STRAIGHT DOPE FROM RORY

Every time someone calls Muslims on their violence, repression, and murderous spasms of terrorism, the person pointing out the obvious is derided as "racist" or "stirring up trouble." Really? Is it racist to wonder how Muslims managed to pick fights with Thailand? Or the Phillipines? Or to point out that the old reel about how people who question the average Muslim's tendency to immediately fly off the handle and start killing people whenever their "sacred" beliefs are questioned just need more "education" about Islam falls on its face when it turns out the more you learn about Islam, the move obvious the roots of terrorism become?

I could fill a library (which would probably be immediately burned down by suicide bombers) with all the failed rationalizations spewed by Western apologists for Islamic terror.

1) Terrorism is "just caused by poverty and lack of options." Last sighting of this excuse: sometime around when a bunch of British Muslim doctors tried to blow up Heathrow.

2) Terrorism is a "natural" reaction to things that may or may not have happened hundreds of years ago, like the Crusades or the "loss" of Spain. Last sighting of this excuse: Right around the time Muslim terrorists started attacking Thailand, which contrary to some accounts actually did not join King Richard in his march on the Holy Land.

3) Terrorism is a response to the invasion of Iraq. Last sighting of this excuse: Right around the time Muslim terrorists started attacking the Phillipines, which doesn't exactly have a huge presence in the Middle East (unless you count all the Filipino housemaids trapped in servitude there).

The list goes on and on. The excuses keep changing, but the blazingly obvious tie between Islam and terrorism remains the same. Why? Well, as Fitna points out, the Koran REQUIRES it of Muslims. This is quite different from the "Uh, the Bible has bad stuff too" saw - the Bible recounts ancient historical detail, while the Koran mandates violence of its modern day adherents. That's precisely why Islam has cornered the world market on terrorism in a way that would have world monopolists like Microsoft or ALCOA green with envy. And, of course, if you point it out then Muslims prove your point by killing you over it.

But you knew this. Really, the interesting question is why Westerners are so insistent on avoiding the obvious and twisting themselves into little knots about how there is some secret reason for constant Islamic violence besides, you know, the ISLAM part. My suspicion: cowardice. After all, if you acknowledge the problem, you might have to actually confront it, something that was bred out of Europeans in the 1950s. It's easier to just pretend it's the fault of the tolerant, open society, rather than the repressive 7th century political ideology that respects nothing but its own edicts. Fools like Mr. Nielsen are betraying centuries of Western enlightenment out of some perverse "respect" for a violent movement that has zero respect for them. It'd be hilarious if the end results aren't sure to be so tragic.