, for I have sinned, it has been 168 dead since my last confession..."

We would get a lot of playground cred for racking up the biggest penances. A rosary was impressive, but Stations of the Cross or a novena would put you in the hall of fame!

And there was always the lingering guilt that I had held back some sins I didn't want to admit.

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You were really stretching it with that one. Look, I grew up Roman Catholic. Got beat up by nuns from a little island in the Mediterranean that barely spoke English. But I don't make it a point to compare and contrast Catholicism with Islam in today's national security. I got over the Catholic Church a long time ago. Maybe you should do the same. Resentments are like assholes. Everybody has one.

Now, back to national security. We destroyed the Japanese Empire. Not because we could but because they made the decision at some point that they were going to lose and everybody involved was going to die trying. Living in the moment the Commander-in-Chief made the right decision. The Empire was destroyed and the United States saved itself a lot of suffering. Japan is a meek as a mouse now and an ally. Think about it. Think real hard about geography. Afghanistan borders Iran. Iraq borders Iran. Iraq borders Saudi Arabia. Iraq borders Syria. The Mediterranean borders Syria. We have an ally that borders Egypt. Are you starting to put the pieces together now. Where do you think this is going? Do you really think this is just a counterinsurgency operation against fanatics? This is going to lead to the destruction of an Islamic state. Take your pick. It doesn't matter which one gets it.

Lamont, apologies.

I was just being outrageous about Catholicism and violence to show that every faith has crazy people.

The only thing I have against Catholicism is how hard it is on altar boys.

I think the main problem with Islam is that the moderates (are their Islamic liberals?) lack the backbone to seize their freedom.

That's honestly what disgusts me the most.

Put some fundamentalist douchebag in a Muhammad costume and he can spew like Pat Robertson and nobody has the will to call him out.

At some point, they get the governments they deserve, you know?

Failure to stand up to oppression is a terrible sin, in my book.

Nice people like Jabberwock are not the problem. Them limiting their outrage to two lines of capital letters on a Hi Fi Forum is the problem.

Time for a jihad against Islamic extremism and power - by Muhammad's faithful, not us. Them!

Odd, how few moderates seem willing to die for a truly righteous cause.

Oh,

Regarding security....we are their oil slaves. All we can do, really, is do the bidding of the "good cop" while he allows us to beat on the wimpy "bad cop." Nothing we would ever do to offend the real master.

hmph... My outrage goes far beyond these forums. I just saw an opportunity here to clear some misconceptions and add another side to the discussion.

Honestly there is a lot of outrage among the moderates, there is a lot protest and we have a "backbone"

When I was in school the Muslim Student association organized an Islamic Awareness week, we went all out and had a very large attendance and it was a cross campus/cross university effort. Pamphlets were made, lectures scheduled. We invited all of the local media, as well as National. Only one TV station showed up. The TV station ran a small piece in the evening news.

Our outrage like our temperament is moderate. But if the media is gonna show the fanatic and ignore us most of our efforts go to waste.

I have improved my handwriting to a level where it borders calligraphy. Because I stopped sending emails, and now write physical letters to politicians, media and scholars with adornments and colorful inks all in the hope of attracting more attention.

I agree that more moderate Muslims need to be more active, Muslim countries need to root out fundamentalist. They need to have a better education system and more infrastructure.

But the western media needs to stop using fear as a tool to boost ratings.

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I was just being outrageous about Catholicism and violence to show that every faith has crazy people.

And to make the point that one cannot take the acts of one faith from decades or centuries ago to "prove" that all contemporary followers of the same faith are now going to act in accord with the past. This is utter nonsense.

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I think the main problem with Islam is that the moderates (are their Islamic liberals?) lack the backbone to seize their freedom.

It always looks this way from the outside.

Apartheid existed in South Africa long after the majority of its citizens rejected it.

It took years for the Polish unions and people to reject the communist.

China is in transition.

Hopefully Muslim moderates will continue to work from within with ultimate success.