Quote Originally Posted by JoeE SP9
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Second we need leadership in this country that will work toward stopping Saudi "moderates" from providing monetary support to terrorists. Opening up our oil reserves and drastically cutting the purchase of Saudi oil would hit those so called "moderates in their pocket. Of course this can only be accomplished if we can hit them where they sit.

No matter what you might think of Islam and the Arabs the fact remains that the objective of Islam is a world of Islam. I don't want to live in that kind of world. I'm sure lots of other Americans are not too happy with the idea of a world ruled by Islam and the Sharia. Living in a world that follows Islamic thought as it's government and uses the Sharia for its legal code is just to repugnant to even think about. No religious freedom of any sort coupled with a legal system straight out of the stone age. Welcome to the year 950AD! I suggest you check how many Christian congregations exist in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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Moslem extremism is a huge threat to world peace but for that very reason over reaction, and foolishness in general, must be avoided. One point where we definitely agree is that moderate Moslems, especially those living in the West, have done too little to root out extremists in their midst. And being a bit sterner with, e.g., the Saudi royal family might not be a bad thing, unfortunately we would have to tread more carefully than the U.S. State Department is capable of if we weren't to do more harm than good.

Religious Moslems, like religous Christians, feel they're way is right and that it ought to be embrassed by the whole world. But unfortunately hatred as well as religous zeal is playing into the current problem. Some Moslems hate the West for no better reason than that the West has been in ascendancy for a few hundred years. However I believe much of the current hatred has be focused by the specific past and on-going errors of US foreign policy, not the least its uncritical support for the state of Israel and indifference to the historic grievance of the Palestinians. Of course, Iranian Moslems harbor deep resentment towards the US on account its of Shah, an oppressor who would not likely have come to power without US support. Simply put, the US will have to atone for these errors before the Moslem extremist threat can be assuaged.

On the other hand there is essentially zero threat that Western countries are going to have Sharia law or the Wahhabi sect shoved down our throats: it is totally outside our social and religous perspective and it won't happen. Don't worry 'bout it.