# How many more attacks before the West has to consider the previously unthinkable? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 15, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950 "2016-07-15T02:38:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 28
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/541 "2016-07-29T07:48:18Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > But, but, **Smapti** , I thought you were arguing that freedom of religion is the reason liberals aren’t condemning of Islam. Is this incorrect? In this country, you have the right to believe whatever you want to believe. If you want to believe that apostates should be executed, then you may do so. We don’t make it illegal to _believe_ things in this country. You also have the right to practice your religion as you please, provided that your doing so does not infringe on the rights of others to practice their religion as _they_ please. If you actually attempt to execute an apostate, freedom of religion doesn’t protect you, because your right doesn’t trump the right of the other. If American or western Muslims hold beliefs that are antithetical to our secular democratic values, then the question we should be asking is “How do we change their minds?”, not “How do we get rid of them?”. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/542 "2016-07-29T07:54:07Z")
What about the beliefs of those in Middle East countries? Do we not care about the women and homosexuals and victims of stonings and whippings and hand loppings that go on there because it’s all going on beyond our borders? And do we not care that the barbaric beliefs that predominate in those countries are fomenting the terrorist attacks that are going on all over the world? And if so, wouldn’t that make all the whinging about rights and feelings and offensiveness, etc., in this country ring hollow? In other words, do we care about human rights, or just Americans’ rights? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/543 "2016-07-29T08:02:44Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What about the beliefs of those in Middle East countries? Do we not care about the women and homosexuals and victims of stonings and whippings and hand loppings that go on there because it’s all going on beyond our borders? And do we not care that the barbaric beliefs that predominate in those countries are fomenting the terrorist attacks that are going on all over the world? We care. _What do you propose we do about it?_ Economic sanctions can only do so much even when they’re practically establishable, and we have neither the resources, the inclination, nor the right to go on some kind of global crusade to scourge the world of misogyny and hatred. The past 500 years have proven that attempting to conquer the world and impose our values by force results in nothing but the broken state of affairs the Third World finds itself in today. What we in America have the power to do is to show Muslims through our words and actions that there is no inherent conflict between Islam and the west, to encourage them peacefully to come around to our way of thinking as regards human rights, and to build an alliance with them against fanatical extremists which threaten us all. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/544 "2016-07-29T08:13:03Z")
I’m going to have to call it a night, but before I go I want to let you know some of what you’re saying is starting to get through in terms of insight into liberal thinking on the subject. I’ll sleep on it and try to get back to you tomorrow. And thanks to both you and **Trinopus** for the civil tone of our discussion, even here in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/545 "2016-07-29T08:13:16Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Turkey (99% Muslim): Whoa, Nelly! Did I mention my progressive, atheist wife is a [teacher](http://www.juancole.com/2016/07/academics-bulldozes-education.html)? > [@](#): > > Erdoğan’s message is unequivocal, lumping student protesters together as “atheists, leftists, terrorists”.[…] > The recent clampdown on teachers and education ministry officials in the wake of the coup attempt adds to a depressing list of continued attempts to staunch dissent in Turkish society. :eek: That’s not gonna work. Even leaving aside the teacher angle, and looking at how things stood before the recent (alleged) coup attempt and crackdown, here’s a [2015 article](http://www.voanews.com/content/turkeys-atheists-face-hostility-death-threats/2720367.html) on atheism in Turkey: > [@](#): > > Over the past year, people have been jailed for questioning God’s existence on Twitter, prosecuted under a law against inciting religious hatred. Last month, that same law was used to ban 48 websites, including one belonging to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, as well as the atheist association’s webpage. > > At their weekly meeting, members discuss the site ban over bottles of wine. Despite the setback, everyone is trying to keep spirits up. > > As one member who declined to provide her name, says these gatherings represent an opportunity to hang out with fellow atheists, many of whom are too scared to admit their views even to their own families. Sounds grrreaat. It’s not as bad as in other Muslim countries, I guess? Woo hoo. :dubious: Interesting that you also talked about former Soviet republics like Tajikistan. On this or another thread, someone stated that only the communist bloc ever figured out how to tame Islam in the modern world (that would help explain Yugoslavia as well). Even Afghanistan, from what I understand, appeared to briefly have a chance to similarly emerge from the Dark Ages under the Soviet-backed socialist leader Nur-Mohammed Taraki. Per Wikipedia: “Taraki introduced women to political life and legislated an end to forced marriage.” Gasp! > [@Smapti](#): > > As shocking as it may be to someone of your inestimable intelligence, freedom of religion is _not_ a defense against murder or mutilation. Your right to believe as you wish does not also grant you the right to impose your belief on others. > > Mysogyny and homophobia? If that’s what you believe, the government isn’t going to be able to force you to think otherwise. We’re not in the business of being thought police. I would beg to differ when it comes to mutilation. Furthermore, while I agree that once someone is a U.S. citizen, you can’t (and shouldn’t) police their thoughts and expressions of belief no matter how odious you find them, that doesn’t mean we should keep importing people with those beliefs. No one born in a Muslim country, to non-American parents, has a constitutional right to come and live here. > [@Smapti](#): > > We care. > > _What do you propose we do about it?