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Originally Posted by August
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Originally Posted by Kissaki
And I would venture to say that the tolerance Muslims enjoy in several Christian countries (I'll defend my use of the term further down) is equally just tokenism. There are plenty of people like you who only tolerate them as far as you're bound by law.
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"People like me"? I thought you were the champion of civil discussion here, I guess you don't practice what you preach. FYI you have no clue what or who i'd tolerate or welcome in my country so don't try to act like you do. |
I apologize, the sentence was ill-phrased. I honestly didn't mean to offend, but there's not many ways to write "people like you" without it sounding offensive. Please allow me to rephrase myself: There are plenty of people who, like you, only tolerate them as far as you're bound by law. And you have to admit, you have said plenty in this thread alone to demonstrate your lack of tolerance for Islam and its followers.
EDIT: I'm terribly sorry, I just checked and realized that it was SixPack, not you, who started this thread. Because of your post-counts your avatars are the same, and I'm used to recognizing forumites by their avatars. My bad.
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Probably a lot more than you are willing to believe. Heck we won't even target people that look middle eastern at our airport security because racial profiling is against the law.
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I get the feeling from your words here that if it was up to you, there would be. And I know there are many who would welcome it. Governments tend to be more level-headed than the people they govern, though. I remember immediately after 911, anyone with a turban was a murderer, and some (I grant you, not many to my knowledge) mosques were attacked. But Bush had to make a public statement almost immediately telling America that such retribution was not tolerated.
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That was true at one time but if you're willing to look back far enough you could also find examples of Christians burning accused witches at the stake. That doesn't make it valid in the modern sense though.
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Didn't say it was, mate. But on the same token, the "infidel" cliché isn't valid for all Muslims, either.
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This is true, but you must also take into consideration that in modern history they have become very defensive because of Western foreign policies, and they perceive us as wanting to impose our way of life on them. That's why they fear our "decadence"; for the same reason we feared Communism during the Cold War (and especially during the McCarthy period).
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Define "they" Mister Expert. Are you talking about the Muslim terrorist or Muslim businessman, Muslim college student attending western universities, Muslim breadmaker or Muslim Politician/member of their nobility?
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By "they" I naturally mean those who want to - or feel the need to - fight back. That bill fits eg. the Al Qaeda, the Iranian government and anyone who believes their propaganda.
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Nothing, not a McDonalds, rerun of the Simpsons or a single bottle of Coca Cola makes it into those countries without the blessing of their rulers. If anyone is imposing "our" (another overgeneralization) way of life on "them" it's their own people, not "us".
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When it comes to those examples, then yes. But Iraq was, for example, subject to a debilitating embargo which caused a humanitarian crisis, plus they had little alternative but to trade its oil with the West. Sure you may argue that "Saddam started it", but the average Iraqi citizen just knew where the embargo came from.