I Have Legitimate Concerns About Islam And That's Not Bigotry

Group A - Muslims, who want to create an Islamic "nation", that follows the rules of pre-Islamic Arabia, specifically in the Levant. This is what's called ISIL or ISIS. They are using their own interpretation of Sharia law, based on parts taken from the Qur'an, Hadith, and their own extension of the "Fuqh".

Group B - Muslims, who want to follow the Muslim family law. This is the part of the Sharia that does not deal with criminal issues. It is different for different branches of Islam. This would include the full application of the family law, and includes polygamy.

Group C - Muslims, who want to follow partial Muslim family law. They do not accept polygamy.

Group D - Muslims, who do not want to follow Muslim family law, and obviously do not want to follow the criminal portions either.

Group E - Muslims who want to fully apply Sharia laws.

Group A - the entire world is fighting this group, and by all accounts, ISIL is losing.

Groups B & C - this would be places like Lebanon, Algeria, Egypt. No countries in this group wants to either wage war, or export Islam. Some people in Group C live in the Western world, and some parts of the Western world, allow, on voluntary basis, arbitration courts. This would be the US and Britain (there may be others). This would be to rule over simple issues, related to marriage, divorce, and inheritance.

Group D - would be places like Turkey and Tunisia.

Group E - Saudi Arabia, and partially in places like the GCC, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Mixed in, into all this, is cultural issues. A Muslim from Tunisia, is not going to have the same cultural background, as a Muslim from Pakistan. By culture, I mean social habits. The Hijab, is not prescribed by the Qur'an, for instance, so it's found in places where the Hijab, predated Islam.

What does the Western world fear? An influx of people from a different culture? Seeing that this is a Presidential elections year, I am reminded of the 1960 US Presidential elections. JFK, was faced, all over the South, with demonstration, with people carrying signs saying things like "Do you want the Pope to run the White House?", and this was one of the mildest. The KKK, shut down Houston, with crosses burning, and demanding that they keep the Catholics out, as they do not belong.

It turns out that American Catholics, despite the fear uncertainty and doubt, do not really want the Pope to run the White House, and JFK, was not a Trojan Horse. It seems silly that people might have thought in these terms, at the time, but they really did.

Do you fear Islam, because of the terrorist activities of extremists, or because you don't want your grandchildren to have to bend over, five times per day, face Mecca and Pray?

Do you fear Islam, because most of the refugees come from countries where people are not blond and have blue eyes?

Do you fear Islam, just because Muslims are not Christian?

The Unites States, is a country of immigrants. We're not supposed to take religion into account, when figuring our who gets to be American. As a nation, we changed from an Anglo nation, to a multi-cultural, multi-religious nation. Seriously folks, make a small effort, and look up documentaries, books, etc, about the 1960 elections. It should be an eye opener.

MLK's short stay in jail, saved the world from Word War III. How? JFK succeeded, where Nixon failed, at freeing MLK from jail, a short time before the elections. This led MLK, and his father specifically, to put the word out, to vote for JFK. The black vote, won the day for JFK. Two years later, if Nixon had been in the White House, his military entourage, definitely, would have ordered an invasion of Cuba. We now know, that the Soviet commanders in Cuba, had permission, and instructions, to use field nukes to stop the US invasion fleet. The USA would have certainly responded with a full scale nuke exchange.

Do I fear what does not look like me? A lot of us do. I am very uncomfortable when I see a woman in a hijab. I don't react the same way, when I see a nun. I have to work extra, to try to understand my reaction. Partially, it's because I am wondering if she's doing it our of her own free will, but it's also partially because I cannot relate.

We have more than 3M Muslims in the US. For the most part, they are Americans, and do not want to change the nature of this country. You will find bad apples in every group. Example: the Orlando mass murderer. The guy was not a jihadists. If ISIL got hold of him, they would toss him off the roof of a building: he was a closeted gay man. The guy in Nice. He is Tunisian, so probably born a Muslim, but he drank, did drugs, ate pork, and beat the shit out of his wife. He also committed a mass murder.

Timothy McVeigh, was a Catholic Altar boy. He committed a mass murder, killing hundreds, including dozens of children, all in a child care center, at the bottom of the building he bombed. All because he had a couple of loose screws, regardless of the cause he adopted to justify his mass murder.

Accepting that people are different, some do not look like you do, worship like you do, eat like you do, or dress like you do, but are not out to get you, or destroy your culture, does not meant that you're stupid, politically correct, or your head is up your ass.

There are integration problems, but we should start by understanding what that means, and solve these problems. Of course, we can decide to remain "pure".