Why are conservatives so concerned with the threat of militant Islam?

[Diesel66]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

What is happening there? I'm not aware of any Muslim armies threatening Europe's existence and forcing people to convert.

The masses cowering in fear over offending the Muslims is fine and dandy ?

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

The masses cowering in fear over offending the Muslims is fine and dandy ?

People going out of their way to not offend muslims does not equate to Western civilization going away.

Besides, they're not cowering as much as you try to portray:

BBC NEWS | Europe | Dutch government backs burqa ban

And there's also the headscarf ban in French schools.

Europe's existence as we know it is hardly threatened.

[Thomas Crown]

It isn't as hard as you think it is for terrorists to get nukes.

And if they take out NYC, the effect it will have on the WORLD is going to be beyond what any of us think. The economies of the world funnel through NYC. It would send us in to an economic tail spin not to mention the shear loss of life.

But lets remove all things other than loss of life. The reason we "obsess" about it is because we know it isn't an if but rather a when. And we will not stand for this massive loss of life. We will do anything we can to stop it.

This isn't unreasonable. I think you just underestimate the threat.

[Diesel66]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

Besides, they're not cowering as much as you try to portray:

BBC NEWS | Europe | Dutch government backs burqa ban

And there's also the headscarf ban in French schools.

Europe's existence as we know it is hardly threatened.

both of those are horrible civil rights violations though.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

both of those are horrible civil rights violations though.

I don't agree, but that's for another thread.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by Thomas Crown

it isn't an if but rather a when....We will do anything we can to stop it.

Didn't you just contradict yourself here?

Besides, this is another reason why I don't understand the obsession. What do you mean you'll do anything to stop it? What are you going to do? Invade Iran? Invade Pakistan? That's totally unrealistic. So once again, there's really nothing we can do, so I don't see the point in obsessing over it.

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

100 million dead isnt a good enough reason ?

Oh please. It had nothing to do with that and EVERYTHING to do with our "Protestant Work Ethic"

[ballz2wallz]

One of Militant Islam's goals is world domination. Don't think that's feasible? Well I guess it depends on how they go about doing it. Obviously the first thing one thinks of is military force. This is clearly not a choice for them. So how else would they attempt such a feat? Well, the next obvious choice would be slowly, by assimilating themselves into world societies, economies, and governments around the world, slowly forcing their influence everywhere they go, until one day they might be able to overthrow the countries by might, unless the countries simply bow to their wishes. This of course, is made easier by the fact that much of Western Civilization is letting them do this by their refusal to acknowledge this threat; take France and Holland for example. The US is on its way, as evidenced by many on this forum.

Then of course there's always the question of whether or not there is actually a difference between radical Islamists and moderate Islamists. If the answer is no, then this only exacerbates the problem, and nears Muslims of all sorts to global domination.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

One of Militant Islam's goals is world domination. Don't think that's feasible? Well I guess it depends on how they go about doing it. Obviously the first thing one thinks of is military force. This is clearly not a choice for them. So how else would they attempt such a feat? Well, the next obvious choice would be slowly, by assimilating themselves into world societies, economies, and governments around the world, slowly forcing their influence everywhere they go, until one day they might be able to overthrow the countries by might, unless the countries simply bow to their wishes. This of course, is made easier by the fact that much of Western Civilization is letting them do this by their refusal to acknowledge this threat; take France and Holland for example. The US is on its way, as evidenced by many on this forum.

Okay, so to get back to the original subject, why is it that religious Christians are so concerned about this, while secular people like myself aren't? What about the mind of a religious conservative makes him see the threat of Islam as more grave than a secular progressive?

I really don't think it's the secular people are more tolerant. I think it's that they see religious fundamentalism, generally, as the root problem, of which Christianity is also a part. So maybe the good guys and the bad guys are a little more blurry to them, and so they don't get as passionate and determined about the subject.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

9/11 was horrible, but it wasn't really from a survival standpoint. The damage was mostly psychological. 3000 people died in a country of 300,000,000. We lose more people to car accidents. Over 10,000 are murdered every year. This doesn't negate how immoral and despicable terrorists are, but it does show that from a survival of the West point of view, that's negligible.

In other words, from my perspective, if people take the threat of a few thousand people being murdered as a real threat to the entire Western civilization, they're being drama queens.

the casualty count would have been much higher if the safety plans for a terrorist attack weren't as good as they were. Because we took the threat so seriously thousands of lives were saved

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

Okay, so to get back to the original subject, why is it that religious Christians are so concerned about this, while secular people like myself aren't? What about the mind of a religious conservative makes him see the threat of Islam as more grave than a secular progressive?

