"Five years ago today, a group of evil and Godless monsters introduced America to the real Islam..."

You got that right! I'm worn out with hearing that Islam has been hijacked by a small minority of extremists. Hijacked, hell! These terrorists are devout Muslims and are following the teachings of MTP.

Bastards? Oh, yeah.

Addendum:

In the instructions for the 2.996 tributes, we were told not to mention the enemy. I understand the reasoning of not giving any time to the enemy and so as to focus on posting a tribute to an individual who perished on 9/11. But not spouting off about the enemy was so hard for me to do. Ah, well. I spout off in other postings.

Glad that you spouted off here, Seth!

Seth, there is a piece of me that wants to rationalize out the good from the bad - the bad being the Islamofascist radicals who want to kill all Infidels, the good being Muslims who do not advocate such. My dilemma comes in the absence of a huge outcry of the "good" Muslims. Were this Christianity, the majority would be so condemnative of the radicals that there would be no mistake. (Case in point - Phelp's and his church in Arkansas. I know of no Christian that believes as that idiot.) There are a few Muslims speaking out against Islamofascism, but they are so few that their voices are not heard above the uproar. There is but one solution that I see - Islamofascism must die.

AOW --

While we can never forget those who were murdered on 11 Sep 01, neither can we forget those who did it -- the perpetrators, their confederates and all Islam -- their scriptures and the barbarous actions that result from those scriptures, despite their claim to being the "religion of peace", are an indictment of every living soul who calls him or herself a Muslim.

It would be very difficult for me not to mention those animals. If Satan truly has a following on earth, it is called Islam.

Old Soldier --

The comparative silence on the part of the so-called "peaceful Muslims" is indeed much louder than any voices raised in protest from that quarter -- the only protesting we hear from them is whining about how they are being racially profiled, as they seek to achieve some sort of "victim" status. They certainly get no sympathy here.

If 'Muslims' were really out to destroy 'western civilization' there would be a whole lot more dead.

With a worldwide population of 1.4 billion Muslims methinks the damage would be far greater than what we're seeing now. Rather, the number of fanatics is quite small. And instead of dealing with an abstraction like the unfortunate title 'Islamofascists' we should be concentrating on getting the few who pose a real threat.

No one was more surprised 9/11/01 than those fanatics in the Afghan mountains at the result of their actions.

Arthur --

If Muslims weren't unanimously supportive of terrorism, we would hear a united Islamic voice speaking out against it -- but we don't, do we?

Considering that the terrorists claim to murder in the name of Islam, this "crickets chirping" can only indicate agreement.

Seth,
So exactly how would you apply this 'litmus test' to the world's muslim population? OS's comments hints that there is a range of opinion within Christianity, Phelps for sure, and mayhaps
those that enjoy bombing PP clinics...to the other end, like NCC that are very liberal. And as always, the huge quiet center. It seems fair to compare Islam. As Arthur observed there are a lot of them. If we do the math, the percentage of terrorists is tiny and local. My
guess is in the US anyway, the huge majority have no interest in 'forcing' us under Shari'a Law any more then we wish to 'force' them to say rosary on holy days. Demonizing an entire group for the sins of a few may be great fun and make you feel good, but it may be harmful in terms of backlash; may fan a pilot light into a conflagration..it really serves no useful purpose. Perhaps like separating anti-semitic from anti-zionist, we should consider the terms
Hezbolla-facist, Al Quaidafascist, Talibanfacist.
And, no Seth, I still haven't read the Koran....

BB --

It is not an automatic right of a foreign national to emigrate to the United States. There is, however, an expectation that they will show some loyalty to this country once they are granted citizenship.

Muslims believe that they belong to the "Nation of Islam" first, and whatever geopolitical subdivision they live in, second. That in itself engenders certain responsibilities, such as cleaning their own house. The fact that they not only don't do so, but also keep silent while fellow Muslims commit mass murder in their name -- i.e. they don't deny that those terrorist acts are a part of their own belief system, speaks volumes.

When I learn of a serious uprising against Islamofascim by so-called "peaceful" Muslims, I might revise my POV, but until then....

Seth,
Er, when you note "I might revise my POV, but until then...." is your acronym the standard Point Of View, or Platform Of Violence? :)

BB --

Actually, point-of-view.

The platform of violence is that of Islam. Remember the term, "going postal"? I suppose blowing up or beheading innocent people, or treating women like soapscum could be called, "going Islamic".

There is a substantial Muslim population in the American midwest.

