Listening to the news on radio and watching TV, I am struck at how important Islam has become in American society. Everyone is talking about it, conservatives warning that Muslims are threats to us, liberals saying that they are not threats and we must love them. It’s not clear whether the spate of murders by mentally unbalanced people claiming to be carrying out jihad is really due to Islam or just to their mental condition. But the fact that there is currently almost one mass murder per day shows something is going on.
Osama bin Laden not only killed about 3,000 Americans in his original attacks, but he inspired the Bush-Cheney ill-advised response to destroy the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq, thus plunging the Midfdle East into chaos. Obama added to this chaos by encouraging the people of countires not already destabliized by Bush and Cheney to rise up and overthrow their governments, which they did in Egypt, Syria and Libya, while sowing unrest in countries like Turkey. Bin Laden’s success was magnified by American incompetence.
As Americans leave traditional religions like Christianity and Judaism in droves, Islam is becoming the most important religion in America. I’m not happy with that. I hope that this too will pass, but at the moment it’s disturbing. I’d be happy to leave Islam alone if it would leave us alone.
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