We Really Are Not One

Last week while researching I can across an interesting comment on an article about the Muslim population in the United States. It was not the number of Muslims, which may or may not be exaggerated or underestimated. It was the way that the Muslim commenter responded to a reader who could not understand the suicidal impulse of Muslim extremists, who claim jihad and the extermination of non-Muslims is the way of the Koran. The reader expressed the sentiment "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." She (the commenter) said "those people who strap on bombs in the name of Allah to me are not Muslims. So in the face of the fact of Muslim suicide bombers she claims they are not Muslims and declares that "Allah clearly tells us that suicide is forbidden." She goes on to claim that the portrayal of Muslims in the media is the problem, as if Muslim suicide bombers throughout world were being misidentified in some sort of conspiracy. She says that "if it wasn't for me explaining my beliefs to them, they would believe what they saw on TV and read in the papers and magazines." She then says that if you ask Muslims about Islam you will "not hear anything remotely close to what you hear on the news. She like many Muslims throughout the world has her head in the sand. The simple fact is that whether she likes it or not there are over a million extremist Muslims throughout the world who consider themselves Muslim and are intent on killing all non-believers. All non-Muslim believers are threatened by such people and that is true whether she and others like her believe such terrorists are not Muslim.