Juan Williams: I'm not a bigot. NPR: Yes you are

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:see if you have the guts to publically make fun of or critisize Muhammad. You all have the freedom to critisize Christians of make fun of Jesus all you want since Christians are peaceful. Try it with Muhammad weaklings...thats right...better roll over for Islam and accept it.

Publicly -- and not anonymously -- tell the Israelis to get the hell out of Palestine or claim that the Jews control the media and see how that works out for you. Although, if you work for Fox, you'll probably get a raise.

[Anonymous]

The Jews probably do control the media, but thats because they work to do it and for the most part, do a really good job.. They don't control Fox but thats what choice is all about. I am a conservative christian, I like Jews alot. They are Gods chosen people. Israel is out beloved ally and a bulkhead of civilization. If you think it's just hunky-dory to threaten and silence South Park, stone women , and behead homosexual sympathizers, then I think your liberal orthodxy has twisted your mind in a pretzel. Islam is dangerous at this time. It may turn around in the right direction. In order to prove it is not dangerous, Isalmic leaders need to condemn the Jihad every single day in a provocative and highly publicized manner.

[Anonymous]

They will never do that because.....I think when push coves to shove...they are for Jihad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will never do that because.....I think when push coves to shove...they are for Jihad.

Ask your many Muslim friends if they are for Jihad.

Or, if that question perplexes you, ask yourself how you can know so much and not have any muslim friends. There are over a billion of them. If somehow you live in a community where you have no direct relationships with Muslims, perhaps you should not try to read their minds.

[Anonymous]

I don't hear their leaders publically condeming Jihad. I have never heard the words "We, the leaders and true voice of Islam condemn and rebuke the Jihad. We stand with our Christian and Jewish friends in fighting against these dangerous and destabilizing madmen. They will be opposed..and destroyed with the full backing of the Muslim faith"...This would be easy for them to do, and they need to do it constantly until the Jihad is irradicated. The will not do this because....if there is going to be a conflict, and the radicals are going to make sure there will be...they will be on the radicals side.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:The Jews probably do control the media, but thats because they work to do it and for the most part, do a really good job.. They don't control Fox but thats what choice is all about. I am a conservative christian, I like Jews alot. They are Gods chosen people. Israel is out beloved ally and a bulkhead of civilization. If you think it's just hunky-dory to threaten and silence South Park, stone women , and behead homosexual sympathizers, then I think your liberal orthodxy has twisted your mind in a pretzel. Islam is dangerous at this time. It may turn around in the right direction. In order to prove it is not dangerous, Isalmic leaders need to condemn the Jihad every single day in a provocative and highly publicized manner.

It's very easy to talk when you are anonymous. But, if you are going to come on here and call people cowards, maybe you should stop hiding. You are all tough and brave about your views as long as nobody knows they are yours. Like I said before, publicly, and not anonymously express your view that the Jews control the media. If you are not willing to do that, you probably need to stop talking about others being afraid of things.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I don't hear their leaders publically condeming Jihad. I have never heard the words "We, the leaders and true voice of Islam condemn and rebuke the Jihad. We stand with our Christian and Jewish friends in fighting against these dangerous and destabilizing madmen. They will be opposed..and destroyed with the full backing of the Muslim faith"...This would be easy for them to do, and they need to do it constantly until the Jihad is irradicated. The will not do this because....if there is going to be a conflict, and the radicals are going to make sure there will be...they will be on the radicals side.

Just because you do not explore the variety of media sources that publicize Muslim condemnations does not mean that such condemnations don't exist. You are unlikely to find a Muslim condemning "Jihad" given the broad meaning of that word. But, certainly, you will find condemnations of terrorism and other violent acts. Here is how the New York Times described one Muslim leader recently:

"He consistently denounces violence. Some of his views on the interplay between terrorism and American foreign policy — or his search for commonalities between Islamic law and this country’s Constitution — have proved jarring to some American ears, but still place him as pro-American within the Muslim world. He devotes himself to befriending Christians and Jews -- so much, some Muslim Americans say, that he has lost touch with their own concerns."

The person being described is Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. You can see how much his moderate views have helped him with the Fox News crowd -- not at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like Israel is a Jewish theocracy.

You are ignorant. Israel is a democracy that, in fact, has Arab members of parliament. The supreme political authority in Iran is an Islamic religious leader selected by a council of Islamic religious scholars, and to my knowledge all candidates for lower offices are subject to religious qualification.

You are entitled to your own opinions, of course, but not your own facts.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Notice how your entire vocabulary changed? You recognize that problem in Pakistan is not one of Islam, but one of extremism. Pakistan is not a "Muslim problem." Control of the nuclear weapons by the current Muslim leadership is not a problem. The threat to that control is a problem. You initially cited Pakistan as being an example of a "Muslim problem", but to intelligently discuss it, you have to adopt a new vocabulary. I think that proves my point.