_ > > Economic sanctions can only do so much even when they’re practically establishable, and we have neither the resources, the inclination, nor the right to go on some kind of global crusade to scourge the world of misogyny and hatred. How about we treat these countries the way we eventually came around to treating South Africa in the 1980s, even as conservatives (led by Ronald Reagan) dragged their feet the whole way? As pariahs. That means economic sanctions, refusal to play their sports teams, etc. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > And yet here we have America’s liberals, who, when called on it, find themselves obliged to acknowledge that, yes, all this stuff is bad, yet there’s nary a word of criticism or condemnation going from them about any of it. And then barring their being confronted with actual facts and figures about the horrors of Islam which they can’t refute, they gleefully leap to the defense of Islam any and every time someone criticizes it, hurling expletives like “racist” or “xenophobe” at anyone and everyone who dares broach the subject at all. > > It doesn’t begin to make sense. You couldn’t invent a more anti-liberal ideology than Islam if you tried, yet here are our country’s liberals, defending it angrily and hatefully every time the subject comes up. Go figure! Let’s please acknowledge that this may be (sadly) a majority view among liberals, but it is not universal. I am certainly a political liberal, unless you apply some sort of tautology–as some people do to Harris and Maher–that defines us out of liberalism/progressivism precisely and solely because of our beliefs about Islam. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/546 "2016-07-29T08:19:28Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Let’s please acknowledge that this may be (sadly) a majority view among liberals, but it is not universal. I am certainly a political liberal, unless you apply some sort of tautology–as some people do to Harris and Maher–that defines us out of liberalism/progressivism precisely and solely because of our beliefs about Islam. Duly acknowledged. In discussions like these it’s not only easier to talk in generalities but often impossible not to without the discussion grinding to a halt. I think all of us would be hard pressed to find a large group anywhere in this country where everyone behaves identically or is 100% in agreement on everything. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/547 "2016-07-29T08:19:40Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > How about we treat these countries the way we eventually came around to treating South Africa in the 1980s, even as conservatives (led by Ronald Reagan) dragged their feet the whole way? As pariahs. That means economic sanctions, refusal to play their sports teams, etc. Simply not practical. As much as the US has made strides towards energy independence, cutting off oil imports from the Muslim world would have catastrophic effects on our economy and almost no effect on theirs, as they’d still be able to sell to Russia, China, and the other growing economies outside our sphere of influence. There simply isn’t enough common cause between the US/Europe and the other major world economies to make a global boycott stick, and the world of international sport is so nakedly corrupt at this point that there’s no way they’d turn down the money Muslim nations are capable of offering them. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/548 "2016-07-29T08:29:50Z")
Pish and tosh. We already produce 89 percent of the oil we use: [America's Path to Energy Independence in Charts](http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-path-to-energy-independence-in-charts-2015-9) It would be easy to buy the rest from Canada, increase production here, and/or maybe even step up green energy to make up the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/549 "2016-07-29T08:41:58Z")
'Twere it that easy, 'twoud’ve been done already. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/550 "2016-07-29T08:53:57Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > 'Twere it that easy, 'twoud’ve been done already. That’s silly. What if someone said that in 1980 about South Africa? Things aren’t done until they are done. A good first step would be to start actually acknowledging that it’s unacceptable for these countries to treat subclasses of their citizenry this way, rather than completely looking the other way and treating them as friends. This is exactly what we once did with South Africa, which was a Cold War ally. I love President Obama, but the cordial way he treated Saudi Arabia (visiting there and receiving its leaders for state visits) is going to be a stain on his legacy when people look back centuries from now. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/551 "2016-07-29T09:04:09Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I love President Obama, but the cordial way he treated Saudi Arabia (visiting there and receiving its leaders for state visits) is going to be a stain on his legacy when people look back centuries from now. Perhaps he will, as will all the other American presidents of the past century who’ve done business with the Saudis. And perhaps that condemnation will be tempered, as it has been with Chamberlain, by the sober recognition that, had they tried to fight at the time, they would have failed, and that by taking the diplomatic path they bought time that allowed for a greater triumph in later years. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/552 "2016-07-29T10:13:44Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Carl Sagan, another hero of mine. It’s true, having unpopular ideas is hardly any guarantee of being right. That it’s also not a guarantee of being wrong is good enough for me. You are correct that being unpopular does not make one wrong. You might also consider that being wrong often makes one unpopular. Make sure you know which way the causality goes. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/553 "2016-07-29T11:07:22Z")
