# Any Signs of Long-Predicted Anti-Muslim "Backlash"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 30, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090 "2009-12-30T20:52:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/121 "2010-01-04T06:30:01Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I said I’d remember your post the next time a random terrorist attack is done in the name of Jesus. What that implies is that there are random terrorist attacks done by people in the name of other prophets. If someone does it in the name of Jesus then their church is going to get ripped a new one. Oh, garbage. They’ll get cheered on by their fellow extremists; no different than with Islam. Eric Rudolph, the anti-abortion & anti-homosexual bomber was cheered on for years, hidden by sympathizers, and so on. And I’ve heard plenty of people speak of approval about the Christian assassins who have killed doctors who perform abortions. Again; fanatics are fanatics, Christian or Islamic. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/122 "2010-01-04T06:36:32Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > (why would Muslim terrorists blow up mosques ?) Actually, that’s easy enough to answer. They’d do it because the mosque in question happens to belong to a different batch of Muslims; religious fanatics are at least as enthusiastic about attacking heretics as they are about attacking infidels. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/123 "2010-01-04T06:48:57Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s not just a function of Muslims killing infidels. The same mindset applies to anyone who does not agree with their brand of Islam and it shows up in the violence in Iraq, the school bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the state mandated misogyny of countries like Saudi Arabia AND the worldwide indiscriminate terrorist attacks of airplanes, hotels, embassys, restaurants, trains, shopping bazaars, Mosques, churches, and anything else that involves a nameless target. The common denominator is the religion of Islam. Well, yes, that’s kind of tautological. There is indeed such a thing as specifically radical-Islamist terrorism, and yes, a crucial shared element in all its manifestations is the religion of Islam. > [@Magiver](#): > > It is stuck on stupid and cannot seem to advance beyond the Dark Ages. Here’s where it’s not clear whether you’re continuing to make self-evident observations about radical-Islamist terrorism in particular, or disintegrating into mindless and ill-informed bigotry about Islam in general. It would be absurd to claim that all of Islam, as a major world religion, is “stuck on stupid” and “cannot seem to advance beyond the Dark Ages”—that’s nothing but broad-brush **Der-Trihs** -style religion-bashing, and doesn’t deserve any serious response. On the other hand, if what you’re trying to say is that the violent reactionary zealotry of militant radical Islamism in particular is stupid and backward, well, yeah, can’t really argue with that even if I wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2010, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/124 "2010-01-04T07:56:42Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Well, yes, that’s kind of tautological. There is indeed such a thing as specifically radical-Islamist terrorism, and yes, a crucial shared element in all its manifestations is the religion of Islam. > > Here’s where it’s not clear whether you’re continuing to make self-evident observations about radical-Islamist terrorism in particular, or disintegrating into mindless and ill-informed bigotry about Islam in general. > > It would be absurd to claim that all of Islam, as a major world religion, is “stuck on stupid” and “cannot seem to advance beyond the Dark Ages”—that’s nothing but broad-brush **Der-Trihs** -style religion-bashing, and doesn’t deserve any serious response. > > On the other hand, if what you’re trying to say is that the violent reactionary zealotry of militant radical Islamism in particular is stupid and backward, well, yeah, can’t really argue with that even if I wanted to. The religion suffers from 6 degrees of separation. The religion itself is based on a warrior prophet and the messages put forth are resolute in their intensity depending how you want to interpret his words. Christianity survived in spite of itself through a combination of schisms and a general migration toward the New Testament (what Christ taught) versus the Old Testament (everything including the kitchen sink that could be used to beat plowshares into swords). The people who thump the bible are striking hardest on the Old Testament side of the book. The hierarchy of Christianity was broken with Marin Luther and it broke the power structure that bound the religion. With Islam, the power structure is just the opposite and this leadership vacuum is filled by anybody who wants to claim to be an Imam. It opens the doors to the Arabic version of Fred Phelps and the words of Mohammad have a more direct consequence. A rational person embraces the peaceful aspect of the religion. A Fred Phelps embraces the sword. The religion itself isn’t trying to rule the world but there are factions within who use the religion to organize and execute their version of it. