The point of the post was that extremists do not represent the majority. We don't judge all Christians by the actions of a few. We don't judge all Jews by the actions of a few militants. And as alarming as the media paints the Muslim uprisings now, they are not representative of the majority of those that practice Islam. Muslims everywhere are decrying the anti-Western violence.

I agree with you mickey100 especially since there are quite a bit more Muslims than Christians in the world. Supposedly there are 2.1 billion Muslims. Muslim Population in the World http://www.religiouspopulation.com/

With Christians at 1.98 Billion.

There are some troubling aspects of the Muslim faith in the Jihad concept but Christianity also had its Holy Wars.

I do wish more people would actually do research on the history of the Arab People's rather than just spouting off on what some blowhard on some radio or other media station comes up with for his soundbite of the day.

Honestly, it is time the "good" Muslims condemn and start taking a harder line with their own "bad" Muslims. If they do not want to be judged with the extremists, they need to be just as vigilant and just as active in hunting them down and ELIMINATING them...before something like this happens. They need to have their own intel and need to get rid of the cancer...If they don't like being judged by the extremists, then get rid of the extremists. Don't expect us to do the work and then be upset if we become distrustful. And it is damn hard to figure out who stands where on this. Northeastern University just fired one of their revered professors because it turns out he has ties to the terrorist community.

You can't have it both ways. So in the words of I have no idea who, "Put up or shut up!"

You have to remember that the U.S. supported many of these extremists when they needed the natural resources these groups controlled. Think about Charlie Wilson's War in which the U.S. supplied weapons and other materials to the freedom fighters which was then fighting Soviet forces. Saddam Hussein was supported by the U.S. for a long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson's_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein

Looks like many of these weapons and training provided by the U.S. to the freedom fighters in Afghanistan turn up in the hands of the Taliban later on.

My point in this is there do not seem to be any simple solutions to these problems.

My point is regardless of what the US has done, if the Muslim majority wants to get above this, they need to be the first in line to get rid of the extremists. There needs to be a line in the sand. You aren't going to be teaching and receiving the benefit of living in the USA and simultaneously be supporting terrorist activity. You cannot scream foul if you sit on the side and do nothing. No it isn't black and white and there is alot of nuance, BUT we come back to the central thought...evil happens when good men do nothing. Either they get going to solve THEIR problem, or they aren't going to get a get out of jail free card. This isn't a matter of a couple isolated incidents. This is a way of life and a culture that has come out of hatred and control. Yes, the Holy Wars were of the same horror same but that doesn't make it right and, in fact, they are condemned in history as a very black time. Sucked the life out of being a God loving Christian. Mainstream muslims need to decide where they stand and they need to stand up and do something besides talk about being falsely judged. My opinion.

It does look like some are trying to tone down the excesses of the Arab Spring movement from within their own countries.

Absolutely, totally agree. People, no matter where they live, need to quit whinning and "wringing their hands, and clean-up their own house. Whether it is racial crime, a natural disaster, or religious violence, people ACT disconnected these days.....expect someone else to tend to the problems. A peaceful muslim, a storm victim or a minority in the inner city, need to be responsible for themselves and their neighbors. Peaceful muslims (presumably the majority) should be marching/demonstrating for that peace. Would show the world that they do NOT condone the violence of the few that is currently being represented by media coverage.

AND they should be hunting them down with the focus of a SWAT team.

I agree that the muslims need to start controlling their extremist factions. I do think it is unrealistic to expect everyone to start marching for peace. Many people are just apathetic when it comes to politics and religion or they may be afraid of retaliation from the extremists. But I think the governments involved need to crack down, and I expect that they will.

THIS IS OLD NEWS FROM LAST YEAR..........BUT STILL FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
We have our Sunday morning news on re crazy Jihadists who are bent on harming Americans.......again, this warning was issued awhile ago but is still worth reading.
They are coached on how to speak Spanish and dress like Mexicans to blend in.....
Also they have ties to African based extremists....which is why, from day one, I was worried about people we know at embassies in Africa with a high muslim population.

Feds Issue Terror Watch for the Texas/Mexico Border

The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico.


The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.

In 2008, the U.S. government designated Al Shabaab a terrorist organization. Al Shabaab has said its priority is to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on Somalia; the group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.

In recent years, American Somalis have been recruited by Al Shabaab to travel to Somalia, where they are often radicalized by more extremist or operational anti-American terror groups, which Al Shabaab supports. The recruiters coming through the Mexican border are the ones who could be the most dangerous, according to law enforcement officials.