Perhaps the fact that no violence to speak of has come from that group is evidence that we should be targeting individuals in our efforts to provide security and safety in our nattion rather than dealing with something so vague and amorphous as 'Islam' or 'Islamofascists'.

That most Muslims in this nation are assimilated economically make them less likely to become terrorists while those living in authoritarian regimes like Egypt, Syria & Saudia Arabia have larger frustrations and act accordingly.

The current New Yorker has a very interesting piece on the Mahmoud Muhammad Tara a moderate Sudanese with huge influence on contemporary Muslim thought.

Arthur --

Becoming an American is not merely economic assimilation. All too many people come here just for the money to be made and could care less about being Americans. I could show you places in some of our larger cities where businesses have no English signs on their facades and make it plain that Americans aren't welcome on their "turf".

Arthur --

Becoming an American is not merely economic assimilation. All too many people come here just for the money to be made and could care less about being Americans. I could show you places in some of our larger cities where businesses have no English signs on their facades and make it plain that Americans aren't welcome on their "turf".

So are folks bent on making money also likely to be terrorist bombers? Of course not.

So foreign language signs in 'some of our larger cities' have exactly what to do with the terrorist threat?

Newcomers have always been ghettoized in this nation. Forced to seek one another out as they get a leg up on joining the American dream. Nothing new about that. My city has signs in a great many foreign languages.

Nothing threatening about it.

It amazes me how so many people are afraid to acurately describe Mohammed as you just did. I have one reader who regularly rebukes me every time I refer to Mo' as a false prophet.

In dealing with Islamists, one can either underestimate or overestimate their power. The former represents delusional wishful thinking that lulls you to ignore genuine danger. The latter, however, can lead to overreactions that actually empower the enemy and can make reality what was originally wishful thinking on the enemy's part (sort of like judo).

The critical issue is whether the Muslim community can recognize the legitimacy of the secular state and agree to advocate their beliefs in the "marketplace" alongside other religions, or whether they will only recognize the legitimacy of an Islamic state that enforces upon infidels the alternatives of conversion, subjugation, and/or extermination. The latter position represents radical, non-negotiable opposition to Western democracy (and other non-Islamic countries).

Arthur --

There are some, and there are others. I have no idea where you live, where you've been nor how much exposure you've had to the real world, but from your comments, I wouldn't guess much of the latter.

Shoprat --

That's because the purveyors of political correctness are winning the battle -- they have the media, the majority of our "votes first, America second" politicians and myriad left wing PACs all pushing their agendas for them, with CAIR right in the middle doing their own share of orchestrating -- note how the terrorist PR agency makes official America tremble whenever they raise their voice.

Through the above, Islam is enjoying great success in employing one of the oldest strategies on the people and governments of the west -- divide & conquer.

When Muslims "speak out against terrorism"--if one can even call it speaking out--I hear this: "Yes, but...." Maybe not word for word, but underlying the so-called condemnation. And not one major Muslim group in the States has condemned OBL by name. Not one!

At the moment, the percentage of Muslims in our population is relatively low. Just wait until that population increases! Familiar with what's been going on with the trains in Brussels?

Civil Truth --

Well put.

Thanks to Islamic advocacy groups who would have us believe Islam is a peaceful entity, the liberal media and self-seeking, PC politicians who go along with this facade and the smiling, Neville Chamberlain clones they have turned a large part of our population into as a result, we have become, by and large, a collective of the "underestimating" camp.

Even 9/11 in all its horror failed to serve as a wake-up call, rather too large a part of our society seems to have rolled over and gone back to sleep.

Islamic doctrine permits its followers to forfeit whichever of its disciplines they need to in order to deceive its perceived enemies, ie blending into their populations while plotting against them from within, part of Taqqiah, and if there's one thing we've learned from their successful terror ops, it's that the jihadis are conversant with the mores of operational security -- they know how to coordinate assets and logistics in secrecy and as an added advantage, have no qualms about "martyring" themselves to avoid discovery.

Since successful large operations often take more than a year or two to prepare, it is necessary for many jihadis to assimmilate themselves into our society, live as "grateful to be here in America, friendly faces with jobs, social lives, nice clothes, nice cars, etc", citizens until the day of the operation. Then they consider themselves expendable, and whatever they have acquired or whatever relationships they leave behind are meaningless, earthly props to be discarded without sentiment.

Such a concept does not have a place in the sensibilities of most Americans, we have a collective sense of permanency and attachment that is not shared by people who live only for the day they will sacrifice their lives on the altar of their deity. On an American's hearing that his Muslim neighbor of three years has blown himself up murdering a thousand innocent people, his next thoughts after registering the horror of the event will likely be, "But he was such a friendly, giving, caring man and great neighbor, and he leaves behind such a wonderful family and a beautiful home!"

