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Originally Posted by afchic
Do you believe there are such things as moderate Muslims that the US can deal with to reach our goals?
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Yes. The problem is, we aren't collectively smart enough to recognize there is a difference and who's actually helping and who's not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by afchic
Or are all those whose practice Islam inherently against what the US stands for, and thereby there are no means of dealing with them other than getting rid of them or marginalizing them to such a point that the religion becomes irrelevant?
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Naziism is dead. But it's still not irrelevant. What you are proposing (making the religion irrelevant) is not realistically possible. And oil wealth prevents marginalizing them right now. Saudi Arabia's main export isn't oil. It's the violent wahhabi ideology.
Quote:
Originally Posted by afchic
Everything you have stated to this point leads me to believe that you see there may be moderate Muslims, but they may be worse than the fundamentalists in your eyes because they do not practice their religion to the letter of the Koran, and are thereby heretics.
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Yes - there are moderate Muslims. No - they are not worse by any Western moral standard - they still have compassion for their fellow human.
Quote:
Originally Posted by afchic
On the other hand, there are the fundamentalists who can never be dealt with other than through military might. That leads me to believe that your views would support the concept of eradicating Islam, or marginalizing it. If I am wrong, please feel free to correct me.
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You are right, there are fundamentalists who will never reform and must be dealt with militarily. If there were a magic wand or a time machine and we could prevent islam from being invented by Muhammed...that would be great. Just not going to happen.
Here's the challenge. We went through this in Western governments when we dis-established or separated church and state. Islam cannot be disestablished. The doctrine epitomizes antidisestablishmentarianism.