I really don't think it's the secular people are more tolerant. I think it's that they see religious fundamentalism, generally, as the root problem, of which Christianity is also a part. So maybe the good guys and the bad guys are a little more blurry to them, and so they don't get as passionate and determined about the subject.

you are assuming too much, I am not religious yet think militant Islam is the greatest threat to world freedom and peace.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

you are assuming too much, I am not religious yet think militant Islam is the greatest threat to world freedom and peace.

I never said all people who are very concerned with the threat of Islam are religious conservatives, but I would argue that the vast, vast majority of all religious conservatives are very concerned with militant Islam.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

Okay, so to get back to the original subject, why is it that religious Christians are so concerned about this, while secular people like myself aren't? What about the mind of a religious conservative makes him see the threat of Islam as more grave than a secular progressive?

I don't think it's divided amongst seculars vs. Christians. I think many more religions see the problem than just Christianity.

If you want to create a divide, it's probably more appropriate to say the divide is among liberals and conservatives, not Christians vs. non-Christians.

Perhaps a majority of Christains do understand the threat...perhaps it's because they know the power of religion?

[Thomas Crown]

I think spicys comments regarding religious christians being concerned and securlarists aren't is a sad testament to the state of mind of secularists and their general apathetic attitude about anything that really matters.

Just a thought.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Why were conservatives so afraid of Communism?

The gulags, death squads, all powerful secret police, no free press, no free economics, and a proclaimation to take over the world in Revolution?

Something like that!

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

I never said all people who are very concerned with the threat of Islam are religious conservatives, but I would argue that the vast, vast majority of all religious conservatives are very concerned with militant Islam.

Much better!

But what makes you think the center and even some of the left are not concerned? They may have a more appeasement attitude as how to contain it, but I still think the more rational of them have fears that have nothing to do with personal Religious belief. Are you not concerned that Iran want us to attack them as a fulfillment of their own "end of times" beliefs? How that might effect their politcal behavior? I would!

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

If you want to create a divide, it's probably more appropriate to say the divide is among liberals and conservatives, not Christians vs. non-Christians.

It's largely the same thing. Conservatives tend to be Christians, and liberals tend to be secular. Church attendance is one of the most powerful predictors of how people vote.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by JaJae

I agree. The ultra-left rationalizes their behavior. They try to make excuses or blame us for the actions of radical Islamics.

"You know we funded them decades ago!"
"We were their allies!"
"We created this hostility when we...!"
"If we would just leave them alone we wouldn't have this problem!"
etcetera etcetera.

Their arguments not only ignore the threat that has become, it offers no viable solutions and turns the tables making the militant Islamics the victim and the US the perpetrators.

When asked why do conservatives seem so concerned with the threat of militant Islam, I think it's very fair to question, why do some on the left seem to take such a radical stance on the other side of the fence. We were attacked on Sept. 11. Blame America all you want for what the terrorists did, but the fact remains there is still a threat, and it is something to be concerned about. The entire montra of "I have a better chance of being struck by lightning than being killed by a terrorist" is evidence of extreme downplaying.

You make it seem like they're both justifying the actions, and that understanding is a bad thing, but they don't, and it's not.

If you can't understand what motivates these people to commit the horrible acts that they do, how can you ever hope to propose a solution short of genocide/bombing the entire middle east (which conservatives have actually proposed)?

For example, lets take Iran. I think most of America views them as a radical Islamic militant state that wants to kill us and Israel, and they're not wrong.

However, it's important to understand the history of our involvement in their nation, how we betrayed their trust with overthrowing Mossadeqh and reinstating the Shah in response to attempts to nationalize their oil industry, and how foreign policy decisions 50 some odd years ago changed the way the generation that grew up during those times see us today.

Why? Because "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," so this idea that trying to understand the behavior or invoking discussion about it is somehow a bad thing is plainly ridiculous.. if we don't understand, we're going to repeat those mistakes with another generation that's growing up now and will have the exact same world view. That's not what we want.

I'd be willing to wager that most people in America have not taken the time to understand how far back our relationship with Iran goes or what makes them have such a negative view of the US.. but they still think they're somehow an authority on what policy we should have going forward?

It doesn't make any sense.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

Much better!

But what makes you think the center and even some of the left are not concerned?

I don't think they're not concerned. I just think they're not concerned to the degree that the right is. Like I said, if you take a casual stroll down conservative media lane, you'll see lots of scare pieces on how muslims are going to kill us all. You don't see that degree of fanaticism on the center left, although they do acknowledge there is a danger.