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/125 "2010-01-05T03:32:56Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The religion suffers from 6 degrees of separation. The religion itself is based on a warrior prophet and the messages put forth are resolute in their intensity depending how you want to interpret his words. > > Christianity survived in spite of itself through a combination of schisms and a general migration toward the New Testament (what Christ taught) versus the Old Testament (everything including the kitchen sink that could be used to beat plowshares into swords). The people who thump the bible are striking hardest on the Old Testament side of the book. True…Scotsman senses… tingling. Besides that, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. The Bible says everything and its contrary. The Koran says everything and its contrary in cryptic verse. What’s the difference ? Besides, you must know that, for being the word of a warrior prophet, back in the day the Koran was a vastly progressive text, as were the Muslim Caliphates compared to the Christian Kingdoms - socially, scientifically, artistically, religiously. The reasons why they eventually stagnated under Ottoman rule while Christendom at the same time crumbled and flourished are multiple and complex, but they have far more to do with politics than what’s in each bloc’s respective holy book. IIRC Cecil did a short article on the subject. > [@](#): > > The hierarchy of Christianity was broken with Marin Luther and it broke the power structure that bound the religion. With Islam, the power structure is just the opposite and this leadership vacuum is filled by anybody who wants to claim to be an Imam. It opens the doors to the Arabic version of Fred Phelps and the words of Mohammad have a more direct consequence. A rational person embraces the peaceful aspect of the religion. A Fred Phelps embraces the sword. The religion itself isn’t trying to rule the world but there are factions within who use the religion to organize and execute their version of it. Again, not sure what sense this makes. On the one hand, christianity has hundreds of Phreds and they’re powerless because the religion’s base is broken, but Islam has hundreds of Phreds and they have more power because the religion never had a base ? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/126 "2010-01-05T04:43:00Z")
I’m open to hearing any explanation that describes the phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/127 "2010-01-05T04:48:19Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I’m open to hearing any explanation that describes the phenomenon. What “phenomenon”? ---
**Author:** ![Cort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@Cort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cort)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/128 "2010-01-05T23:18:32Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Nope. When a member of a fanatical Christian congregation goes out and shoots up an abortion clinic or beats a lesbian to death, his congregation is prompt to disavow his actions, because of course the priest is appalled and aghast that anyone could interpret his message of “kill the sinners” as literal rather than metaphorical ; meanwhile the mainstream churches trip over themselves in a rush in to state one should not judge the whole lot of them by the actions of one rotten apple. At least they’re being disavowed. It took 3 years after 9/11 before anyone thought put out a fatwa against Osama Bin Laden. > [@Kobal2](#): > > As Der Trihs already told you (in this thread or the other one on the subject, I don’t care enough to search), were Islam an evil, terrorist breeding religion bent on burning down the Holy United States, then considering there are hundreds of millions of Muslims out there, there should be tens of thousands of terrorists howling at the moon and vying for the privilege of blowing themselves up at the US borders right now. Only there aren’t. There were, last time I checked, about three hundred million Muslims in the world who supported suicidal terrorist attacks against civilian populations “In defence of Islam”. In Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden is about five times more popular than President Obama. It’s disingenuous to deny that Islam has far greater problems with terrorism than any other religion, and **Magiver** is correct to note that nothing explains the behaviour of Islamic fundamentalists better than the fundamentals of Islam. ---
**Author:** ![Cort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@Cort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cort)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/129 "2010-01-05T23:26:55Z")
Forgot the [cite](http://people-press.org/reports/questionnaires/165.pdf) (pdf). Go to page 39. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/130 "2010-01-06T01:17:28Z")
