You wrote: "Both Jwadeh and Lewis avoided the sort of emotional response you seem to like so well. Quite possibly this is because they noticed that out of the hundreds of millions of Moslems in the world, only a handful of crackpots seem to be into the terrorism business"
Yes. It makes me damned emotional. I happened to have an acquaintance who was on American Airlines flight 11 on 9/11, David Kovalcin. Here is a picture of his face, he had two little girls.
So it is personal, and it makes me very emotional. And no, I DON'T like the emotional response, I dislike it, but I think it is presumptuous of you to say that I DO like it. I will assume you are just uninformed,and misinterpreted my response.
It is more than a handful of crackpots who seem to be into the terrorism business. You probably know how many muslims there are in the world better than I do...I am going to take a guess and say 1.5-2 billion muslims. And I will also make a conservative guess that out of a thousand muslims, 5 of them think Osama was a great guy and doing the right thing. That is half a percent. That is 7.5 to 10 million people. So, thats about the population of Hungary, every man woman and child, who would like to see all non-believers subugated, converted or dead. (According to Islam, you are either in the House of Islam or the House of War, right?) Hardly a handful.
And I am being EXTRAORDINARILY conservative. I have heard it said that the actual extremist element is as high as 10%, which would give us a country the size of...Indonesia. Every man woman and child, who would like to see all non-believers subugated, converted or dead.
But never mind that. By the way, if I am wrong on that interpretation by radical muslims that all non-believers should be converted, subjugated or dead, please correct me. I am not attributing that sentiment to the entire populations of the muslim faith, although there are some who say that is indeed the bottom line if you are of the true faith.
You also said: "When is the last time you feared being killed as you voted? What was your response?"
Why do you feel it is relevant or important to ask that? Do you think, perhaps that I lack respect for those who risked their life to vote? My feelings are quite to the contrary. You don't know me, you don't know my lifes experiences or my values. I resent the implication, but again, I attribute it to your ignorance of my life or values. I could ask the same thing of you, but I won't out of the concept of giving you the benefit of doubt. After all, I don't know you either.
I think, perhaps, that YOU asked that question because you make the assumption that if someone votes to gain a greater control over their own destiny, that the practice of doing that somehow divorces them from the concept that all non-believers should be converted, subjugated or dead. I don't think that is the case.
But I DO think Democracy is compatible with most forms of Islam with the exception of Wahabbism, and that Islam and Democracy are not mutually exclusive.
But the muslim world better get a grip. Most Americans, and others around the world, are willing to live and let live. But when a nuclear device explodes in an American city, people will not be so politically correct. They will take a hard look at what is said behind closed doors in mosques and madrassas around the world, and make judgements on that, not some pathetic lukewarm condemnation from some islamic mouthpiece.