The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Terrorism In the US and Around the World => Topic started by: BlueStateSaint on September 02, 2014, 05:26:35 AM
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Not sure if this should go here or the 2nd Amendment forum. From AllOutdoor.com.
Letter to my Liberal Friends: War With Islam, and 9-year-olds with Guns
(http://www.alloutdoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Castle_romeo2-660x396.jpg)
Is the West at war with Islam? My conservative dad and I used to argue about this. He answers in the affirmative and maintains that the GWOT is a war of all of the West against all of Islam. My position has typically been that no, we’re not at war with Islam, but if people keep thinking and talking the way that he does, we eventually will be.
I like nuance and context, and not just because I’m a former academic. I like these things because they’re life-or-death important. In the case of the “War with Islam?†question, nuance and context lead me to this position: Islam is a huge and varied religion, and we shouldn’t take the actions of a small, dangerous minority of it and make them stand for the whole. So we have two options for how we relate to Muslims.
The eliminationist approach, which eventually does lead to an all-out war between Islam and the West, is where we lump all of the Muslims together with the extremists, consider ourselves enemies of them and their way of live and all they stand for, and express a desire to eliminate them so that their religion and culture disappear from the world.
The alternative, which I’ll call the bridge-building approach, is to say to Muslims, “Hey, we know that only a small minority of you are a threat to us, and the rest of you want peace. So stand with us against the crazies, and let us help you keep these crazies ostracized, alone, and hunted by everyone who isn’t as crazy as they are.â€
This second approach is a better approach, or at least it would have been, but now it may be too late. We could very well be at war with all of Islam, or at least very close to such. See, if you pick the eliminationist approach first as so much of America has, then you’re forcing moderate Muslims to choose sides between Muslim crazies versus non-Muslims who want to eliminate their entire way of life. The moderates are eventually going to side with their own crazies, rather than consent to being destroyed, in which case we ultimately find ourselves at war with the moderates plus the crazies (instead of just the crazies).
The rest is at: http://www.alloutdoor.com/2014/08/28/letter-liberal-friends-war-islam-9-year-olds-guns/#sthash.PWvNBhF1.dpuf
The more this goes on, the more I go into the "Nuke 'Em 'Till The Glow" camp.
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I'd like to put the writer of that piece on ground zero as well. The over-intellectualized 'Nuance' crap nearly got me to barf.
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The alternative, which I’ll call the bridge-building approach
If you build a bridge to people who want to kill you, they will cross that bridge and kill you on your side of the river.