> [@Cort](#): > > There were, last time I checked, about three hundred million Muslims in the world who supported suicidal terrorist attacks against civilian populations “In defence of Islam”. And 174 million Americans that think it would be a great idea to torture a Muslim, based on the 58% positive response to the question, “should we waterboard Abdulmutallabn for his attempted attack on the flight to Detroit?” People “support” all sorts of things in hypothetical scenarios or when they perceive that they are threatened. > [@Cort](#): > > In Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden is about five times more popular than President Obama. So, about the same ratio as Limbaugh’s audience. > [@Cort](#): > > It’s disingenuous to deny that Islam has far greater problems with terrorism than any other religion, and **Magiver** is correct to note that nothing explains the behaviour of Islamic fundamentalists better than the fundamentals of Islam. Actually, Islamic extremism in conjunction with 200+ years of Western colonialism with the attendant feelings of frustration, oppression, or hopelessness explains the behavior of Islamic fundamentalists better than the fundamentals of Islam. (Note, for example, that there is a pretty close correspondence between disruptive colonialism or recent civil war with support for terrorism and a corresponding rejection where colonialism was a bit more benign or there has not been recent civil war. If Islam _qua_ Islam was the great breeder of those attitudes, then Turkey should be right near the top of support for Islamist terrorism while Lebanon, 49% Christian, and Nigeria, 40% Christian and 10% animist, should have much less support..) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/131 "2010-01-06T02:24:53Z")
Thanks for sparing me the trouble of an easy debunk, **tomndebb**. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/132 "2010-01-06T02:41:47Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The religion itself isn’t trying to rule the world but there are factions within who use the religion to organize and execute their version of it. Well, yeah. That’s exactly what militant religious (or, more generally, ideological) extremism is: the efforts of factions to use their religion (or ideology) to organize and execute their violent attempts to gain power. It’s true that for the past few decades, the radical-Islamist brand of violent extremism has been more prominent worldwide than the versions associated with other religions. However, it’s in no way unique to Islam. For instance, Hindu extremist groups in India use their own religion in precisely the same way as a rallying cry to justify violent attacks on Indian Muslims and Christians. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/133 "2010-01-06T03:47:58Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > And 174 million Americans that think it would be a great idea to torture a Muslim, based on the 58% positive response to the question, “should we waterboard Abdulmutallabn for his attempted attack on the flight to Detroit?” The test for that is simple, are there random terrorist attacks against Muslims in America? No. Are there random terrorist attacks of Americans BY Muslims? Yes. And to the point of this thread, are there backlashes against these attacks. No. Why is that tomndebb? What causes Muslims who have no direct hierarchy to span continents and cultures in a united phenomenon of terrorism? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/134 "2010-01-06T04:07:40Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The test for that is simple, are there random terrorist attacks against Muslims in America? No. Are there random terrorist attacks of Americans BY Muslims? Yes. And to the point of this thread, are there backlashes against these attacks. No. Why is that tomndebb? What causes Muslims who have no direct hierarchy to span continents and cultures in a united phenomenon of terrorism? Oh, garbage. You don’t see American Christian terrorism against Muslims because they have a military to do that sort of thing. Instead Christian fanatics cheering on a lone bomber and calling for jihad, they cheer the US laying waste to Iraq and call for nuclear attacks on the ME. They join the military to get their own hands bloody, and applaud our torture of “terrorists”. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/135 "2010-01-06T04:30:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Well, yeah. That’s exactly what militant religious (or, more generally, ideological) extremism is: the efforts of factions to use their religion (or ideology) to organize and execute their violent attempts to gain power. > > It’s true that for the past few decades, the radical-Islamist brand of violent extremism has been more prominent worldwide than the versions associated with other religions. However, it’s in no way unique to Islam. For instance, Hindu extremist groups in India use their own religion in precisely the same way as a rallying cry to justify violent attacks on Indian Muslims and Christians. I’ve discussed Christianity specifically but if you want to look at Hindu extremism then lets look at the broader picture. There is no worldwide front of attacks by Hindus so the threat of the local religious/cultural war does not extend as a sympathetic cause in other locations. This seems to be a unique phenomenon in modern history to Islam. ---
