The Coming War with Islam
A large percentage of the Moslem world holds to a tradition that goes back several hundred years, one of spreading the faith, destroying the infidel and establishing Islam throughout the world. It is an archaic dogma but, coupled with the image of the Bedouin warrior, who spread the faith in the first great Jihad, beginning in A.D. 632, it is a compelling image for for Moslems. They see themselves as warriors, and that is part of their self-image that is coming out, now.
Their intolerance and lack of understanding of freedom and Democracy is demonstrated by the demonstrations.going on, now over the Danish Mohammed comics. These kind of poltiical commentary are bound to be offensive, to those who lack a sense of humor, but level of violence being expressed by Moslems throughout the world is far over the top with respect to the feelings of others. The radical Moslems obviously have no intention of ‘just getting along, and are using this as a means of exacerbating the anger of the populace and increasing their militancy.
The fact is, with few exceptions, wherever Moslems are interacting with other cultures, there is conflict, hatred and death. The Moslem world is primitive, intolerant, and dangerous. We cannot sit back and view the Moslem religion as a religion of peace when, in fact, it is obvious that it isn’t; a religion is judged by the way its members act, and too many Moslems interpret the Koran in ways that advocate violence. This state of violence against other cultures goes back over 1400 years. We cannot live in a dream world and think that we shall be friends with Moslems. It simply is not going to happen.
What is the answer? I do not know, and would feel silly proposing something, but I would guess it would have something to do with something similar to our policy of containment of the Soviet Union, during the Cold War. We do not want to fight a billion Arabs, and it really is not necessary…but we must isolate and contain them until they acknowledge the right of the rest of the world to exist.
Amber 
I agree with msot of what you say, but contain and isolate them? How do you mean that will work, and for what good? Wouldn’t it better to attempt to open our cultures to them, teach them in the way of peaceful interaction and healthy ideals?
Much the same way we contained and isolated the Soviet Union…by creating allies around them, minimizing their influence, and, especially, setting an example of why people should want a Democratic Form of government….one good reason for our venture in Iraq.