Islam vs. the West: What Do We Do?

There are many questions about the relationship between Islam and the West, and I have few answers.

First, there is the issue of the two opposing sides of Islam. There is the group that the media portrays as the majority of Muslims ~ the peaceful, simple, happy Arab folk who just want to practice their religion. There's the other group that hates all Americans, or at least, Christians and Jews, and wants to kill them all and will sacrifice their own lives to do it. Now, obviously, both of these groups can't be practicing true Islam.

Christians have the ugly Crusades in their history, but those Crusaders were acting in contradictory to the teachings of the Bible, and they weren't acting like Christians. Are these irrational sucidal radicals doing the same thing? Is Islam really (as we'd like to believe) all about peace? But then where do these radicals get their antics from? Or are these radicals practicing true Islam, and it's the peaceful folk who are ignoring the "kill the infidel" parts of their religion? I don't know enough about Islam and the Koran to know which side is practicing true Islam, but I know it can't be both.

I also know that a Muslim killed a filmmaker in the Netherlands because he thought the guy had insulted Muslim women in a film, and his religion required that he make the guy pay. He said to the family something like (not exact quote) "I don't feel your pain, I'm not sorry, and I'd do it again." He knew he was following his religion! What do the peaceful folk say to that?

Second, if true Islam involves murdering Americans (or Christians and Jews), would that provide grounds for banning Muslims from our country, or making Islam illegal, or something else to that effect? The London terrorists lived freely in Britain, and there are still radical religious leaders there who are openly anti-British. A huge step in preventing future terrorist attacks would be to simply eliminate them from the country. If they can't live here and plot things under our noses, it's much harder for a terrorist attack to take place.

Of course, we do have the whole freedom of religion issue. We can't just discriminate based on religious beliefs. That's why we left Britain in the first place. But what if the religion is openly against our government? If there was a religion that said that raping and killing young girls was the pathway to heaven, do you think anyone would have a problem with locking up people who practiced that religion? These radical Islamists are a danger to society. But what about all the peaceful Muslims, you say? But if true Islam involves murdering people, I say, then they're supposed to be killing people too. All the more reason to kick them out.

But even if true Islam involves murdering Americans (which it may not), and we further conclude that it is a great danger to our society, that brings us to a third question:

Can we lock people up or kick them out solely for their beliefs? Even if they believe it's OK to do illegal things, can we really do anything about it before they've actually done anything illegal? We've never challenged the right to anything so fundamental and intangible. As it stands, we can't arrest a Muslim before he kills a Christian in the name of Allah. But if we knows he's supposed to be killing Christians, then aren't we being stupid to sit there and wait for him to kill someone before we arrest him? Why not prevent the crime if we know it's going to happen? Because we've never said it was illegal to merely believe anything. Everything in our law system is based on actions.

I don't know if true Islam is about murder. And, even if it is, I don't know if it would be right to make its mere belief and practice a crime. But I do know that if Islam was illegal and all Muslims were deported, our country would be in much less danger of a terrorist attack.

Until I find more answers,

Edmond the Hun