PhotoDude has a great blog where he discuss politics and posts his photographs as well. He’s on my blogroll mainly because of the images, but his recent post about clearly differentiating between the extremist murderers of the Al-Qaeda variety and the general Muslim population is very good:
And we need to make that disctinction clearly not only because it is the moral position our country’s foundation requires, but because it is a major strategic point in our war on terror. There is nothing Al Qaeda would like better than for us to help them make this a “Conflict of the Civilizations,” as they themselves proclaim it. If we take the position that the entire Muslim faith is violent, and defective at its core … the position of Robertson and others … then we fall right into the Al Qaeda trap. Our rhetoric becomes a mirror image of theirs. We have become that which we hate, and we have made their task easier.
If we carefully carve them from their support, by clearly defining who we see as our enemy, and not defining them by the faith they pervert for their cause, we defuse their primary recruiting point. We give moderate Muslims more ground on which to stand with us. We show respect, backed by knowledge.
When we generalize and condemn the entire Muslim faith, we undercut our own goals, and provide our real enemy with more philosophical ammunition to use in their perversion of Islam. And by doing so, we give Osama (or his talking ghost) a whole basketful of “I told you so’s” to use in his next alleged message.
But it’s more than just a major strategic error. It’s contrary to our foundation.
Quite simply, we have a reputation to uphold. Religious freedom is at the very core of this country, and if we broadly condemn an entire religion practiced by hundreds of millions of people of many varied ethnicities, we betray that foundation. And we play into the hands of the enemy.
