[cookcounty]

I have muslim friends, but what bugs me about Islam, is that it makes some people (a minority, but a significant minority) totally nuts, and makes the rest of them week as water. The crazies take over, while the rest os the islamic world surrenders to a sort of "Dhimmitude" of their own, whereby the nastiest people rise to the top by intimidation and violence.

[tcostell]

Well since it's come up, let me take this chance to say that I have a lot of Muslim friends too. I'm not calling every Muslim a loser, I'm talking about the nature of the faith and the kind of decision making that the muslim world rewards. If your friends, like mine, have chosen some moderate view that lets them embrace the faith of their family and interpret it in a way that still lets them work in the western world, then there are MANY in Islam who would quickly accuse them of some sort of heresy. It's the nature of Islam to punish them for using reason and modifying their behavior in ways that make them more prone to success.

They are "weak as water" as you say because they know that the things they do that make it possible to assimilate in the west, under the doctrine of their faith makes them subject to criticism.

And how anxious would you be to put yourself up for criticism when you know that so much of the conflict resolution of Islam is done by removing someone's head.

(that's a great phrase by the way... I m afraid I'm going to have to steal it for later use.)