All I can do is laugh about it
Eventually, you just reach a point where all you can do is burst out laughing at the thought that some people are actually serious.
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (who, if you can't figure it out from his statement, is a Republican) made some remarks on a talk show on WFLA in Orlando, to the effect of "we should threaten to bomb Mecca". Yes. Bomb Mecca. For those of you who don't know, Mecca is the holiest site of the (largely peace-loving) Islam religion, the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed. One of the five pillars of Islam is the Hajj, which is an annual pilgrimage to that very site. In short, the idea of us bombing it is a very big deal.
Please note, the link I provided is to RedState.org, which gives the entire context of the remarks, making them seem slightly less insane. I understand his point, of course: if Muslim extremists threaten us with nuclear detonation, we would need to respond in some manner. But surely, by now any politician should know that such a quote would be taken out of context. Then again, let's consider it in context: a small subgroup of Muslims carries out a horrendous act (or threatens one), so we respond by destroying (or threatening to destroy) a holy shrine of Islam, thus pissing off the 99% of Muslims who actually practice what the religion preaches beyond one or two lines about infidels, and causing many of them to shift their focus away from the larger messages of the Quran to those lines. Brilliant! As Leonard Pitts points out in an article on the subject, "Osama bin Laden would thank us for writing his recruitment material."
This is all too confusing. The main problem with Tancredo's comments is it casts the war on terror as a war on Islam. And that's precisely the point we need to make abundantly clear: it is not.
Song lyric of the day:
"Save me from myself
Turn around, throw it all away
Turn around until it all breaks down
To the fields of falling angels"
- Sponge, Fields
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (who, if you can't figure it out from his statement, is a Republican) made some remarks on a talk show on WFLA in Orlando, to the effect of "we should threaten to bomb Mecca". Yes. Bomb Mecca. For those of you who don't know, Mecca is the holiest site of the (largely peace-loving) Islam religion, the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed. One of the five pillars of Islam is the Hajj, which is an annual pilgrimage to that very site. In short, the idea of us bombing it is a very big deal.
Please note, the link I provided is to RedState.org, which gives the entire context of the remarks, making them seem slightly less insane. I understand his point, of course: if Muslim extremists threaten us with nuclear detonation, we would need to respond in some manner. But surely, by now any politician should know that such a quote would be taken out of context. Then again, let's consider it in context: a small subgroup of Muslims carries out a horrendous act (or threatens one), so we respond by destroying (or threatening to destroy) a holy shrine of Islam, thus pissing off the 99% of Muslims who actually practice what the religion preaches beyond one or two lines about infidels, and causing many of them to shift their focus away from the larger messages of the Quran to those lines. Brilliant! As Leonard Pitts points out in an article on the subject, "Osama bin Laden would thank us for writing his recruitment material."
This is all too confusing. The main problem with Tancredo's comments is it casts the war on terror as a war on Islam. And that's precisely the point we need to make abundantly clear: it is not.
Song lyric of the day:
"Save me from myself
Turn around, throw it all away
Turn around until it all breaks down
To the fields of falling angels"
- Sponge, Fields
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