History & Moderate Muslims

John Hawkins has written a piece identifying 7 Things Every Moderate Muslim Should Believe. He notes that the actions of Muslims around the world — including "crazed riots over damaged Qurans, terrorists who've murdered people in the name of Allah and violent threats over Muhammad cartoons" — have caused unfair suspicion to fall on all the "good and decent Muslims".

In that article, Hawkins says the following:

But, let's also stop ignoring the obvious fact that the Islamic faith has a large, radical and violent contingent that the world's other great religions don't have. Oh, but what about the Crusades? Well it's true that the Crusades were bloody, violent and directly connected to the Christian faith. However, the last crusade ended more than 700 years ago. That same sort of fanaticism has largely died out in Christianity while it's still alive and kicking in Islam.

That statement is good as far as it goes, but it ignores a lot. What should be noted about the Crusades is this: The Crusades were a response to Islam's invasions — not just of the Holy Land and major parts of Asia and Africa, but also of Europe where Muslim armies conquered Spain and reached as far as Vienna before being stopped. Retaking Jeerusalem may have been the symbol, but stopping the conquest and halting the invasion was the key goal. And it should be noted that it took a long time for the Christians to begin to respond to the Muslim invasion.

Their Fair Share

President Barack Obama is fond of saying he just wants the rich to pay their fair share of taxes, and that the rich can afford to pay "a little more".

Unfortunately for his argument, the reality is this:

Our individual tax code is, as it should be, progressive, but perhaps the pendulum has swung too far in this direction. The top 10% of taxpayers pay around 70% of federal income taxes, while the bottom half of all taxpayers pay just 2%.

It seems to me that each taxpayer in the top 10% is paying his fair share plus the fair shares of several other people.

Your Turn

I saw a really good cartoon last week, from Sack.

There's just one problem with the cartoon — The Republicans already had (and took) their turn. They already gave President Barack Obama a big tax increase. And that was just a few weeks ago! Guess that wasn't enough for Obama. (It never is or will be.)

AP Drops "Illegal Immigrants"

There are no more illegal immigrants in the stories of the Associated Press. Instead, there are "Immigrants living in the state illegally", "people who can't prove citizenship", and "people living in the state without documentation". At least, those are some of the circumlocutions showing up in an article in Oregon.

Why? Because the AP has banned the use of the term "illegal immigrant". They object to the part that says "illegal". They say illegal "should describe only an action" in violation of the law. Like crossing into this country illegally.

James Taranto, on the other hand, notes that the people in question are, in fact, here illegally. He objects to the "immigrant" part of the term, noting that it's not clear all these folks intend to "take up permanent residence", a key part of the definition of the term "immigrant".

I would go a bit further. I note the Pew poll, according to which a large fraction of the people here illegally — perhaps the majority — really do not intend or want to be come permanent residents or U.S. citizens. These individuals are here illegally. And they are aliens — not U.S. citizens — as U.S. citizens would be in Mexico or India or Europe or wherever else outside our own country. Thus, the proper term for them is "illegal aliens". Even "illegal immigrants" is an obfuscation and a concession to political correctness. And Senator Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) insistence that they are "undocumented citizens" is a complete abomination.

Of course, none of this deals with the reason the Obama Administration is favoring amnesty and open borders. They clearly agree with Jay Leno that the people in question are really "undocumented Democrats".