The Muslims down the block will merely comment, "Alahu Akbar. He is now in Paradise, having done his duty to Islam."

That is why I am forever skeptical re the concept of Muslims living peacefully alongside other religions in a secular society, and my misgivings are reinforced by the fact that we do not hear very many Muslims condemning the acts of terrorists nor see them organizing to protest or otherwise oppose these acts.

AOW --

As often as not, silence = approval, which is why OBL doesn't get any criticism from Muslims. He is probably a role model for their sons, and I say this seriously.

As I said in my reply to CT's comment, the failure of American Muslims to condemn or organize against terrorism speaks very loudly as to where their true allegiance lies.

The beating and terrorizing of passengers on Belgian trains by Muslim youths merely serves to show that they have no respect for the sensibilities or the non-Muslim citizens of non-Muslim countries that welcome them to immigrate -- they are Muslims, therefore they belong to the Nation of Islam.

I believe that the only reason we're not having such things occur here in the U.S. as yet is that we're considered the ultimate enemy of their preferred system of "government" for every reason you can name, and that plans for us are exponentially more extreme -- it is in the best interests of Islamofascism to lay low here and convince us that they pose no threat so that we keep our vigilance at a minimum.

Seth,
I would offer sort of an odd "encounter of the
4th kind". My son, studying in Strasbourg, took the train everywhere around the continent, soaking up the continental ambience, as kids tend to. Over near Nice, he was alone in his seat section. A group of 8-10 young Muslim men
came in, sat down and surrounded him. Their common lingua franca was French. Any concerns he had were quickly overcome: they eagerly sought the latest info on tennie-runners, Bare Naked Ladies, Lisa Simpson and Sly Stallone.
Like most foreigners, they are caught up in our
'culture'. If given half a chance: the ugly American syndrome has been refined of late, and many people I know take Canada sweatshirts when
traveling the continent. Permit me to liken the
situation to shooting flies with a shotgun or attacking them with a ballpeen hammer vs say flypaper?

BB --

I have known many friendly Muslims -- in San Francisco, at least 20% of my day-to-day acquaintances were from Morocco, Algeria and Iran.

However, in reply, I refer you to my last two comments.

As far as flies are concerned, in short order I have noticed that since I got a bird feeder in my backyard, I've found that I can save on buckshot in dealing with said flies and other such critters. :-)

Well lets do some math here.

20 crazed Muslims, in the name of their Allah, killed 3000 Americans. Each of those hijacker/murderers was responsible for the deaths of 150 people.

What if we have 200 hijackers? That number grows to 30,000.

They probably won't get away with using an airliner. BUT they will use something. BIG. It doesn't take a lot of math to figure it out. A small number of Muslims can murder millions of Americans.
And that is the problem. We must start profiling them. We have to single them out because we cannot afford to allow a few to take so many.

I hear VERY little from Muslims in support of American life- or freedom in western nations. But I hear a lot of hate, blame, threat. Until they stand up against these extreme leaders, I consider them all extreme. And will treat them as such.

Raven --

There is a lot of stuff out there, including suitcase nukes (at least 20) sold to terrorists by former KGB officers, other former Soviet military inventory and who-all knows what from among the WMD that "disappeared" from Iraq before we invaded.

It will take a lot less personnel to inflict infinitely more damage when terrorists decide the time has come to deploy some of these goodies.

Between the media and the lefties in Congress, all possible is being done to prevent our gov't from having the capability to detect and deter before it is too late.

And I agree, as previously stated -- as long as I don't see a unified resistance of "peaceful" Muslims against terrorism, I will take it as demonstrated that the vast majority of them are for it, and therefore none are beyond suspicion.

I always marvel at the terrorist defenders who claim that all but a couple Muslims are "peaceful," and therefore we can't kill innocents.

Know what? We're already risking hundreds of American lives trying to find terrorists and kill them. Why is it asking too much for MUSLIMS to find the terrorists and kill them? Since the damn Muslims won't find the terrorists in their midst (and even admit that in most cases they'd not help locate them), they are now guilty.

Sorry, Islam-goat-lovers, there's no longer such a thing as an innocent Muslim.

Ogre --

My sentiments exactly.

Instead of hearing that they're helping us out with the terrorists who threaten this country that has accepted said Muslims into our population, all we hear is whining about racial profiling.

Perhaps if they gave some evidence that they weren't supporters of terrorism, they might be treated more to their liking. Until then, let 'em whine.