@blatham,
Quote:they [ISIS] are seriously ugly in those beliefs and actions. But it's not the whole faith nor anything but a small minority.
My overly short post probably did give the impression that I was going after Islam but my intended target was really the attitude of US leaders to discount the religious component behind terrorism and claim it's just 'politics'.
Yes, the violent ones are a small minority but it's a minority which has an unlimited pool of people to recruit new terrorists from and the reason for that is the very deep religious beliefs of Muslims, here and in Muslim country.
If I leave it at that, you might think I'm saying that IS terrorism is a major threat to us. I am not. Terrorism doesn't even show up on my list of concerns. I'm far more concerned with how government responds to this minor irritant. 9/11 was bad but it was a sucker punch. We should be aware of the problem and respond (stronger door on airline cockpits - duh, and good screening) but going to war? Just crazy, unless you really think you could stamp it out by getting rid of the relatively few violent ones. You can't.
And this is the point - Nothing stirs up a violent reaction from people more effectively than to de-legitimize their most closely held beliefs. That's what Flynn and others like him are doing.
I think Muslims have a deeply flawed religion, just like Christians, but we don't (or at least shouldn't) tell them they don't have anything real they believe in as a national policy.