No, it just proves that I am trying to actually communicate with you by attempting to discuss the matter in terms that you seem comfortable with. My view is that there is something in Islam that is conducive the the development of problematic extremism -- e.g. concepts like jihad, although I know you like pretend that means something quite different from the mainstream view of that concept in Islam, particularly outside of the united States.

I think the consequence of that is that there is substantial sympathy to those "extremists" in large proportions of the Muslim world, which encourages and facilitates those extremists. I understand that you disagree with that, and that this is a factual question neither one of us has a definitive answer to. Our difference is that you see a clean separation between "extremists" and "non-extremists" and I don't think that is a fair view of the situation. I hope you are right, but I don't think you are.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This would be a good time for radical muslims to kill Americans.....we are too scared to fight back. This is Bin Ladens stated plan. He says America is a 'paper tiger" with no stomach for a long term and difficult war...he is right...

It is never a good time to kill Americans. Only deranged right-wingers have such thoughts. How come you are so eager to see your fellow countrymen killed?

BTW, I have posted a lot on this thread (13:05, 13:53, etc.), and disagree with Mr. Steele on a lot of points, but I agree with him on this one. Americans are obviously not too scared to fight back -- e.g., Afganistan -- and it is pretty silly to claim the contrary. bin Laden probably did think we were too weak to fight back, and this was a grave miscalculation.

It's not constructive, however, to distort the views of those who disagree with you. I think it is a bit unfair to suggest that PP is in favor of seeing Americans killed; that is an unfair and uncharitable reading of the post, which seems rather clearly intended as a warning that this might occur unless we change our approach; this may be right or wrong on the merits, but I don't think PP is pro-dead americans.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Jews probably do control the media, but thats because they work to do it and for the most part, do a really good job.. They don't control Fox but thats what choice is all about. I am a conservative christian, I like Jews alot. They are Gods chosen people. Israel is out beloved ally and a bulkhead of civilization. If you think it's just hunky-dory to threaten and silence South Park, stone women , and behead homosexual sympathizers, then I think your liberal orthodxy has twisted your mind in a pretzel. Islam is dangerous at this time. It may turn around in the right direction. In order to prove it is not dangerous, Isalmic leaders need to condemn the Jihad every single day in a provocative and highly publicized manner.

It's very easy to talk when you are anonymous. But, if you are going to come on here and call people cowards, maybe you should stop hiding. You are all tough and brave about your views as long as nobody knows they are yours. Like I said before, publicly, and not anonymously express your view that the Jews control the media. If you are not willing to do that, you probably need to stop talking about others being afraid of things.
I don't have any idea of what you would find offensive in this post. I mean everybody knows that Jewish people have alot of influence in the media...this is not debatable. I say SO WHAT ! thats what they want to do...they are good at it...they work hard...and if someone wants to compete, so be it. (like Fox). And I would never publicly condemn Islam...to do so would be dangerous....that is why they must be stopped. Islam is the only religion I would condemn anyway, the others are all peaceful and reasonably tolerant.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
I don't have any idea of what you would find offensive in this post. I mean everybody knows that Jewish people have alot of influence in the media...this is not debatable. I say SO WHAT ! thats what they want to do...they are good at it...they work hard...and if someone wants to compete, so be it. (like Fox). And I would never publicly condemn Islam...to do so would be dangerous....that is why they must be stopped. Islam is the only religion I would condemn anyway, the others are all peaceful and reasonably tolerant.

You must be one of those Americans that the anonymous coward above says are too scared to fight back. A typical right-wing bed-wetter.

Actually, given your use of ellipses, I think you are the anonymous coward. Pretty funny to accuse us of being cowards while admitting your own cowardice.

If I have something to condemn Islam about. I will do it. For instance, I condemn the Wahhabi religious establishment for it's treatment of women which prevents women from even being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. I condemn the Shia political/religious leaders of Iran for condoning an obviously fraudulent election. I absolutely condemn Islamic figures such as Bin Laden who provide Islamic justifications for the killings of innocents. But, while I'm at it, I also condemn Barack Obama (and, no, I am not suggesting he is a Muslim), for his similar justifications for killing innocents.

And, now, I will not feel a need to sweat over either the possibility of a fatwa or deportation to Gitmo.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how many people on this board have actually read the Koran? I have, cover to cover, in college under the tutelage of a professor who went on to head the American university in Lebanon.

The point is, it's complicated with no black or white. You can't say it's all sweetness and light, or that it's all jihad (the physical not mental kind) and terrorism. Americans need to read the thing, and study other aspects like Hadith, to understand where Rauf or Achmadinejad fit in.

[Anonymous]

I for one do not want to hear any whining by the left when a suitcase nuke goes off in NYC .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:see if you have the guts to publically make fun of or critisize Muhammad. You all have the freedom to critisize Christians of make fun of Jesus all you want since Christians are peaceful. Try it with Muhammad weaklings...thats right...better roll over for Islam and accept it.

Christians are peaceful??? Snort. Obviously you are ignorant of history. The inquisition.... witch burnings... crusades.... relgious wars.... catholic vs. protestant.... colonization.... salvery....