They can peacefully coexist - look at where I stay in Malaysia and Singapore.
A better way of saying this is that they cannot coexist under a "liberal Western-style democracy"
"In the years ahead, as the world tries desperately to cope with population increases, demographic imbalances, unemployment, and both external and internal threats from quasi-fascist movements such as Islamic fundamentalism it will be social order and stability that will become of paramount importance to many people, much more so than liberty or freedom. Having already placed their lives in the omnipotent hands of the State, is it really such a leap of logic for one to foresee that individuals in the near future will think nothing of sacrificing freedom for security?
Not unlike the countries in Southeast Asia, America and the West will seriously have to consider implementing further authoritative measures within our own societies in the near future to deal with the revanche of Islamic fundamentalism should we fail to address the political aspirations and aspects of Islam now."
They can peacefully coexist - look at where I stay in Malaysia and Singapore.
Most of the time I agree with you except on this one.
It's pretty common knowledge "in these here parts" (and it doesn't take much Googling) that Hindu temples have been systematically destroyed in Malaysia over the last years; e.g. http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002227.html. And Christians haven't had such a good go of it either.
And when somebody implied that the poor downtrodden Bhumis (/sarc) had close to 50% of the nation's capital instead of the government-cited 20% or so (subsidizing the Bhumis is at the expense of other ethnic groups), he had to resign his post or at least detract his paper.
And I've seen nice gals get rounded up in Bangsar district by the religious police (a legal entity separate from the government) for wearing skirts that fall at knee level. That's nice peaceful coexistence (/sarc)
And Singapore is a very special case. It's small - 4.5 million, easy to manage, on an island, very prosperous, and the race riots of the early 60s are still fresh in many people's minds and will not be allowed to happen. If you are Muslim (or Tamil or Chinese or Western), you'd better get along OR ELSE. One can get jailed for "outraging one's modesty" and they can through away the key for a couple of years without the person even seeing the light of day. The government busted the JI there in a New York second.
Look near where I stay in southern Thailand. It's a complete mess. School teachers now are being issued bullet-proof vests.
If that is true...if we are to abandon the principals that this nation was founded on, shredding the Constitution in the process, then we have lost to the enemy anyway...in fact we will have joined them in our destruction. Even isolationism and completely stopping immigration of Muslims to this country is preferable to that. No, an authoritarian police state is NOT the answer. I grew up through the Cuban missle crisis and the cold war. We managed to survive those threats without what you suggest is needed for a far less well armed enemy.