I cannot speak for anyone else, but ultimately my point was -- as I stated at the start and end of my large posting above -- that it is fallacious to state "All X are Y" as one of your axioms and argue from there, when X is a religion. I regret having started the branch thread which started turning into (apologies to Norway) "Christianity not being perfect buys Islam a free pass". My intent was to demonstrate the fallacy by applying the same logic to Christianity to "prove" that Christianity is just as "undesirable" as Islam, by tarring it with the brush of its worst practitioners and practices.
Fact: Radical/Fundamentalist Islam is not all of Islam. It is not even a majority.
Fact: There do exist Moderate Muslims, who find the radicals and the fundamentalists just as disturbing as we do. There are likely more of them than there are of the radicals.
Fact: It is not the radicals/fundamentalists who want to build a mosque near Ground Zero. Reacting as if they were is mindless prejudice.
And that's the only point I wanted to make.
Logan, I haven't yet had the time to properly read and think about your post. I am not ignoring you. Given my recent track record on completing things I want to write, I cannot and will not promise more than a brief response at this time, though. But believe me when I tell you I am not dismissing your points or your arguments.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Fact: Radical/Fundamentalist Islam is not all of Islam. It is not even a majority.
Fact: There do exist Moderate Muslims, who find the radicals and the fundamentalists just as disturbing as we do. There are likely more of them than there are of the radicals.
Fact: It is not the radicals/fundamentalists who want to build a mosque near Ground Zero. Reacting as if they were is mindless prejudice.
And that's the only point I wanted to make.
Logan, I haven't yet had the time to properly read and think about your post. I am not ignoring you. Given my recent track record on completing things I want to write, I cannot and will not promise more than a brief response at this time, though. But believe me when I tell you I am not dismissing your points or your arguments.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.