Muslims Attacked Us?

Was it "Muslims" who attacked us on 9/11?

Bill O'Reilly said so, and two of his four hosts walked out on him. Juan Williams expressed that he was anxious when he sees people wearing Muslim garb in an airplane, and was very publicly fired for it.

To understand this issue, I think you need perspective. Saying "Muslims attacked us on 9/11" is like saying "Christians terrorized black people after the Civil War." As a Christian, I would be deeply offended if someone said that the Ku Klux Klan was a "Christian" organization, simply because they waved Bibles and used a cross as a symbol. In my view, they weren't Christian or even extreme Christians. They were a complete perversion, abusing the good name of religion for an evil purpose.

The middle east is seeing much the same thing. The region is going through incredible growing pains right now. I believe the US went through a similar period during the 1860's through the 1960's. Modernization is very difficult and it takes time. There are always those who will violently fight against it.

The United States is a relatively peaceful country, outside of our inner-city ghettos. We don't want the growing pains of the middle east coming over here. However, its absurd for us to expect that it wont, when we have a major military and industrial presence over there. Our two options are to withdraw or fight it.

I think our philosophy must be to withdraw where we can, and fight where we must. Afghanistan is a job that needs to be finished. Iraq is pretty well wrapped up now. Our main approach must be to set a good example. Jealously of our rights and liberty will do more to advance the middle east than anything else. We have seen this happen in Russia before. Similar to the Cold War, our most effective tool will be satellite tv.

As for political correctness and Juan Williams--what Williams said is a view shared by people across the world. Americans were shocked by 9/11 and obviously don't like to be put in any situation resembling 9/11. Liberals are very conscious of the history in America of discrimination. They are afraid that such fears could trigger discrimination and that is legitimate. But this liberal fear should not manifest itself in an outright visceral hatred of views they don't agree with. Juan William's firing was wrong.

There's a big difference between being polite and ignoring facts. The middle east is full of waring factions. Civil wars throughout the middle east are to be expected during this period. And with our involvement in those battles, it is reasonable to be anxious of people who may come to the US from that region. However, we must be very careful to distinguish between perversions of Islam and the billions of peaceful Islamic people throughout the world.

But with the thousands of Americans who die through domestic violence, disease and accidents--I think you have to put the issue in perspective. Only around 2500 people have died in the US due to international terrorism, and about 2100 of those were on 9/11. Compare that to the 40,000 Americans who die yearly due to car accidents. Only a handful of the billions of Muslims in this world practice any kind of violence. An American is far more likely to die in a car accident than anything else.

As for violence, our extraordinary drug-related violence is far more of a threat than people driven by perversions of Islam. Lets focus on our own civil wars first. I'm more worried about getting shot by drug dealers walking downtown Columbus than having my airplane hijacked while I'm flying. Although both are serious problems that must be addressed, lets have some perspective.