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Old Student wrote: You don't have to be NOT devout to get along in the world as a Muslim, you merely have to be left to practice your religion as you beleive it should be practiced (non-violently, for most of them). The Dar-al-Harb, or House of War properly applies to places where Muslims are a suppressed minority. Like France, for instance. Improper action on our part could make the USA part of that place, if we're not careful. That is why I say it is a cultural war, not a religious war. Benjamin Rush (one of the Founding Fathers) wanted us to have mandatory religious education here, and he would rather we taught Islam than no religion at all.

The problem is that many Muslims in non-Muslim countries want to be free to practice their religions in ways which are unacceptable to the societies in which they live.

We cannot, for instance, allow Sharia law to be legimitated here in the US even though some portion of the Muslim community might want it and consider themselved to be discriminated-against because they aren't allowed to practice it.

Like I said, in Islam religion and culture are insepearable, and many of the practices mandated by Islam are antithetical to contemporary Western society.

In the US they may practice their religion as they please, subject to US law, which will not be displaced by Sharia. (although there are parts of Sharia that I'd like to see put in place; like beheading for capital crimes, but I won't insist.)

"Many Muslims" is not sufficient justification for condeming them all, either. This is America, where we are innocent until proven guilty, not France, where guilt is presumed until innocence is proved. Those who can adapt should be welcome; are, in fact, in law. Those who can't adapt can run afoul of our law and get deported. We already have those mechanisms in place, too. I'll admit that the INS is not nearly as efficient as I'd like, but we can fix that without destroying the ideas of our society.

For that matter, religion and culture are inseperable for any true believer in ANY religion. The US has laws against plural marriages because they decided to criminalize what was previously legal behavior by members of my church. We adapted our culture to suit US law. Muslims can do as much. They will, if they want to remain here.

I'm LDS, btw. Mormon, as most people call us.