Glenn,

You are setting up a strawman argument. You are taking one concern, that Muslims will "struggle" to impose their Koranic beliefs on non-Muslims, and magically turning it into a bald statement that the US is about to fall under the political sway of a re-established Caliphate. Reductio ad absurdum, but let's look at the facts.

Is there any evidence that Muslims are chipping away at Western ideals of liberty and tolerance? Is there any indication that this is happening (as it happens everywhere else Muslims are present) in an atmosphere of violence, intimidation, and coercion?

Here are some data points just from the last seven days, for your inspection:

A Dutch politician is openly threatened with death by a Muslim "rapper", Appa. These threats are taken seriously since a Dutch filmmaker was stabbed to death on the street by another peaceful Muslim for the crime of making a film that insulted Islamic sensibilities.

An anti-Sharia demonstration in Brussels is banned by the authorities. The ostensible reason given is that public safety cannot be guaranteed.

Two Muslim "students" (and how many times do we have to hear that phrase), arrested for pipe bombs in the trunk of their car as they drove near an American naval base in South Carolina, turn out to have links to the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, founded by a convicted terrorist.

American students at San Francisco University are brought up on university charges of "desecrating Allah" for stomping on Hamas and Hezbollah flags (Were you even aware that such a charge existed at an American public university)?

Then of course we travel outside of the West to find 100,000 people rallying in Djakarta for the Caliphate; Egyptians and Malaysias (moderate Muslim countries, right) having to go through the court system to change their religion to Christianity; etc etc etc but this is about the West and so we'll ignore all that oppression, violence and coercion for the time being.

The fact is that we all know that Muslims have had a chilling effect on free speech, even here in the States. Someone upthread reminded us all about the cartoons of Mohammend, which almost no newspapers or magazines in the States dared to republish. Why? Answer that one, O Armies of Glenn, rather than asking where the Muslim invasion fleet is.

...that these people actually believe we are facing an immanent threat of invasion by Islamic hordes. After all, these are the same type of people who believed that "Red Dawn" was a realistic portrayal of what might happen if we didn't "stand strong" against the "Red Menace".

And the odds of a Soviet invasion of America were far higher than the chance that a modern day Saladin will come charging into Washington, D.C.

They've stopped the American right wing chickenhawks dead in their tracks.

The chickenhawk base would LOVE an attack on Iran. And the chickenhawk leadership have been chomping at the bit to do it. But Iraq's been such a disaster that even the chickenhawks calling the shots are balking. It's like--Jesus, what are those Itanian assholes capable of in response to our aggression. They are 3 times Iraq. They could disrupt the entire oil game. Then our wallets take the hit.

Remember the 1980s? Survivalists? "Red Dawn?" With enough shovels, we'll all survive? They'll be driving up from South America & into Texas?

It's not just that these people actually believe in this horrific Islamic tidal wave, it's that some twisted part of them welcomes it, needs it, is salivating at the thought of an Armageddon-like confrontation between Good & Evil. No more laws, no more effete obstructions like the Constitution, no more weak-kneed nonsense like human rights -- there's only The Enemy, and the only thing to do with them is Kill Kill Kill! And, um, anyone who even remotely expresses a differing opinion ...

Talk about projection! Everything the ultra-right condemns, loathes, fears, wants to destroy, is to be found within their own terrified little souls, projected onto the enemy du jour.

No, this isn't to deny that some factions of radical Islam would be only too happy to impose religious law on the whole of the world ... you know, just like some of their spiritual brethren right here in America.

The real enemy is self-righteous ignorance of any stripe, folks.

"...we'd all be speaking Arabic by now."

I've heard/read dozens of the frigging morons use that line. It must come down from Rush or the pigheaded Michael Savage.

I'd like to see the average Freeper try to learn Arabic. I think it would be easier to teach an aardvark to repair motorcycles.

I don't think it's possible to overstate the pure stupidity of most wingnuts. They're generally preconditioned by religious nonsense to believe in apocalypse, and this "the Arabs are coming" business fits right in. These are the same idiots who took the Cuban/Nicaraguan/EMP threat seriously after seeing "Red Dawn."

Some other eedjit follows up:

Perhaps you should consider the prospect that Swedish politicians are estimating that country to be majority Muslim in their lifetime....

Hell, I've lived in a supermajority Christian country for almost all my life, and even if the Checkered-Pants Daemons occasionally need to be beat down with large sticks (in a legal arena, of course), I haven't noted any particularly obnoxious untoward effects.

... How about Dutch authorities that repress "native" riots but not Islamic ones....

Other people's hallucinations are <*repeat*> NOT my problem.

... Doesn't the Islamization of the UK affect you at all or even the call for the Islamization of Indonesia and the Conference for Caliphate?

So this eedjit admits that Indonesia, for its 90% or so Muslim population, is not an Islamic state. Which is pretty much what I saw when I was there....

Cheers,

Q). Why don't Baptists make love standing up?

A). They're afraid it might lead to dancing.....

<<*Bah-da-bump*>

Cheers,

If you listen to right-wing hacks enough, it's an amazing picture they paint of the United States: Our country is a fragile, fragile porcelain doll that must remain protected in a display case lest it get broken. A scared child, cowering from the bogeyman in the closet. (These are the same people who, without batting an eyelash, claim the mantle of Defenders of the U.S. because they gave us Iraq I & II and the Grenada and Panama police actions).

Trouble is: America isn't weak. And not one or two or ten or 100 terrorist attacks is going to make her crumble.