Posted on 10/11/2001 9:00:55 AM PDT by r9etb
In the month following the 9/11 attacks we've seen here on FR some amazing and frankly repugnant statements.
For example, there have been suggestions that we round up and deport all non-citizen Moslems (and after them, maybe the Moslem citizens, too). It has also been seriously suggested that we oughta show our resolve by bombing Mohommed's grave. And of course there are innumerable other comments of the same type.
The most obvious characteristics of these rants are that (1) they are venomous; (2) they are racist; and (3) they voice some remarkably bad ideas.
The most charitable reading of this stuff is that it's just good people blowing off steam. Unfortunately, given the vehemence with which these positions are often defended, I have to conclude that there is something uglier behind a few of these rants.
Someone on FR recently noted that the people to watch out for aren't the the ones on the other side -- you already know they're out to get you. What you really have to watch out for is the people on your side, because they're the ones who can drag you to places you don't want to go.
We're seeing that principle in action here: foolish and racist rants from those on "our side" that are not much different from the foolish and racist rants of the Taliban.
That said, I don't really think that most of the people making these comments and suggestions are racists or fools. I think they're upset, and want to do something, and have simply posted without thinking.
Please, folks, think before you post. Before you suggest we deport Moslems, think about what we'd have to do to make that happen. Before suggesting we bomb Mohammed's grave, consider what the result of that act would be.
It will make you look better, and it will make FR look better, too.
No, they are not. Radical Moslems come in every shape, size, race, and age. The brand of Islam that causes its believers to murder and torture from the Sudan to the Philippines is an ideology. Our major contact is with the Arabic proponents of that ideology, probably because all of the others are either too poor to come here are are just having too much fun killing their neighbors to worry about murdering U.S. office workers.
Proponents of that ideology should be rounded up, interned, investigated, and --- when evidence warrants it -- either imprisoned or executed. Charges? Treason and conspiracy.
The ones who are not found guilty should be kept under lock and key, as enemy aliens, until the end of hostilities. Then deport and prohibit re-entry.
Your xenophobic ideas are un-American and cowardly.
To be angry at this, in the wake of over 6,000 truly innocent American's murdered, is not "racist". You sound like Jesse Jackson with this tripe.
Just because it might be tough is no excuse not to try to do the right thing for American citizens. Put some laws in place that if they don't show up, they will not just be deported, but will be tried, and if convicted may be sentenced to death. Make the crime of harboring illegal foreigners a capitol crime punishable by life in prison without parole. Place a bounty of $1000 on the capture of any illegal foreigner.
Here are three creative solutions to the problem and I am sure there are many more. We do need to undo the clinton open border policy that caused this problem. Peace
This was Ann Coulter's argument. Not all Arabic Moslems are terrorists, but all terrorists are Arabic Moslems. So what does it matter if millions of innocents are punished as long as we get the few guilty?
I have two problems with this. First, I don't want a nation that punishes the innocent to get the guilty. I actually want the opposite. I want a nation that is so obsessed with protecting the innocent that we sometimes let the guilty loose.
Second is the precident. Just to give you a personal example, I have heard it suggested that all rapists should be castrated. Suppose this idea actually becomes law? Then suppose we want to protect women from being raped. Not all men are rapists but all rapists are men. How do you feel about that logic?
Shalom.
As dismayed as I get when I read the inflamatory posts, I understand completely the sentiments.
I suspect that if one more major terrorist attack succeeds in this country, you will see Non-citizen Arabs, ersians, and Paki's get deported.
My solution is to go after them for all they're worth.
After they've committed an offense. Not before.
People in this country have the right to hate my guts and wish me dead. But until they take some action that proves they are a danger to me they may go free and I want them to go free.
It is one of the costs of a free society. I think the result is well worth the cost.
Shalom.
Asking you to go home after a death in my family is not a punishment.
Just like in WWI where German-Americans never posed a threat , never set off explosives in shipyards, and never reported to the departure of naval vessels to the enemy. NOT!
We do not need to imprison, just deport. Like in any guest situation when an issue arises, just say "I'm sorry, but an a serious matter needs to be addressed right now, let me show you to the door."
This is not as hard as you make it out to be. All the U.S. Government has to do is to announce that visiting rights of foreigners on visas from countries x,y,z are over and they have to leave the country in say 2 weeks time. After the deadline has passed any Middle Easterners still here will be deported as they are seen. To be sure some will still stay and hide but it will drastically reduce their ability to operate and increase the likelihood that the ones that stay have sinister reasons for doing so. To listen to some of you Arab appeasers you'd think that these people have as much rights to be here as a U.S. Citizen. In case you haven't got it yet: WE ARE IN A STATE OF WAR WITH AN ENEMY THAT HAS INFLITRATED OUR COUNTRY!
Yes, they are too. On the lighter side, the comments are often interlarded with perjoratives like "towelhead," "camel-jockey," and such.
More seriously, the responses on this thread are sufficient proof: simply having Arab heritage and Moslem religion are sufficient grounds to be suspected, rounded up, and deported. So much for the rule of law.
And somehow I really doubt that one need meet both criteria to be classified as a suspect by the crowd on this thread. I'm guessing that most of these folks need have only one of these "damning traits" to be deported.
It's racism. And it's foolish, too.
Actually, we should know that but we don't. Yesterday on Morning Edition I heard a report on Religious Extremists. The report was how all religious extremists had the mindset to become terrorists. A religious extremist was defined carefully, but the definition boiled down to "Someone who believes their religion is truth." The reporter dutifully mentioned, late in the report, that most religious extremists are not violent and that not all extremists were religious, but the point of the report was clear.
The reporter wanted us to know that the enemy was Fundamentalist Terrorists. Leave out the "Islamic."
So, if we deport all Arabic Moslims based on the idea that all our enemies are Arabic Moslims, what happens to Bible-believing caucasian American Christians like me when the connection the reporter was trying to make becomes a mainstream belief?
Shalom.
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