I have heard that argument before, about the Asians an Blacks when they first came to my country.
What happened the children of the immigrants decided that they were more interested in the trappings of western society rather than settling down and breeding like there parents.
Look at those rioting in France covered in Bling gold chains, more interested in what society can do for them, future soldiers of Islam my butt. In Britain Islamic youth seems to be more interested in fast cars and boom boxes, enjoying there wealth
2)Look at the trends in Islam. Is it trending more fundamentalist or more liberal?
No its always mean fundamentalist, and there lies its own weakness, as the governments become more fundamentalist, they have to rely more and more on repression to keep order, and to survive.
In Pakistan Pakistani business men are starting to question why they cannot get in on the boom India is enjoying.
3)I can say, however, that we are not near ruthless enough in this "war on terror.
As ex military myself most of my military life was spent in COIN ops. North Ireland, Balkans, Africa and Basra
I would be interested to hear your views on what methods we are using that are weak and what methods we should be using and where.
I am happy to correspond privately so we don't discuss it in the public domain
These aren't asians or blacks. It takes 2.1 children per couple to keep a population steady. France is producing barely 1. The muslims are producing 6. Nobody is suggesting we wipe out Islam, but our approach to the problem of terrorism is pure idiocy...as a country and as a civilized society. We KNOW the countries of Syria and Iran...among others, are state-sponsoring terrorists. If this is a global war on terrorism and we are serious...Those countries should be cinders. Palestine? Hamas? Cinders. They are terrorists. That's how you deal with an enemy that is sworn to kill you. At every turn...and every time some cleric makes a statement about killing someone for being an infidel...you take them seriously and get to them first. You simply say: "Well...you said this was a "Holy War" and a war is what you wanted...so war is what you got." You do that...and guess what...you won't have to worry for long about countries like Iran and Syria.
Not trending fundementalist? Having studied Islam, I can tell you you are off...way off. The rise of sharia law is unmistakable. The rise of Islamic fundementalism in Iran and Saudi Arabia is remarkable. It has NOT always been that way. My college proffesor was from the middle east, Lebanon to be exact. He was a member of the Tiger militia. Yes he is biased, but he was THERE when the change began to take place, and that is the point. He was there when decades old relationships were shattered because of changes in religious thinking...and not on the part of the Christians or Jews, but on the part of the Islamics. The LMN and the PLO to be exact. If you think there has not been a change in Islamic thinking in the region or in Islam in general, ask him. He would give you a much better histoy lesson on the rise of Islamic fundementalism than I. Yes, Islam has always been fundementalists...but there has been a change. The trend is NOT our friend.
Well that says a lot?
We discuss this sort of thing in the open on this forum every day. There is no reason to be private, as it is a current debate.
It is my view that the fundamentalist problem is one of our own making, and more the fault of our predecessor governments of Europe who dominated this region for decades and then left it is chaos.
Looking into our tool box, we see many things we can use to correct the error, but it all takes time....a great deal of time.
I don't think that in this day and age of instant gratification, that many people seem to have the foresight to let time and the use of a combination of nation building, diplomacy and military force to encourage reforms in the religion of Islam. But we have to try.
If we use the final option, which so many here seem to advocate, it must be understood that the destruction needs to be total. We cannot eliminate this problem by bouncing the rubble or killing just the adults. In order for 100% military answer to work, we must eradicate over a billion people, it's religion, writings and history to be effective and say it is over.
That option can alway be employed down the road, but I don't see it happening any time soon. It is far too distasteful to contemplate, so we must use all the tools we have to prevent the final option from being used as a necessity yet keep that option on the table..
My estimated time line is about 200-300 years to achieve reformation. It took at least this long to reform Christianity and other religions as a result of outside pressures, so there is historical road maps for this, but this Islamic problem is even more difficult. It requires new religious text, the elevation of a prophet and the demonization of another, and a rewrite or "New Koran" and the related religious teachings.
This totally depend on allowing moderates who are currently suppressed, to regain control of their own religion and begin a long process of reformation that allows for secular government and and free society.
Lofty goals.......yes.
But we have started the process, and we will we involved for generations to come. Many, many generations.
We need to look at a very big and extended picture. This is not easy for some to do. But we must.
Anyone who is at all familiar with history has encountered this argument ad nauseam. It was once solemnly declared to be a hard mathematical inevitability that "the natural increase of the Irish shall place America at the heels of the Pope of Rome before the end of the [nineteeth] century" if they weren't kicked out and kept out.
You, perhaps, have missed the news that people of European heritage will be a minority (i.e., less than 50% of the population) in the United States within a decade?