Why Read the Headlines?

Really folks, what's the point of even reading the headlines on Yahoo! News anymore? Is it just so we can say "Hey look honey, Muslim radicals killed fifteen more people today?"

So maybe this murderous lot isn't the majority of Muslims. Maybe they are; the fact is, I don't really care. Until the moderate Muslims start speaking up and take the lead in finding and eliminating the radicals, I refuse to refer to Islam as the "Religion of Peace." As long as violent individuals keep blowing things up in the name of Allah, undeterred by the peaceful segment of the population I can find no reason to be nice about the whole thing.

I mean, come on... Somebody drew a blasphemous picture of Allah, and the WHOLE MUSLIM WORLD is in a state of turmoil! Like little children or wild monkeys (the more appropriate comparison), these people simply don't operate like normal human beings! There have been caricatures of Jesus and Buddha, Darwin and Freud, but never did the followers of these individuals take offense and begin to blow things up! Only when Muhammad is the subject of ridicule do the massacres start.

Christians and Muslims alike have been killed in the name of Allah. Westerners and Arabs, young and old have been tortured and decapitated at the hands of Islamic baboons, and still, there are no riots in the street. No angry mobs protest Muslim-on-Muslim violence, and certainly they do not grow outraged over Muslim-on-Westerner violence. Then, when someone makes a cartoon of Muhammad, the weeks and months following its publication lead to worldwide violence and massacres of innocent victims, many of whom have never even seen the offending cartoon. How's that for reasoning?

From the Left, I've heard about how the problem isn't really Islam... No, they say, the real issue here is fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is a stripped-down version of a religion... one that relies only on the "fundamentals," so to speak, to determine its doctrine. Of course, no person would adhere to Islamic Fundamentalism of their own volition... Usually, a fundamentalist is an otherwise reasonable person who finds himself in unfamiliar, unfriendly, and unstable conditions (such as are present across the entire Muslim World), and must rely on this stripped-down version of his faith to give him stability and purpose.

So you see? These violent people aren't really that bad... They're just victims of poverty and the despotic regimes that lord over them. And besides, they're basically the same as the fundamentalist Christians in this country, like Pat Robertson! Fundamentalism is always bad, and Christian fundamentalism is our responsibility. That's the way the argument was put to me by my Comparative Politics professor.

Nevermind the fact that Christian "fundamentalists" have nothing in common with Muslim fundies... economically, behaviorally, rhetorically, or socially! Nevermind the fact that you're free to wear your "Jesus is my Homeboy" shirt to the local mall without someone hacking your head off with a machete. Fundamentalism is bad, and some Christians have been called "Fundamentalists." Therefore, Christian "Fundamentalists" are like radical Muslims!

I love the smell of an association fallacy in the morning.

The truth is, the problem IS Islam; or rather, the problem is what seems to be the predominant type of Islam. Whether this radical sect really is more common, or simply more vocal, I do not care. Poverty or no poverty, fundamentalism or no fundamentalism, religion or no religion, INSULT or NO INSULT, no group of people has the right to riot and massacre innocents because somebody offended them by putting a bomb on the head of their favorite prophet.

Nothing can excuse the actions of these Muslims. Nothing can change the fact that they commit their atrocities in the name of Allah. All that can now justify any form of Islam is for the moderates to stand up and stop their violent brothers. If they fail to do so, they make themselves as bad as those who murder innocents, and give credence to the cartoon that sparked the Muslim World's latest outburst.

So here's an idea... Muslim violence is likely to continue for years to come, as will the War on Terror. So, by January 1st, 2007, if there is still no significant and vocal Moderate Muslim resistance, the West can make the justified generalization that Islam is NOT a religion of peace, and is free to conquer and subjugate the Muslim World as they see fit. If the moderates do not organize and speak up by the beginning of next year, then we can reasonably assume that they do not exist in any significant numbers, and can then crush the violent movement unencumbered.

Sound rough? Consider it, for the countless innocent victims of Islamic Extremism.