In the battle to overcome terrorism, Islam is not the enemy, ignorance is.

You're right. Ignorance is the enemy. Though not in the same manner you speak of. The only possible way you could believe in your argument is if you were truly ignorant of what Islam represents. It is a deification of 7th Century Arabian paganism, founded by a murderous warlord who now almost 1400 years since his death still somehow corrupts innocent minds into thinking that it is acceptable to explode Jewish schoolbuses and behead Russian schoolchildren while their parents watch. After all, Allah commands it. It is pleasing to Him, for He is merciful. Allahu akbar. I don't understand how a "religion of peace" could be founded by a pagan warlord who made a career out of chopping people's heads off. Don't believe that Islam has an intrinsic violent component? Qur'an 3:56 "As for those disbelieving infidels, I will punish them with a terrible agony in this world and the next. They have no one to help or save them." Qur'an 5:51 "Muslims, do not make friends with any but your own people." Qur'an 5:72 "They are surely infidels who say; ‘God is the Christ, the Messiah, the son of Mary." Qur'an 8:12 cp. 8:60 "Instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers"; "smite above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them" Qur'an 2:191 "...kill the disbelievers wherever we find them" Qur'an 2:193 "And fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah" Qur'an 22:19-22 "fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem" "for them (the unbelievers) garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skin shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron rods" Qur'an 48:13 Those who "believe not in Allah and His Messenger, He has prepared, for those who reject Allah, a Blazing Fire!" Qur'an 8:12 "Your Lord inspired the angels with the message: ‘I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes." Qur'an 8:7 "Allah wished to confirm the truth by His words: ‘Wipe the infidels (non-Muslims) out to the last.'" Qur'an 8:39 "So, fight them till all opposition ends and the only religion is Islam." Qur'an 8:59 "The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them. They are your enemy and Allah's enemy." Qur'an 8:60 "Prepare against them (non-Muslims) whatever arms and cavalry you can muster that you may strike terror in the enemies of Allah (non-Muslims), and others besides them not known to you. Whatever you spend in Allah's Cause will be repaid in full, and no wrong will be done to you." Qur'an 8:7 "Allah wished to confirm the truth by His words: ‘Wipe the infidels (non-Muslims) out to the last.'" Qur'an 4:101 "The unbelievers (non-Muslims) are your inveterate foe." There is no analogy between Judeo-Christianity and Islam. To believe as such is to be ignorant of the fundamental theological differences between Judaism/Christianity and Islam. While Jews and Christians have had their low points (and I'm perfectly willing to admit that there have been many Christian and Jewish terrorists in history), the evil activities of these people were not commanded by ideology. The Christian Bible did not command the Spanish Inquisition, for example. However, the Qur'an explicitly, in at least 110 particular instances, some of which I've outline above, does command jihad. It is an absolution for devout Muslims. Allow me to clarify. Muslims are not necessarily the enemy, but Islam is. How does that make sense? Well, I know plenty of Muslims that do not believe in killing infidels. I'm friends with quite a few Muslims who are perfectly content with me being Christian and who have no intention of killing me for it. But, having read the Qur'an in its entirety myself, I am convinced that their quality as peaceful human beings is not BECAUSE of Islam, but rather, IN SPITE of it. Let's be serious here. Islam insists that the Qur'an is the inviolable Word of God, and that to interpret it in any way beyond its literal meaning is to mess with the Word of God itself. That means anyone who interprets the following: Qur'an 8:12 cp. 8:60 "Instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers"; "smite above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them" ...to mean anything other than full-out jihad is basically not being a true Muslim, according to many schools of Muslim thought. Peaceful Muslims are peaceful in spite of what Islam tells them to do. By no means is Christianity perfect, but at the very least Christianity does not encourage, advocate, command or require violence in the name of God. Back to your argument. You say Islam is not the enemy? Perhaps Muslims are not the enemy. At least, not all of them. There are plenty of good Muslims out there. But in the words of Ayan Hirsi Ali (a female member of Dutch Parliament, a former Muslim-turned-atheist and a victim of the abomination known as Female Genital Mutilation and arranged marriage), "When considered not as a religion but instead considered strictly as a set of ideals and a code of conduct, Islam, as a set of ideals, is INCOMPATABLE WITH CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRACY." A former Muslim said that. Islam, as a set of *ideals*, is incompatable with civil society. This war on terror is not a war of civilizations. It is a war about CIVILIZATION. We can either fight to defend a way of life which advocates liberal pluralist democracy, the equality of women, gay rights, RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE. Or we can surrender to an ideology which advocates barbaric misogyny, keeping little girls out of school, cutting off their clitorises, blowing up Jews and Christians, making religious law the absolute law of the land, and suppressing free speech, freedom of religion and free thought. Ya know all those things we've fought for/are fighting for in America, like the right of women to have jobs, and the rights of gay people to not be persecuted? And, oh yeah, that thing we like, were founded upon, ya know, the right to choose which religion to follow? When Islam takes over, THOSE THINGS WILL BE DEAD. The only ignorance here is the ignorance which has put a veil of misunderstanding, blind acceptance and apathy over your eyes and has led you to believe that the world will be the same whether or not we go to war to defend Democracy against Terror. Call me intolerant. I hear it a lot. It doesn't bother me anymore, because I know in my soul that it is wrong to tolerate the intolerance that Islam preaches and stirs up in (many of) its followers. As columnist Mark Steyn once remarked, "We are now a society that is so afraid to appear intolerant, that it tolerates intolerance." Well, not me. I'll probably lose this debate because voters will try to pin me as an intolerant and bigoted Islamophobe. So be it. I'm willing to piss off a few people now if it means that someday my children can choose to worship whomever they please, and so someday my daughters can show their ankles in public without being stoned to death, and so someday America will still be a country where a Jewish child and a Hindu man and an Atheist woman will still be able to pursue life, liberty and happiness, instead of being forced to pursue infidels in the name of a murderous, intolerant and barbaric ideology. Your way of life is at stake. How ignorant will you choose to be? Will you continue to sit back while Islam colonizes and destroys everything that is holy in Western Civilization? Or will you finally wake up and smell the Jihad? I hope for the sake of my children and yours, you will chose the latter option and fight this war on terror, before there is no peace left in this world and nothing good left to fight for.