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/136 "2010-01-06T04:45:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Any Signs of Long-Predicted Anti-Muslim “Backlash”? Not amongst the EU politicians apparently - in fact they are eager to increase their numbers in Europe. > [@](#): > > Come Jan. 1, 2010, a disastrous and suicidal pact called the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Europe/Mediterranean) goes into effect with little fanfare or examination. It boggles the mind that such a consequential and seismic cultural shift could be mandated and put into play without so much as a murmur from the mainstream media. > > Why should Americans care about this? Americans have to care because this global gobbledygook is coming to our shores, thanks to our globalist president. > > The European human rights group called Stop the Islamization of Europe (SIOE) has been working tirelessly to expose the mass Muslim immigration plan of the Euro-Med Partnership. > > A statement on the SIOE Web site criticizes the secrecy of the process: "It was shocking to hear about the plans and at the same time knowing that Danish politicians and a [cowardly] Danish press - who is otherwise proud to be critical - has told nothing to the Danish people about this project which begins in January. > > This also showed clearly at the conference. Only very few politicians showed up and no media. Those politicians who showed up had obviously never heard about the Euro-Mediterranean project. > > The goal of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is to create a new Greater European Union encompassing both Europe and North Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea becoming a domestic Eurabian sea. The goal is to establish a “comprehensive political partnership,” including a “free trade area and economic integration”; “considerably more money for the partners” (that is, more European money flowing into North Africa); and “cultural partnership” - that is, importation of Islamic culture into post-Christian Europe. > > According to the SIOE, in the Euro-Med plan “Europe is to be islamized. Democracy, Christianity, European culture and Europeans are to be driven out of Europe. Fifty million North Africans from Muslim countries are to be imported into the EU.” > > Skeptical? It’s already happening. The British newspaper the Daily Express reported in October 2008 on "a controversial taxpayer-funded ‘job centre’ " that opened in Mali at that time as “just the first step towards promoting ‘free movement of people in Africa and the EU.’ Brussels economists claim Britain and other EU states will ‘need’ 56 million immigrant workers between them by 2050 to make up for the ‘demographic decline’ due to falling birthrates and rising death rates across Europe.” > > To offset this decline, a “blue card” system is to be created that will allow card holders to travel freely within the European Union and have full rights to work - as well as the full right to collect welfare benefits. > > A Muslim population from Africa moving freely into Europe threatens America. On Christmas Day, a Nigerian Muslim flew from Amsterdam to Detroit and tried to explode a bomb on the plane - after he was allowed to board the plane without a passport. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership will make jihad attacks like this one all the easier. [http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/europes-looming-demise/?feat=home\_commentary](http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/europes-looming-demise/?feat=home_commentary) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/137 "2010-01-06T04:56:19Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The test for that is simple, are there random terrorist attacks against Muslims in America? No. Are there random terrorist attacks of Americans BY Muslims? Yes. And to the point of this thread, are there backlashes against these attacks. No. Huh? The answer to all three of your questions is “Yes”. Examples of terrorization of American Muslims [include the following](http://www.religioustolerance.org/reac_ter1.htm): > [@](#): > > On the afternoon of Saturday, 2001-SEP-15, a gunman killed the 49 year old owner of a gas station in Mesa, AZ. He was a Sikh. His family believes that he was killed because he “looked Middle Eastern.” Additional shots were fired at a Lebanese clerk and at the home of an Afghan family. > On the evening of Saturday, 2001-SEP-15, a gunman killed a Pakistani Muslim store owner in Dallas, TX. […] > A man drove his car through the front entrance of Parma Mosque in Cleveland OH. > Also on Saturday, a Christian of Egyptian origin was shot dead in California. […] > In Chicago, a Molotov cocktail was thrown t an Arab-American community center. […] > In Gary, IN, a man wearing a mask pumped over 20 bullets from a high-powered assault rifle at a Muslim, Hassan Awdah. He survived. Hassan is a U.S. citizen, born in Yemen. You keep trying to handwave American anti-Muslim hatred away, while claiming that foreign Muslim anti-American hatred is a unique “phenomenon” in the category of hatred, a phenomenon specific to the fundamental religious makeup of Islam. But this is the very same fallacy that frightened people have fallen into in many different historical situations when facing a terror threat. They want to believe, or feel impelled to believe, that the danger is somehow inherent in the fundamental nature of the larger group to which their enemies belong. Nineteenth-century urbanites worrying about anarchist bombs, in a time when anarchist groups were disproportionately Jewish, made up theories about how Jewishness itself conduced to callous violence. Cold War hawks hypothesized that the essential cruelty of the Russian nature made Soviet communists uniquely dangerous. Your ideas about the uniquely