Posted on 09/12/2004 6:44:51 PM PDT by quidnunc
In the shadow of the large mosque at the corner of Sycamore and Sobieski streets, fear of the unknown sometimes occupies residents.
Muslims have bought dozens of homes, staking their property with tall, impenetrable fences.
The women journey with groceries from the market in long, flowing dresses and burkas that cover everything but their eyes. The men wear loose-fitting robes, skull caps and untrimmed beards, and walk five times a day to the mosque, Masjid Zakaria, for prayer.
Some of their non-Muslim neighbors wonder why they build their fences so high and rarely say as much as a hello.
"To me, they're very secretive," said Tom Zeiliski, who has lived on nearby Sweet Street for many years. "For the most part, they're pretty quiet, but it kind of makes you a little uneasy when you don't know.
"Some people could be hiding in this mosque. They could be hiding people in there. You don't know," he said.
Suspicion of Muslims lingers thick in Western New York and the rest of the country, buoyed by the 9/11 attacks, the beheading of Americans and others in the name of Islam and the arrest of Yemeni Americans in Lackawanna who had trained in al-Qaida camps.
Those doubts have prodded Muslims — here and elsewhere — into an intense struggle for the soul of Islam.
Three years after Sept. 11, 2001, Muslims in the United States are trying to raise their profile as patriotic people of faith, while distancing themselves from terrorists who act in the name of their religion.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
It should be lowered about 6 feet.
The plain fact is that we as a nation face no substantial threat from radical Christians of any stripe. Muslims, on the other hand, are known to want to set off a nuke in downtown Manhattan. You do the math.
With regards to Saudi Arabia and Egypt:
These two nations are a lot harder to deal harshly with than others in the region because each contains economic infrastructure (oil in S.A., the Suez Canal in Egypt) that is crucial to the US economy. Believe me, this nation would not be willing to absorb the shock that our economy will get from invading Saudi Arabia. Egpyt, on the other hand, is a problem that is nearly as complex as is Pakistan.
Afghanistan was about revenge and justice. Iraq is about eliminating the most serious threat to our interests in the region, which in turn will allow us to act elsewhere in ways we could not otherwise.
With regards to Syria, it's time is coming soon. If you didn't see it, the UN security council voted unanimously to tell Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon. This you might recognize as the final step of the diplomatic groundwork necessary for invasion. Likewise, Iran is very close to that point as well. I think we are planning to fight both at once, which shouldn't be as hard as it sounds, given that Syria has little with which to defend itself against a power like the US (part of which is, not coincidentally, massed on the border).
When we get Iraq and Iran fully back on line, we will get a massive oil production boost not only from the introduction of the latest technology, but also from the pipeline routes that would then be accessible from the Caspian, a very rich oil-producing region that currently is limited only by transport. In this context, we can then deal with Saudi Arabia any way we please.
There's more to it, but in general I think this is the US strategy, and it's a winning one.
re the fowls of the air: catching worms is hard work, even if not performed for hire, or within agricultural paradigm of sowing and reaping.
And that was, until recently, the last time the sandmaggots tried militarily to invade Europe from any direction
This is the silliest game I have joined in months. Good luck.
Here is what I have learned from the koran:
Actually, Islam is a bloodthirsty barracks religion, suitable only for depraved societies. It is fundamentally incapable of fostering democracy or protecting the rights of individuals. In short, it is thoroughly anti-Western, what was once politely referred to as Oriental. Tolerance for blood sports, the degradation of women and all the other evils that Islam celebrates are part and parcel of a culture based on a religion of hatred and violence.
Here is a good definition for you:
islam (POA) is an intolerant cult founded by a Jewish and Christian hating, child molesting pedophile, who was also a murdering thief. The followers of the cult bow several times a day to worship a meteorite in the sand and follow teachings from a hate filled screed based on moon worship written by a maniac. The sword and death are used to induct new cult members and remove non-believers. Women of the cult are treated as sub-human slaves whose worth is measured by the pleasure they give men and by the children they produce for the cult. Beheading, stoning, clitoral cutting, limb chopping, and self-mutilation maintain discipline within the cult.
Follow the money...
The Koran lacks chronology and context? In most of it yeah, but it's not meant to have any, just be a list of laws and examples.
Indeed! So then I take it you are a credentialed expert in islamic history and the koran, and fluent in Arabic.
Bump! Well said!
The behavior of Chechen terrorists in Beslan, disgusting in every gory detail by the standards of civilized humanity, was justified by the tenets of Islam and by the personal example of the cult’s inventor, Muhammad...
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