Quote Originally Posted by Kees View Post
... Don't Arabs have civil rights, rights of a fair trial etc.? 99% of Arabs are just as peace loving as you and me, they want to raise their families in peace and have a quiet life.

Is this the ultimate test of civility?
Kees this isn't directed soley at you, but since you provided the opening...

There is something that we in the West need to recognize. While “99%” of Arabs/middle eastern Muslims may not be actively engaged in terrorism or attacking western interests, I believe (and I too have spent some time with Arabs) that many, many are sympathetic and at best passively supportive of the other “1%”. We have a major clash of cultures here. These issues we’re talking about are not just isolated tit-for-tat incidents. We can’t just go about our la-di-da-da way and act like this would stop if we just all “got along, man”.

Are you all familiar with the group of nuts going around protesting at military funerals saying the deaths and 9/11 are punishment of the U.S. for tolerating homosexuals? As far as I’m concerned, they are cut from the same fabric as the Muslim extremists. And those who say we should be tolerant of the Muslim radicals because “they’re just different” and we need to “respect their culture” and they hate us because we’re mean to them, etc. are extremely naïve. They hate us for more fundamental reasons – we’re not Muslim and we support Israel’s right to exist.

Could you live with and cooperate on any meaningful level with say - white supremist skinheads? My guess is no. Your views and outlook are so different they would immediately clash and at some point, most of us would say “I can’t do this. One of us has to go”. Those we are fighting today are the same as those skinheads. They have the same outlook - their brains work the same. We need to recognize this. And before anyone says it – yes, we certainly tolerate and support the rights of such groups to exist and express themselves, we also draw a line and take them down when it's crossed.

I’ll believe that 99% of Arabs(using this word loosely) just want to live in peace when they start drawing similar lines and stop sending their children to be educated by religious nut-jobs who brain-wash them into blowing themselves up.

Thanks for indulging my semi-coherent rant.

Deep breaths….I need a beer….and a shave

Jordan