I do understand - I'm playing the devil's advocate - my point is that all Muslims aren't 'radical' and the inherant dangers to us of classifying them all as such - perhaps like this instance where it
appears more a case of failed personal family relationships (happens every night on the local news regardless of religious belief or non-belief) vs a religious radical practicing
jihadism - and I admit I may be
naively wrong.
However - I do worry about the affects of the mass media on our culture and the potentially dangerous effects of its
newspeak pandering to our baser instincts (my previous post) - which has happened before.
I admit my limited personal experience with radical Islam - my experiences dealt more with the nihilistic
state-as-religion terror crowd - but I'm hearing many of the same philosophies and arguments, and I - naively perhaps - believe our more egalitarian way of life will eventually prevail - a personal belief in the
better idea concept and the many
cracks (human nature?) amongst the current Islamic cultures.
Expressing a desire to live within and consistently practice the rule of law - while maintaining our uniquely progressive cultural identity and not developing into any of the societies foreshadowed in the dystopian genre of post-WW2 literature or that of our currently spotlit
enemy du jour - is my desire - something which obviously is not and never will be easy...as if it ever has. Language is important to that goal and I worry about its power to persuade when used less carefully or less definitively.
Personally, I appreciate the many points-of-view this forum offers us all.
Richard's $.02
