'The Muslim in America'

Jew hating and "allah hates homosexuals" and "killing-in-the-name-of-Islam-can-be-justified" are not a stage of adolescence which ends with "Pomp and Circumstance".

Not being directed at me, I will let your comment to Nicole stand without comment.

You are a Jew; I am not, and you are a man of a nation with a target on it.

Americans just now are beginning to have the same realization, in  part in retaliation for supporting continuously your tiny nation, in its quest for freedom for its statehood, however imperfectly carried forward.  Even if there were not retaliation, however, there would be some other excuse, I believe.

Good health (or best health) to you Meir. 

This photo (which is my main interest) is having one of its intended effects -- by bringing together opposites, I have created grounds for dialogue.

It's hard to fight physically when engaged in dialogue.  Sometime, somebody may see the senselessness of it all, though frankly I have little hope with the Middle East. 

She wears her 'modest garb of whatever name while covering her hair, and the Orthodox Hasidim wear their own garb and tonsure their hair (males at least) . . . . . and both co-exist in America.

Why not elsewhere?

john

John (Crosley)

The tile is "the muslim in america". It is not about me or "garb" or chassidim. It is about the co-existance of islam in a democracy. Is this woman a "muslim american" or is she an islamist? There is a big difference and your photo begs the question.

Good comment.

And a question that cannot be answered from the four corners of the photo, and thus a rhetorical question, I suppose.

john

John (Crosley)

I wasn't defending the belief system or actions of any religion, only their right in this country to believe what they want. Freedom is a double sided coin. The sacrifices my family makes to protect our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness also allow people to burn the flag of the country we love.

Thank you for explanation.

I travel extensively.  I love my country, but in years until recently had major problems with various public policies which I felt were indefensible, just as did many (the majority?) of my fellow countrymen.

But I feel our form of democracy -- a Republic actually -- and our Constitution -- together with our system's tendency to self-right itself when it is in danger of capsizing or it has committed wrongs, makes it one of (probably THE) strongest system in the world.

I am proud of it. 

Much as I would never be caught burning a flag for any reason, I would defend those who feel they must burn the flag to protest, however abhorrent the act to me personally.

Freedoms are meant to protect those with minority viewpoints (as those with majority viewpoints need little protection, decided the founders).

Protection for minorities is one of the major advantages of our system.

And it was a major failing at its founding with its treatment of slaves, not counting them as whole people, a treatment that only recently (in historical terms) has been mostly fixed.

But that need to right wrongs and sense of collective 'rightness' and morality rather than the need to torture, etc.) are the stalwarts of our system. 

I am not addressing the need to torture someone who has a nuclear bomb, the detonator, friends who are across town with a nuclear device and it's positively known they have the device hidden and will blow up a major US metropolis -- for that I leave it for those in charge -- as it is beyond me, though I have a decided wish to live, and maybe cut some constitutional corners at such a juncture.

Thanks for the continuing dialog, both of you.

john

John (Crosley)