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My thoughts...

I keep trying to consider John Q. Muslim.

And there have to be hundreds of millions of John Q. Muslims out there.

We proudly announce the number of Americans who did NOT protest against the war in Iraq on any particular day, we do it in order to make it perfectly clear that the actions of a few, are not representative of the opinions of the many. We do not allow ourselves to be painted with such a broad brush that would assume us all as being against the war, based on the loud, destructive, and disruptive actions of radicals amongst us.

But we don't afford John Q. Muslim the same consideration, if one kills, they are all murdering zealots.

I would imagine that John Q. Muslim's daily concerns would be very similar to mine, and that he would spend most of his energies on providing for his family.

John Q. Muslim lives mostly someplace other than the Middle East, and he is by and large not an Arab. The struggles of radical Islam and Western civilization are distant things, going on elsewhere, far away from him and his family.

Unlike Daniel Snopes, I don't believe that there could be 120 million possible terrorists out there, I don't think that there are that many people in the entire world who would willingly strap a live bomb to their body, and push the detonator.

But I don't underestimate the power of hatred.

I am afraid of it as well.

I see hatred cultivated by both sides of this struggle, and caught up in the cross hairs of that hatred is John Q. Muslim.

I hope we find a way to separate the instigators from the hundreds of millions of John Q. Muslims of this world, and at the same time, I hope he wakes up soon, and realizes that it’s time to get involved, and that it is time to stand away from the radicals within his faith.

I fervently hope that John Q. Muslim decides to draw a line in the sand soon, and stand with the rest of the normal people on this earth, who do not see mass murder as a sacrament, and that he works towards helping eradicate the power of hate within his religion, before hate consumes him and all around him.

Unlike Daniel Snopes, I don't believe that there could be 120 million possible terrorists out there, I don't think that there are that many people in the entire world who would willingly strap a live bomb to their body, and push the detonator.

In the 1870's and 1920's, the Klan was a mass movement with a huge number of members. The vast majority of members would never have directly engaged in killing. But they participated in creating a climate of approval for such acts

A much more reasoned comment then what I will make.

I have seen grown men, Christian born, convert to Islam. I have seen normal, friendly men turn into John Q. Muslim. In only a matter of weeks did John Q. Muslim become distant, a vacant look in his eyes rapidly replacing a fire that once shown there.

I see this in a co-worker who only last year married a Muslim. It is as though we who are Christian are being looked upon as something to wipe his feet on.

I do not like the change in John Q. Muslim.

I also think that Mark Fidel Kools had this same look in his eyes the night he threw grenades into the tents of his fellow servicemen.

Until the day John Q. Muslim decides to draw that line in the sand and stand with the rest of the normal people on this earth, who do not see mass murder as a sacrament, I will not trust him.

I hope we find a way to separate the instigators from the hundreds of millions of John Q. Muslims of this world, and at the same time, I hope he wakes up soon, and realizes that it’s time to get involved, and that it is time to stand away from the radicals within his faith.

The problem is that the radical Islamist will just as soon kill John Q. Muslim for his tolerance as kill you and me for our infidelity.

Fear is the great silencer.