To the contrary, being wrong in the right way is the best way to attain popularity, at least among a certain crowd. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/554 "2016-07-29T12:59:15Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > So to America’s liberals, freedom of religion trumps murder, mutilation, misogyny, homophobia, etc., etc., etc.? Maybe they noticed that it seems to work for the conservatives… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/555 "2016-07-29T15:49:15Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > That’s quite apparent in your mistaken belief that there is significant daylight between him and Maher on the subject of Islam. The confrontation between Harris and Affleck occurred on Maher’s show, and Maher was distinctly on Harris’s side. But now I can actually say I have met someone who loves Bill Maher and strongly dislikes Sam Harris. That’s weird ,but ok then. Bill Maher isn’t a bald-faced liar. That’s a significant difference. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > Certainly not one better than Sam Harris’s: No, you could do much, much better than Sam Harris’s bullshit. I pointed out [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19512160&postcount=455) Harris’s deception in selectively quoting polling results and leaving out key facts inconvenient to his argument. And in your latest slavering quotation from your hero, he cites the Orlando shooting and refers to “the belief system that had just produced a massacre in their community” in yet another attempt to tar the entire Muslim community with the same wide brush of bigotry. Yet the shooter’s ex-wife described him as “mentally unstable and mentally ill” and “obviously disturbed, deeply, and traumatized”, was often physically abusive, and had a history of using steroids. Wow, sure sounds like a devout and prayerful Muslim to me! Likewise time after time the terrorist events in Europe turn out to have been committed by assorted reprobates and small-time criminals who had precisely zero religious interest and used Islam as a convenient form of political identity, much the way white supremacist skinheads celebrate the swastika. But according to Harris, it’s all because they devoutly read the Qu’ran and it’s their deeply religious “belief system” that is to blame! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/556 "2016-07-29T17:23:57Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Here, I’ll use a similar structure to what you wrote, adapted and substituting a few words to flesh out my “women are as tall as men” analogy: > > “What I am doing is pointing out that it’s obviously unsound to argue that greater average height **must** be due to ‘maleness’ in and of itself, since we see clear examples of **male** people who are nonetheless **shorter** than some **female** people.” The goalpost you moved was switching from discussing the reasons for heightened tolerance in a **particular** instance (i.e., in the European Muslim-majority countries of Bosnia and Albania) to discussing causes of \*\*average \*\* tolerance levels **worldwide and overall**. That’s why your height analogy is irrelevant. I’ll spell that sequence out for you again: - I noted that European Muslim-majority countries tend to have more liberal attitudes than the “fundamentalist hive-mind” stereotype that’s often associated with Muslim societies. - You suggested that maybe the more liberal attitudes were due to those countries being nearly 50% non-Muslim. - I pointed out that it’s logically unsound to assume that we can automatically explain greater tolerance by the presence of more non-Muslims, because we see plenty of examples of countries elsewhere which are **less** tolerant than Bosnia and Albania, even though they have a **higher** percentage of non-Muslims. - You went apeshit because you somehow interpreted that remark to mean that I was claiming that it’s invalid **in general** to explain intolerance in a Muslim-majority society as a result of Islamic ideology. :rolleyes: > [@SlackerInc](#): > > Similarly, I submit that in the modern world, being predominantly Muslim has a strong effect on a society in terms of making it unfriendly to progressive values–a much stronger effect, in the modern world, than does being predominantly Christian. :rolleyes: Gosh, if only somebody had thought to point out that important insight earlier: > [@Kimstu in post #487](#): > > global Christianity overall today is more humane on average than global Islam overall today > [@Kimstu in post #516](#): > > Everybody readily agrees that nowadays global Christian culture overall is more tolerant than global Muslim culture overall. If I had known that that obvious and undisputed fact about **current** religio-political conditions was all the point you thought you were making, I wouldn’t have wasted my time looking up all that information for you about conditions in more liberal majority-Muslim societies. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/557 "2016-07-29T20:06:16Z")
Sorry you wasted your time, but plenty of people in the regressive left _do_ dispute what you are calling “indisputable”. ---
