Ignorant about Islam - Letter in the Philly Inquirer

Tom Hanks' famous line from Forrest Gump, "stupid is as stupid does," underlines the basic assumptions of the Islamic perception. If you allow the radical elements of a given group of people to take over and represent that group, their views will be what the public perceives as those of that group. Since the members of Islam have allowed that to happen, the public sees Islam as being that way. Especially as there has been little or no counter indications from any other aspect of Islam. That, then would seem to indicate that either all of Islam supports what the radical element is doing or the remainder of Islam is afraid to stand up to them. Either way, sooner or later this can only get worse.

I do agree that it is a sad state of affairs. However:

Their culture may have something to do with it. It may also be secular nationalism, trying to defend their nation's sovreignty. I've researched it a little from both sides and that seems more likely to be the case. However, I do agree that they go too far to boost morale and support by invoking jihad. It would almost be similar to "what happened if France invaded us? Of course, we would fight back (and most likely win!).

It is also a investigation of what happens when the government adopts a religion as their own (often known as a theocracy). The official religion may more or less reflect the majority, but it can still cause serious harm. This is the current trend in in most of the middle east. Medieval Europe had tendencies like this, but that is in the past, and we do deserve to be forgiven. It is also interesting how not only do they tend to adopt _islam_, but they are more specific in the branch. Akin to Christianity, islam also has variations, like shi'ite, kurdish, sunni, suphi, etc. In fact, Saddam adopted Sunni Islam as the state religion, and barbarically persecuted all others, even though they were still muslims. This kind of thing was also why the puritains fled England and founded our great country. They believed that the nation should work for everybody, not simply the majority. Fortunately, Iraq's fledgling democracy there more accurately reflects the population, but there is still the danger of a feud/civil war (the shi'ites and kurds have a vendetta angainst the Sunnis). We can see this in the tragic state of affairs when peace keepers are killed by a car bomb. The (now deposed) Sunnis are the branch responsible for this, because they fear a similar persecution by the shi'ites.

PS I am trying to be as objective as possible to enhance our knowledge and understanding. I do happen to be very conservative in my beliefs (I am a libertarian). I also happen to believe that pretty much all the policies adopted by democrats have been either misguided or effected poorly. However, I don't think any point of view is absolutely perfect. Even if you don't listen to me, do perform your own research. You may find something novel to add. However, take everything with a grain of salt, and always investigate your source's motives! At the least, you can use my comments to strengthen your own arguments.

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