You are right in that it is not cowardice. In my opinion it is intellect. Do we focus our ire on the extremist actually using terrorism or do we allow the bigots in our society to spread our anger to 1.2 billion people? I know which is more effective in fighting. If these knuckleheads think that fighting 1.2 billion people will be anything other than a nightmare, think how many people are in Iraq and Afganastan? Decade of war in both places and they sure don't have 1.2 billion people.
Some people are afraid. People who are afraid do not make the most sound descisions. Other people want easy answers. Islam is foriegn and strange for some people. So it is much easier to hate Muslims because it fits into the "other" rather easily. Some have issues in that our enemies, the extremist, do not have a particular "look." They come from all cultures and societies. Ask others and they'll tell you that Muslims are brown people who wear certain things and we need to do this or that to them. Its bigotry, but anyone that points that out is called niave.
It is a tragedy that the buddhist staues in Afganastan have been badly damaged by the Taliban. Being Buddhist I look at it the same as a famed church. However, I also know two things; extremist were responsible, not Islam, and change and loss are part of life. Much better the statues than thier usual tactics of hurting innocents.
There has been a notable tendency for the Left to refuse to directly address issues that are endemic in some Islamic nations, and I know that also stirs suspicions and anger on the Right.
Both sides have a point, IMHO.
On the one hand, why poke the bear with a stick? Take Terry Jones for example. He burns a Koran. His absolute 1st Amendment right, no doubt about that. Yet, he clearly hoped to prove a point, which was that many Muslims would riot in response. He wanted to prove how 'they' are. He got his wish, people rioted, and some UN workers were murdered as a direct result. The Left clearly has a problem with that, while the Right either remains silent, or actually thinks it's good that people rile up Muslims so that the world will see how 'evil' all Muslims are.
On the other hand, it is NOT uncommon for many Islamic countries to possess a very backward culture, patterned on social customs that we find offensive, such as honor killings, the subjugation of women, putting homosexuals to death, and so on. The Left does not confront these issues head-on, and generally turns their heads and pretends not to notice. As a result, their often strident attacks on Western cultures that do this have a hollow ring to them. If it is so awful to ban same-sex marriage in America, why is it OK for Iran to hang men for being homosexual?
Both the Left AND the Right turn their heads and ignore abuses taking place in nations allied with us in the Middle East. We pay scant attention to Coptic Christian churches being burned in Saudia Arabia and Egypt, to Christians and Jews being murdered by the score there. They are our 'friends' and we're simply not going to talk much about the things they do that we know are wrong.
Yes, there are people who are afraid of Islam and afraid of Muslims. There are people who simply want to tread lightly, but this comes off as being afraid. There are people deliberately trying to provoke issues between the West and Islam.
I am personally of the opinion that the differences in culture between Muslims of the Middle East and the West is very large, and difficult to navigate. Without taking over such nations, it is hard to convince them to respect the rights of women, minority religions, sexual preferences, and so on. We will find it difficult to convince many of them that the only education a person needs is NOT just the Koran, but actual reading, writing, math and other education.
We face huge obstacles in communication, in understanding each other, in simply co-existing where we happen to intersect, commercially, economically, and geographically.
Furthermore, our very freedoms encourage both good and bad results from expatriate Muslims who come to the West. By that, I mean that many come here BECAUSE they seek a more Western lifestyle. Raising children, making money, eating, owning a house, a car, having money in the bank; you know, the American Dream. And they get it quite often. They are not only moderate Muslims, there is no reason to consider them anything OTHER than Americans (or UK subjects, etc). Their religion becomes quite beside the point. However, those same freedoms ALSO allow Muslims who come West to bring a more backward culture with them, and when they are in sufficient numbers, to attempt to change the rules of the nation they have moved to in order to make their new country more like the one they left. Then we have Madrassas teaching hate and promulgating terrorism under the guise of freedom of worship, and people attempting to implement various aspects of Sharia Law and so on. One of the negative aspects of the 'Democracy' we have exported to the Middle East has been that the citizens, given the right to vote for the government they want, are in some cases CHOOSING Sharia Law in various permutations.
So we have a lot of issues to address. Real issues. I see points on both the Left and the Right. I don't know the answers. But I suspect that hatred won't get us where we need to go. Blind faith and trust won't do it either.
