# Armed protesters stalk peaceful Muslims at Texas mosque: We want to show force **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 22, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303 "2015-11-22T20:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/41 "2015-11-23T04:48:34Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Religion is not a “race.” Unless I missed the memo that explained how “racist” is the word to use to demonize anyone you disagree with over any factor. Dislike a religion? Racist! Dislike an ideology, unless that ideology is conservatism? Racist! Dislike tomatoes? Racist! You’re right that religion is not a race. The problem is that when it comes to too many people’s reactions to Muslims, what it really boils down to is, sadly, “That brown dude must be Muslim” and then the “brown dude” (or dudette) is maltreated. It’s ostensibly because the bigot in question doesn’t like the other person’s religion, but in reality it’s just another way to pick on someone of a different race. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/42 "2015-11-23T05:36:43Z")
The mode of thinking is so close to racism as to be indistinguishable from it. If people want to be pedantic then fine, the correct word is bigotry, and racism is a subset of that, but I’m pretty sure that everybody here knows what the people in this thread mean when they say “racsim”. Maybe some are just being pedantic or maybe they have some other agenda beyond being the grammar police. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/43 "2015-11-23T07:37:33Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Armed intimidation is terrorism. Any debate about whichever other “ism” may also apply is beside the point. Terrorism is a crime. You think these people could be charged with a crime? Do you think they should be charged with a crime? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/44 "2015-11-23T08:09:48Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > The mode of thinking is so close to racism as to be indistinguishable from it. > > If people want to be pedantic then fine, the correct word is bigotry, and racism is a subset of that, but I’m pretty sure that everybody here knows what the people in this thread mean when they say “racsim”. Maybe some are just being pedantic or maybe they have some other agenda beyond being the grammar police. Vocabulary police. I didn’t critique conjugation. Indistinguishable? Hardly. It’s easy to distinguish disliking someone because of what social construct they’ve arbitrarily been labeled with by the white patriarchy due to birth and an ideology one chooses to believe. The thing is the “Dat’s Racist!!!11!!” card is so well worn it’s becoming meaningless. ---
**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:** [November 23, 2015, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/45 "2015-11-23T10:36:21Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Religion is not a “race.” Unless I missed the memo that explained how “racist” is the word to use to demonize anyone you disagree with over any factor. Dislike a religion? Racist! Dislike an ideology, unless that ideology is conservatism? Racist! Dislike tomatoes? Racist! I’d idly wager few of the people going to that mosque are WASPs. And I do think that’s a factor in the Othering of Islam. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/46 "2015-11-23T11:01:09Z")
What is this country coming to, when a group of armed, intolerant, ignorant good-old-boys can’t get together and intimidate innocent people that they don’t like the looks of, without being criticized on the internet? This country ain’t what it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/47 "2015-11-23T11:23:07Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > Such things are the natural consequence of the rhetoric more and more legitimized in certain quarters. “Hate the sin not the sinner” as Miller referenced, they hate only the religion not the members of it, a pretended distinction until the right level of legitimacy is built for a ‘direct action’. Ramira, I strongly recent your implication that people like me who strongly dislike\* religions, including (and in a few ways especially) Islam, but strongly condemn discrimination against individual Muslims and attempts to restrict their religious expression, are somehow complicit in any slippery slope toward Nazi-like behavior against Muslims. \*“Hate” is a bit too strong a term for what people like me feel toward religion or any particular religion. If you think that your use of the word “hate” excludes people like me, but INCLUDES people whom even I would agree really are contributing to the slippery slope toward Nazi-like behavior, well l, then I agree with you. But I think it would be hard to make that distinction – and they way you phrased it, it sounds like you could, for example, blame someone who “hates” Young Earth Creationism (and therefore supports Darwin’s ideas on natural selection) for the awful racist excesses perpetrated c. 1880-1950 in the name of a Darwin-inspired eugenics. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/48 "2015-11-23T11:51:42Z")
The gunmen are terrorists, using the implied threat of violence to intimidate Muslims in an attempt to make political change negative toward Muslims. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/49 "2015-11-23T11:57:33Z")
How many people have been killed in the USA by terrorists since 9/11? Of those, how many were killed by foreign terrorists, how many were killed by domestic terrorists of an Islamic bent, and how many were killed by domestic terrorists not of an Islamic bent? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/50 "2015-11-23T13:03:10Z")
If a group of armed Muslims gathered outside a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue announcing that they want to show force, people would be screaming “terrorists” and DHS would be investigating. Tell me I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/51 "2015-11-23T13:33:34Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Objectionable in a lot of ways, surely. But when they start sending those same Muslims to internment camps for the duration of this “war on terror,” that’s when I’ll start siding with them. Do you really mean that you’ll continue siding with the bigoted assholes if, for example. they conclude that the Muslims haven’t gotten their message and decide to reenact Kristalnacht on the local mosque? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/52 "2015-11-23T14:13:53Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Objectionable in a lot of ways, surely. But when they start sending those same Muslims to internment camps for the duration of this “war on terror,” that’s when I’ll start siding with them. It’s people who aren’t siding with them NOW that will empower the crazies to start building the internment camps later. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/53 "2015-11-23T19:18:59Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Terrorism is a crime. You think these people could be charged with a crime? Do you think they should be charged with a crime? It’s not just the legal aspect, Bric…oh, hi John. It’s possible to terrorize and intimidate by simply exercising free speech, as long as explicit threats are avoided. It become easier still if your target is a tiny and feared minority. I can imagine several scenarios in which armed protesters would be met with a police response. Outside an abortion clinic, for example. And would we even be having this conversation if a group of armed white supremacists gathered outside a black church? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/54 "2015-11-23T19:55:59Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > The gunmen are terrorists, using the implied threat of violence to intimidate Muslims in an attempt to make political change negative toward Muslims. Legally exercising a right is terrorism now? Eventually the printed word will be considered terrorism if it can be misconstrued by anyone as an attempt to imply violence. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/55 "2015-11-23T19:57:45Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > It’s not just the legal aspect, Bric…oh, hi John. It’s possible to terrorize and intimidate by simply exercising free speech, as long as explicit threats are avoided. It become easier still if your target is a tiny and feared minority. > > I can imagine several scenarios in which armed protesters would be met with a police response. Outside an abortion clinic, for example. And would we even be having this conversation if a group of armed white supremacists gathered outside a black church? Are the Black Lives Matter zealots terrorists for assaulting and berating white students at a library? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/56 "2015-11-23T20:01:47Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Legally exercising a right is terrorism now? Eventually the printed word will be considered terrorism if it can be misconstrued by anyone as an attempt to imply violence. Perhaps you would care to show us where this right to intimidate peaceful people at a place of worship is found? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/57 "2015-11-23T20:04:25Z")
Have you a milder label you wish to apply, and have us emulate? They aren’t “terrorizing”, they are just “making them a little nervous, so they mind their manners”? ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/58 "2015-11-23T20:17:19Z")
‘When choosin’ Sharia Law y’all otta be patriotic an select the domestic, Southern Baptist variety. Bubba hu Akbar!’ -Morons ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/59 "2015-11-23T20:24:14Z")
Muh muh muh MY Sharia! ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303/60 "2015-11-23T20:36:04Z")
You must be a big fan of broken socialism if you dont support hard twerking americans exorcising there rite to freeze peach you might as well lay down and roll over for barack whose sane oblahblah who wants to impose his secret muslin sangria law on america [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-protesters-stalk-peaceful-muslims-at-texas-mosque-we-want-to-show-force/738303.md?page=4)