Noel


He sees the Boogie-Man lurking in shadows and forgets that modernity and moderation always win in the end- they are the only things good for business.

You could easily have replaced any of his references to Islam with references to equally extreme Christians (or Hindus, Zionists, or Communists for that matter) and no one would have batted an eyelid. Why? Because we are familiar with the extremists in Christianity. We know they won't hold sway over the vastness of mainstream Christians, and we know that their's is a microscopic voice. Most Muslims feel the same way about their extremists while being scared to death of ours....

Michael

I don't know. Do you see the Arab-Muslim world focused on business? (Outside of Iraq?) To the extent they are, it's mainly the oil business - which is always good. The Saudis can export their brand of anti-Semitic, violent, Wahabbiism all over the planet - and we'll all still buy their oil.

I wish you were right, but I don't believe you are at this time. It's a species of the 'everyone is more or less reasonable like us' delusion. It's the same delusion that got everyone on the hijacked planes on 9/11 killed - 'Just be cool and surely they won't do anything crazy.' And it's the same delusion that makes most of the world think that Israeli oppression of Palestinians must be horrific - what else could drive them to such extreme acts (as strapping bombs to children, to blow up other children)? 'They're reasonable people like us, so their depravity must be a measure of their desperation.' It's not easy nor nice to countenance the existence of a widespread death cult. (See Paul Berman's Terror and Liberalism.)

And while I appreciate your ecumenical evenhandedness, it's simply not a fair comparison: Christians, Hindus - and, yes, 'Zionists', too - are not out murdering people in large numbers. Islamic terrorists staged about 10,000 deadly attacks in the six years following 9/11. In the same time, there have been about a dozen or so religiously-inspired killings by people of all other faiths combined. No other religion produces the killing sprees that Islam does nearly every day of the year. Neither do they have verses in their holy texts that arguably support it. Nor do they have large groups across the globe dedicated to the mass murder of people who worship a different god.

Muslims are killing people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Somalia, the Philippines, Israel, Algeria, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and Yemen, just to start a partial list. See, for instance:

     http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks

Wilders' sin - unforgiveable in many 'right-thinking' circles - is to suggest that Islamist terror attacks have something to do with Islam (i.e. core Islamic ideology). Of the people who condemn him for that, none that I know have actually read the Qu'ran, much less the Hadith. Do so and get back to me. Here are a few excerpts to get you started.