**Author:** ![Salvor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Salvor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salvor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/558 "2016-07-29T20:57:13Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Bill Maher isn’t a bald-faced liar. That’s a significant difference. > > No, you could do much, much better than Sam Harris’s bullshit. > > I pointed out [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19512160&postcount=455) Harris’s deception in selectively quoting polling results and leaving out key facts inconvenient to his argument. And in your latest slavering quotation from your hero, he cites the Orlando shooting and refers to “the belief system that had just produced a massacre in their community” in yet another attempt to tar the entire Muslim community with the same wide brush of bigotry. Yet the shooter’s ex-wife described him as “mentally unstable and mentally ill” and “obviously disturbed, deeply, and traumatized”, was often physically abusive, and had a history of using steroids. Wow, sure sounds like a devout and prayerful Muslim to me! Likewise time after time the terrorist events in Europe turn out to have been committed by assorted reprobates and small-time criminals who had precisely zero religious interest and used Islam as a convenient form of political identity, much the way white supremacist skinheads celebrate the swastika. But according to Harris, it’s all because they devoutly read the Qu’ran and it’s their deeply religious “belief system” that is to blame! Tar the entire muslim community? It tars the entire FAITH and belief system when members of that faith murder others in Gods name, with the presumed sanction of Allah/Muhammad. THAT is what Tars Islam, and by extension, muslims as a whole by association. Why? What does it effing say about your religion that this so called peaceful belief system is so piss poor and bringing fellow believers out of their own murderous thoughts? Worse, what does it say when these people call out to the greatness of Allah, as if their understanding of the faith says THIS is what they will be rewarded for, the wanton murder of the non believers? If I had a mobile operating system (software) that ran on the hardware of humanity, where my software OS caused some % of the phones it ran on to explode and take out others around it… does that not indict the quality of the software running on the phones? Not All !!! #NOT ALL !!! … Yes, but you apologists CONTINUE to miss the basic point I’d have seen at age 5. There are many version of software that are installed that yield virtually ZERO explosion of fire and death, this suggests there is something more volatile about the version I released into the wild does it not? makes sense to everyone with basic logic working in their brains right? Ditto with Islam. And even the mentally unstable can be pushed by dark souls within the faith. Take a closer look at the profile of the Nice attacker. He was mentally unstable, he was a nominal muslim, but he was in contact with Islamists who convinced him that a way to atone for his homosexuality and immoral acts and avoid eternal torture and death over and over and over beyond the end of time... was to commit an act of Jihad. And so he plows into scores of people. His mental instability was not made more docile by ISlam, it added a dimension of guilt which some of the more evil members of the SHARED faith played upon to convince him to murder others. Is Islam off the hook here? Is the faith off the hook? Why are you on your knees acting as a Vassal for Islam? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/559 "2016-07-29T21:06:41Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > . . . Then why aren’t liberals assailing Islam for this and its myriad other human rights issues. Goodness knows they’ve been plenty vocal about every other thing they haven’t liked lo these many decades, and for far, far less grievous offenses. Because the problem is not Islam, but radicalism. When a right-wing Christian nutjob fires his gun at an abortion clinic, do we demand that the President of the United States condemn Christianity? When a guy from Florida shoots up a nightclub, do we all say, “Florida is the problem?” If Mr. Jones has cancer in his wrist-bones, we don’t bombard his entire body with radiation. (Okay, not the best analogy ever, because we do poison his entire body with toxic chemicals.) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950/560 "2016-07-29T21:19:34Z")
I heard an [interview](http://www.npr.org/2016/07/29/487884875/a-republican-view-of-the-democratic-convention) on NPR today that I found very revealing: > [@](#): > > GREENE: Well, I want to play some tape. We’ve been listening to people attending the convention all week. And a young woman named Safiya Ghori, she is - was spending a lot of time with delegates from Arkansas. She’s the page for the Arkansas delegation. She’s a practicing Muslim, and she has two children. > > SAFIYA GHORI-AHMAD: The minute the news hits that there’s a terrorist attack, every Muslim I know thinks to themselves, please, God, let it not be a Muslim. Let it not be the name of my son or my daughter. > > GREENE: Do you think - you’re thinking that? > > GHORI-AHMAD: Yes, all of us are. All of us are thinking that. I mean, we all kind of collectively hold our breath and hope that it’s not an American Muslim because it’s so tough for this counter-narrative to come out of American Muslims who are peaceful and you’re citizens and taxpaying and law-abiding people. But I think it’s on us to kind of get that narrative out there, and we do try to do that. When they hear about a terrorist attack, does it occur to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, or atheists to worry that it may be their son or daughter who carried out the attack? I don’t think so. Very interesting and unintentionally revealing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-more-attacks-before-the-west-has-to-consider-the-previously-unthinkable/759950.md?page=29)