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"...there are many Muslims in this country who hate the goons who killed our people on 9/11. So please, don't give up Christian values for the terrorist. It gives them a win..."

Fine, great, wonderful. I would like to hear from them. If the media won't give them a voice, then Rush Limbaugh, Free Republic, Glenn Beck and dozens of "nonmainstream (nonliberal)" outlets would be happy to hear from them. I'm not going to go out and attack anyone. You know if another serious attack happens, as Ashcroft & Co fear, that there will be citizens taking on anyone swarthy skinned and "looking" Muslim--it's not a matter of what I WISH would happen, it's a matter of what WILL happen.

But I've been the advocate of innocent Muslims since 9/12, despite being SERIOUSLY FLAMED for it, and I think it's time they started speaking out for me and my country in return. Time for them to speak. Time for allied Arab governments to come down firmly on our side, too. Hardly any of our allies would have thought us evil if we had NUKED the Taliban on 9/12, but we didn't know enough to do it, and the world expects our passions to have already cooled??? What's with that? How many weapons of mass destruction does it take to justify self-defense?

I will stand between innocence and evil any time. Innocence however has got to be prepared to show clean hands. Islam--you've been called--are you with this evil offshoot of yours or against it?

My own faith was once called upon by the law of the land to reject a practice others found abhorrent, but a practice considerably less offensive to any portion of humanity than the mass murder of thousands of noncombatants. We responded by humbly choosing to obey even a law onerous to the Saints of the time, a law that required them to change the way they ordered their families. Not only did we comply with the demands of the nation to forsake plural marriage, on the basis of that obedience we began to excommunicate any who defied the law of the land to fulfill that spiritual law. For the sake of peace with our country, we changed something rather fundamental to our faith's expression. (Almost all churches have had to modify their practices to suit some ordinance or IRS regulation, so don't think I'm just picking on my own.) There is nothing unreasonable about asking our Muslim citizens to behave as America's citizens, to defend her, to guide her, yes, even to betray terrorists to her. Mormons have had to fight Mormons--there were Latter-day Saints on both sides of the lines in World Wars I and II. It's a terrible thing but we recognize that the citizen and the nation have reciprocal obligations. Some Muslims are saying that they are Muslims first. If that is how they truly believe, in the face of what people claiming to be Muslims have done, then they are our enemy, and not ours at all.

I've heard from Muslim chaplains in our own military who have spoken out critically against our nation's policy (in clear violation of the USCMJ.) I've heard of surveys that say that a significant portion of the nation's Muslim citizens believe 9/11 was justified, and the occasional freak who says he wants to go fight against us with the Taliban. I've heard way too much of Louis Farrakhan, believe me. His rhetoric went way beyond criticism of our President--something we all feel free to do--into treason and sedition. I've read exactly ONE intelligent essay by a Western Muslim that thoroughly repudiated 9/11, and it has not, apparently, received the broad attention in Muslim circles that I had hoped it would get.

The ball is still in the Islamic court, but if it comes smashing back with death attached and no apologies, I know that there will be violence against American Muslims. If they don't see that coming, they're as foolish as the rest of us.

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It's a small world. I've defended Mormon relatives in the past. There are those who would treat you the same as you want to treat Muslim citizens. Did you know that? There is a defined enemy in this war, and it's not individual defenseless Muslims living in this country and yes, if you ask me if I would "nuke 'em" if there's one case of smallpox in this country, my answer would be "yes." Yes, in a New York minute. And maybe for much less than smallpox. I'm sick of the evil ones.

But if you want to know if I'll join a group to beat up some Muslim citizen and kill his children while when he's in a Mall parking lot, then my answer is NO. NO. NO. NO.