Security experts tell that the influx of hundreds of Somalis over the U.S. border who allegedly have ties to suspected terror cells is evidence of a porous and unsecured border being exploited by groups intent on wrecking deadly havoc on American soil.

The DHS alert was issued to police and sheriff’s deputies in Houston, asking them to keep their eyes open for a Somali man named Mohamed Ali who is believed to be in Mexico preparing to make the illegal crossing into Texas. Officials believe Ali has ties to Al Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization aligned with Al Qaeda, said Joan Neuhaus Schaan, the homeland security and terrorism fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, who has seen the alert.

An indictment was unsealed in Texas federal court earlier this month that revealed that a Somali man, Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, led a human smuggling ring that brought East Africans, including Somalis with ties to terror groups, from Brazil and across the Mexican border and into Texas.

In a separate case, Anthony Joseph Tracy, of Virginia, who admitted to having ties to Al Shabaab, is currently being prosecuted for his alleged role in an international ring that illegally brought more than 200 Somalis across the Mexican border. Prosecutors say Tracy used his Kenya-based travel business as a cover to fraudulently obtain Cuban travel documents for the Somalis. The smuggled Somalis are believed to have spread out across the United States and remain mostly at large, court records show.

Somalis are classified by border and immigration officials as “special interest” — illegal immigrants who get caught trying to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. who come from countries that are considered a high threat to the U.S., Neuhaus Schaan explained.

DHS did not respond to multiple e-mail and phone requests for comment.

In addition to the Somali immigration issue, Mexican smugglers are coaching some Middle Eastern immigrants before they cross the border – schooling them on how to dress and giving them phrases to help them look and sound like Latinos, law enforcement sources told.

“There have been a number of certain communities that have noticed this, villages in northern Mexico where Middle Easterners try to move into town and learn Spanish,” Neuhaus Schaan said. “People were changing there names from Middle Eastern names to Hispanic names.”
Security experts say the push by illegal immigrants to try to fit in also could be the realization of what officials have feared for years: Latin American drug cartels are helping jihadist groups bring terrorists across the Mexican border.

J. Peter Pham, senior fellow and director of the Africa Project at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, said that for the past ten years there’s been suspicion by U.S. law enforcement that drug cartels could align with international terrorist organizations to bring would-be-jihadists into the U.S.

That kind of collaboration is already being seen in Africa, said Dr. Walid Phares, director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

“Al Qaeda could easily say, “Ok, now we want your help getting these guys into the United States,” Phares said. “Eventually the federal government will pay more attention, but there is a window of time now where they can get anyone they want to get in already.”

Experts also say the DHS alert and recent court case highlights the threat of terrorists penetrating the Mexican/Texas border — and the growing threat of Somali recruitment efforts to bring Americans of Somali descent back to Somalia for jihadist training, creating homegrown terrorists.
Pham says the DHS alert comes too late. “They’re just covering themselves for the fact that DHS has been failing to date to deal effectively with this,” he said. “They’re already here.”

Michael Weinstein, a political science professor at Purdue University and an expert on Somalia, said, “In the past year, it’s become obvious that there’s a spillover into the United States of the transnational revolutionaries in Somalia.”

“It’s something that certainly has to be watched, but I don’t think it’s an imminent threat,” he said. “This has to be put in context with people smuggling — everybody and their brother is getting into the United States through Mexico; I read last week that some Chinese were crossing, it’s just a big market.”

Pham disagrees. “The real danger is ‘something along the lines of jihadist version of ‘find a classmate,’ he said, referring to Al Shabaab’s potential to set up sleeper cells in the U.S. “Most of them rely on personal referral and association. That type of social networking is not beyond their capabilities.”

Pham says the DHS alert is too little, too late.

“This is like shutting the barn door after the horses got away,” he said.

He was dragged thru the streets.

Dragged
 

and worse. God bless.

virtually every religion (think crusades) has condoned senseless murder at one time or another...but these were terrorists operating under the cover of ignorance.

Big Stick
 

"Walk softly and carry a Big Stick".....I do believe the "big Sticks" are already on the ground in Libya and Egypt...This won't go unpunished...We have a lot of unfinished buisness to take care of in the Mideast...There's a lot of zealots over there that are afraid to come out of hiding and I definitely believe it is only a matter of time...Anyone know how Tojo (planner of Pearl Harbor) met his maker? The worm will turn..

Oh, the picture in the NY Times web page, Los Angeles Times, NY Daily News.