violence-inducing properties of Islam are just the same old tune in a different key. Heck, it’s the same tune that’s being sung now even by members of other militant extremist groups. Consider what [this leader of a right-wing Hindu organization accused of terror attacks in India](http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/shows/cwn/2009/November/New-Dimension-in-Indias-Anti-Christian-Violence/) has to say about the alleged violence inherent in both Islam and Christianity: > [@](#): > > The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Mumbai is investigating powerful bomb blasts in Malegaon town, Maharashtra, allegedly carried out by members of the Hindu nationalist Abhinav Bharat (Pride of India) in September 2008. […] > > The president of the Abhinav Bharat, Himani Savarkar, […] said, “There is danger from both Muslims and Christians, because of conversions and terrorism.” > > Conversion represents a threat in that people converting to Islam change their loyalties from India to Mecca, while the loyalties of converts to Christianity shift from India to the Pope, Savarkar said. She also spoke of a more direct threat in Christianity – “Muslims want to kill the kafirs [unbelievers], and even Jesus asks in the Bible to kill all those who do not believe in Him” […] Imagining that we need to look for the roots of violence or danger in the core doctrines of a particular religion is a pointless and counterproductive distraction. What we need to do, rather, is focus on the specific militant-extremist movements themselves and figure out ways to suppress and counteract their violence. Speculative woo-woo theories about how the intrinsic nature of the religion itself is somehow channeling its adherents into hatred and destructiveness may seem profound to their ill-informed inventors, but they don’t really provide any useful insights. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/138 "2010-01-06T05:19:35Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > There is no worldwide front of attacks by Hindus so the threat of the local religious/cultural war does not extend as a sympathetic cause in other locations. This seems to be a unique phenomenon in modern history to Islam. Um, no. In fact, the “local religious/cultural war” fanned by some radical “Hindutva” or Hindu-nationalist militant extremists in India does indeed “extend as a sympathetic cause in other locations”. Hindus outside India provide a lot of financial and organizational support to Indian Hindu extremist groups. I didn’t necessarily expect you to know that, but I am a bit surprised you didn’t notice the parallel with the more familiar situation of American Catholics of Irish descent funneling weapons and money to IRA terrorists during the Troubles. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/139 "2010-01-06T05:43:44Z")
> [@Chen019](#): > > Not amongst the EU politicians apparently - in fact they are eager to increase their numbers in Europe. > > [http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/europes-looming-demise/?feat=home\_commentary](http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/europes-looming-demise/?feat=home_commentary) You are aware that your cite is complete rubbish, right ? Of course, when the group of whistleblowers proudly bears the motto “Racism is the lowest form of stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense”, and the newspaper that publishes their article is an arm of the Moonites, it’s not really a surprise. Facts : - The [Euro-Mediterranean](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromediterranean_Partnership) partnership didn’t go into effect on January 1, 2010. In fact, it’s been going on since 1995. - The EuroMed plan’s goal was not, of course, to drive Christianity out of Europe or initiate a massive exodus of Muslims into Europe. Why on \*Earth \*would you believe Europeans would sign up for that ? It was, like all European initiatives, a rather meaningless commercial and diplomatic partnership. - It was, for the most part, a failure, though apparently Sarkozy is eager to turn it into [a kind of second-class EU of sorts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_for_the_Mediterranean). - 50 million immigrants across the EU would be a water droplet in the sea. 50 million immigrants over 50 years even more so. - It might come as a surprise to you, but Nigeria isn’t a Mediterranean country. No, really. Check your map. So even \*if \*these asswipings were 100% factual, they would have had absolutely zero influence on the Detroit shindig. None, zilch, zip, nada. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090/140 "2010-01-06T22:24:37Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Oh, garbage. You don’t see American Christian terrorism against Muslims because they have a military to do that sort of thing. Instead Christian fanatics cheering on a lone bomber and calling for jihad, they cheer the US laying waste to Iraq and call for nuclear attacks on the ME. They join the military to get their own hands bloody, and applaud our torture of “terrorists”. If the military is being used to attack Islam, why was it sent to overthrow the secular, socialist regime in Iraq instead of the Islamic theocracy in Saudi Arabia? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-signs-of-long-predicted-anti-muslim-backlash/523090.md?page=8)