It's a zero sum game as one author puts it. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and the world and that makes Evangelicals very worried and nervous. Witness the smear campaigns launched by their stooges, like Robert Spencer and far uglier iterations of the same.

Should the founders have peacefully protested against the British or were they correct to "bear arms" and fight?

In the light of today's world of insurgents, peaceful and violent protesters and terrorists, it is interesting to reevaluate our own birth as a nation. Heck, many out there even believe that Americans have the right to bear arms simply so that they can revolt if needed.

So in the true American revolutionary spirit, what is our message to the world's discontented? Fight back or protest peacefully?

Again, this is about "the American political class." He does not write about "generalized, acted-upon hatred of Muslims in America". The difference is subtle, perhaps, but it is there, and careful study reveals it.

I was going to post something similar. It seems like a lot of comment volume gets generated from a careless(or perhaps deliberate) misreading of Glenn's intentions.

Glenn's focus here is on right-wing, establishment-media hypocrisy: partisanship, special pleading, scapegoating and sundry other venal motives masquerading as principled idealism and high moral dudgeon.

The way Uighurs see themselves, the plight of other ethnic minorities repressed in China or in other countries, the possibilities and consequences of protests and interventions over such repression, the difference between protest and insurrection, the degree of bias and prejudice in American society and the extent of inherent intolerance in Islam - all fascinating questions. Just not really germane to Glenn's criticism of our capital's self-important, self-contradictory political theatre.

On the other hand, as usual I've enjoyed reading many of the letters here (and if I didn't, I was delighted by the fierce or thoughtful reactions they provoked).

So maybe there is much to be said for creative misunderstanding (and Glenn's generosity in letting threads play themselves out).

Urumqi counts dead, awaits crackdown

By Olivia Chung

HONG KONG - At least 140 people were killed and more than 800 injured Sunday, according to China's official news agency, in an explosion of ethnic violence in Urumqi, capital of China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The reports gave no details of how the deaths were caused.

Riots and street-battles between Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese capped weeks of rising tensions between the two groups, and renewed concerns about China's treatment of its ethnic minorities. The escalating death toll in the far-west region makes this the most violent mass incident in China in many years.

"This violence is a clear demonstration that policies that are meant to give human rights to all the ethnic minorities in the region are not working," Roseann Rife, Amnesty International's deputy program director for Asia, told Asia Times Online on Monday.

... click on sig for more ...

A good article with good background of some of the basics. Asia Times is a site you should check in on often.

Check your facts. The two fastest growing groups with respect to religion are 'Other Faiths', and Unaffiliated. Buddhism is growing 3 times as fast as Islam in the U.S.

http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf

Glenn needs to start using tags. He could tag this one "hypocrisy", "right-wing", "establishment-media hypocrisy", "partisanship", or whatever he thinks his main points are about.

What do you think Glenn?

=:-)

Thanks, and that was a really funny rant. No need to be embarrassed for me, though -- my tribe is big enough for Calamine and Einstein, Goldfarb and Greenwald, Jonathan in TA and Dylan on the Never-Ending Tour. It is even big enough for the Doughy Pantload and the coolest Jew of all time, Lou Reed.

"The call to prayer is no differnt than church bells, and I guess if you are opposed to expressions of cultural diversity both are an annoyance. If however you find the differnt sights and sounds of a diverse cosmopolitan society a mark of your societies greatness it is a pleasure."

So appreciating diversity means I have to forced to bear intrusive religious activities on an on-going basis? Do I have to endure the "sights and sounds" of homophobia? I'll bet you wouldn't find a mosque loudspeaker blaring in your window at 5AM "a mark of your societies [sic] greatness". Then again maybe you are the type of privileged Westerner who can treat 'otherness' like a bauble for your personal amusement, because the negative side of diversity (say diversity of opinion on whether a girl child should have her genitals cut up) never affect you personally.

"Now, you are correct that on an individual basis there is assholitry practiced by muslims, I think there is assholitry practiced by pretty much every group in the world however, regardless of religious or cultural affiliation."

That entire paragraph is spineless moral equivocation and shows youc annot defemd Islam on its own merits. Basically you want to argue that everyone is bad so you can't call out the Muslims for any of the violent stuff they do, even when they routinely justify said violence through their faith. Talk about being "intelectually dishonest".

"Homophobia is not unique to Islam, nor even to religion, and neither is dislike of the other. That being said, by and large throughout the U.S. we all find a way not to get violent with each other."

More moral equivocation. Islam reinforces murderous homophobia and validates it as spiritually just though the Qur'an as the literal word of god. The only places you can be put to death for homosexuality are in the Muslim world. The main force behind criminalisation of homosexuality (which is illegal in virtually every Muslim country) are religious. You are so disgustingly insincere. Just look at the right-wing fanatics in this country against marriage equality, religion is the sine qua non of their movement.

"To single out Islam, and say, see how horrible these people are, without realizing that you are cherry picking examples that support your argument is intelectually dishonest."

The Islamic world is embroiled in violence with a vast array of non-Muslim groups in a host of socio-political situations. You simply want to ignore that inconvenient truth and search for excuses in the tired blame-the-West political rhetoric.