Interesting Video... explains how we have more home grown islamic terrorists from a moderate islam point of view... TaboolaArticle
She has some interesting points of view, pretty much all negative, but I think she's placing the blame in the wrong place. She wants to say that the very existence of Islam, and the promotion of Islam, is responsible for home-grown Americans embracing violence against their neighbors. If I'm not capable of unwarranted violence against my fellow American now; I don't care what religion I embrace, I still won't be capable of that unwarranted violence. These individuals, home-grown American Terrorists, are cloaking themselves, and their conscience, in their interpretation of the faith of Islam, or in the Sovereign Nation movement, or the anti-abortion movement, or in any one of dozens of faiths, beliefs, and movements. These are violent, potentially psychopathic, people; before they join any of these movements, or before they embrace Islam. These people are looking for an excuse to harm others. Islam doesn't make someone bad, and Christianity doesn't make someone good. People embrace belief sets that agree with their psychological and emotional makeup. We all interact with others, at work, at church, in the neighborhood, with a veneer of civility plastered to ourselves. I'm not saying that everyone is a hypocrite; I am saying that we all modify our words and behaviors to exist within a society. We often smile and say hello, when we're really wishing we could tell someone to piss up a rope. When I was a Staff NCO in the Marines, before deploying with a new detachment, I would throw a big party, with plenty of alcohol; and THEN get to know my Marines. Put someone in a social situation, particularly with copious amounts of alcohol, and you'll get a better idea of what someone is like with that thin veneer of civility stripped away. Alcohol is one way to strip that veneer away; stress is another. Put someone under a considerable degree of stress, and their true nature is likely to come to the surface. We are all going to encounter stress in our lives, and those who are naturally violent, or psychotically violent, are going to act on those urges. Parents want to believe that their children are incapable of becoming "bad people", unless negatively influenced by drugs, or political messages, or another religion, that they want to label "evil." They don't want to admit that their little angels are just as capable of doing bad as anyone else. The character that parents impart to their children is going to be much more determinant of their children's future behavior than is anything they are likely to encounter in social studies class, or college. The closed-minded hate that this lady is pushing is much more likely to negatively affect her children's future actions than is Islam, or any other religion. Religion doesn't make someone a hateful person, anymore than "guns kill people." Religion just allows a hateful person to live with themselves, and their hateful thoughts, secure in the knowledge that they are serving "God" through their inherent nastiness.
Historically speaking haven't the bulk of American domestic terrorists belonged to some form of psychotically distorted extremist Christian religion or a similarly distorted pagan religion? All the focus on Islam, yet we have some seriously dangerous groups here in the US whose members are your own neighbors and you'd never suspect them. Pick a state and tell me who the bulk of extremists in American society are. Hate Map | Southern Poverty Law Center Disclaimer: I do belong to one of the listed groups all though I will not identify which one. How do you raise homegrown terrorists? You send them to fight wars we've got no business in, you trample their rights, you mock them, you label them things such as extremists and racists for demanding their rights be respected. That is how homegrown terrorists/freedom fighters are born.
Army Staff Sergeant Bales, recently alleged to have murdered sixteen people in cold blood in Afghanistan, illustrates my point, I believe; that people who do bad things were generally flawed long before they committed their acts of infamy. Initially, there was nothing but shock that this supposedly great military small unit leader, friendly neighbor, husband and father, could have perpetrated such an ignoble act. As the media drags out more and more background material though, we find that he had an arrest record for assaulting his girlfriend, a 2008 hit and run conviction, and a one and a half million dollar judgement against him for securities fraud, while he was a stock broker, prior to his enlistment in the Army. The arbitration panel in that judgement found his conduct to be "fraudulent and malicious." Frankly, I'm shocked that he was still in the military. His being passed over for promotion to E-7 was mentioned as a possible stress which helped to lead to his psychotic break. I'm thinking, "Promotion? You've got to be kidding me. He shouldn't even have been retained." Why he snapped, is anyone's guess. He probably doesn't know himself. He was on his fourth tour, was possibly having marital problems, and was in financial difficulties; but that obviously doesn't excuse, or even explain, his actions. Life sucks for a lot of folks who don't commit murder (we may think about it, but we don't do it). My point is that his was far from a stellar character long before he committed the act which will forever define his life. He didn't kill those people because he was an American, he didn't kill them because he was a soldier, and he didn't kill them because he was a Christian, assuming that he is one. He killed them because he wasn't wired right, and one stress too many came along which stripped off that veneer of civility, and he acted on his impulses. Sadly, Afghanis in particular, and Muslims in general, will attribute his actions to the fact that he was a Westerner, a Christian, an American, and an American Soldier, painting us all with the same brush, claiming that his actions were simply part of a larger western crusade against Muslims. They will claim, and believe, that what he did is nothing more than what all American soldiers want to do. Extremist groups, religious or not, do not create extremists. Extremists are drawn to organizations which can help them realize their extremist goals.
Example, if someone is signing their psych reports of American military personnel with Allah Akbar! You might want to take a closer look and get them away from the military and give them a tail.
