@revelette,
revelette wrote:Do you consider Ron Paul to be evil? Or could he be just a regular person with a different viewpoint on which you disagree?
Quote:This sentiment seems to confirm that Islam itself is to be made the
issue, and radical religious Islamic views were the only reasons for
9/11. If it became known that 9/11 resulted in part from a
desire to retaliate against what many Muslims saw as American
aggression and occupation, the need to demonize Islam would be
difficult if not impossible.
source
Merely because you might be trying to understand the issues we are dealing with in regards to Muslims/Arabs does not mean you support or in any way excuse their actions. The Imam has said he is against all forms of terrorism and that would include the terrorist actions of those who attacked the US on 9/11 which would make him no different than Ron Paul in respect to this conversation.
Not quite the same. Based on your quote, Ron Paul said "what many Muslims saw as American aggression and occupation".
He is not suggesting that America acted that way, but rather that many Muslims had delusions that America acted that way.
I would call Ron Paul "ignorant and uninformed" as opposed to "evil".
The motivation behind 9/11 did indeed spring from a delusion, but not that particular delusion.
Osama believed he was about to conquer the world (well, at least the Islamic world, but I have no doubts he would have turned his attention to the rest of us once he finished crowning himself Commander of the Faithful).
Osama believed, correctly, that the US would have acted to stop him if he started toppling one Islamic government after the other and making them part of some radical Islamic empire.
He believed, incorrectly, that 9/11 would have intimidated us into not acting to stop him. (He really should have taken time to examine how we responded to Pearl Harbor.)