My personal experiences:
I was in the US Navy during the First Gulf War. My carrier launched thousands of sorties against the Iraqis during Operations Desert Shield and Storm. When the war was "officially" ended (after a mere 100 hours because the Army ran out of gas, not because we had killed enough Iraqis or because the Saudi's stopped us), and we were permitted some well-deserved shore leave, many of our Arab "coalition" partners invited us ashore.
What you would see as far as representative of Islamic life and the influence of the religiously-sposored-police state in everyday life, even in a more "civilized" setting such as Qatar or Saudi Arabia, would make even the most disaffected, anti-war American puke. People who haven't been there don't know what goes on there.
These are not civilized human beings. They are Huns. Huns with BMW's and pretenses to modernity, to be sure, but HUNS nontheless.
My second "close-up-and-personal" experience with Islam was the day I managed to escape 1 World Trade Center in my native New York City, which the "Religion of Peace" says had to be knocked down to demonstrate the consequences of our sins.
I wonder what those sins are? Were they all those bodies we left in Saudi, Kuwait and Iraq while we were freeing Arabs from Nazi-like, torture-based, Police-states of their own making?
Or was it all the dead Serbian Christians we left behind in an effort to defend Bosnian Muslims from a systematic government-sponsored course of genocide?
Perhaps it was when we had the sheer AUDACITY to attempt to feed all those hungry, disease-riddled Somalis?
I've encountered quite a bit more to hate about Islam as I finished up my master's in history. I'm finding even more to disgust me as I finish up my PhD. For continued nausea, I just turn on the televsion and watch millions of people to whom a an original thought and a cold drink of water are BOTH froeign concepts, demand "rights" and "respect", delivered with death threats, and without having a notion of what either word means.
Or of having a sense of irony that they demand what they themselves are unwilling to give.
The War on Terror is not, and should never have been, presented as an ideological war in which religion plays no part. It is a battle for the very life and soul of Western Civilization. The "other side" is armed with an ideology-cum-religion, which is inimical in every way to the established pillars of western society, and which is their only effective weapon. They must be disarmed. The "other side" has already made it quite clear that they will respect no civilized rules of conduct, nor spare any target. Why should we?
Very well put!
Thanks for responding....
Yes, you have many very good reasons for your feelings. And I'm very glad that you weren't one of the killed on 9/11.
Most of my experience has been here in this country, with individuals in work, hobby and social settings. And most of my experiences have been positive. In fact, a great deal of good has come into my life (and that of associates) via the ME, so yea, I do feel a tiny bit protective.
On the other hand, all of us, even those who are very 'pro' the people and some customs do see the Sharia law as the evil it is.
There is no doubt in my mind that I'm one of the first ones they would kill if they could. So I do agree is that change needs to happen. All I'm arguing against is emotion driven hate.