First off, I'll address the actual point of this thread. No, I would not vote for a Muslim. I won't elaborate. I just don't want to.
I'm a Canadian born east indian male. I an extremely educated and have studied most of the major religions like Islam, Christianity etc.
I myself am Sikh (although barely religious)
Ok, more to the point.
Look, I don't mean to be condescending, but you all sit here online and type and type and argue about things both sides don't comprehend at least not fully.
First of all, my parents homeland, India, has been dealing with terrorism from Islamic extremists for years and years. Long before 9/11. Actually India warned the west and Europe about the risks of Islamic extremism but of course the Brits and Americans being arrogant as the are didn't bat an eyelash or take it seriously until they got hit...hard.
India saw their glamorous, big, happening city Mumbai go through a surreal nightmare of an attack some years back. Some Islamic terrorists came by boat from Pakistan and docked at the harbor then spread out in different parts of the city. Look up the documentary on youtube. It is chilling! You can not only see the actual footage of the attacks that lasted forever, but you can hear the voice of the man in charge giving orders. (I guess if you can't understand his language like I can it's not as terrifying and enraging) Brave Indian commandos finally killed them all.
They arrested one. They interviewed him as he lay in the hospital wounded. Why did you do this?! Why did you participate in this??
Paisa. Money. Did you do it for 40 virgins? For politcal reasons?
No sir, just money, they said if you do this you will die an honorable death and your family will get money.
Look, I admit I go through phases of, I dislike or distrust Muslims. But ranting and raving and sounded like paranoid tin foil hat morons about oh the big bad Muslims will take over the world or they are all evil is silly.
So many bad apples? Really? Compared to what? Do you have any idea how many Muslims there are in the world? Because if you know then you understand it's actually very few bad apples.
Ok so this crap about we don't hear Muslims in America speaking out against terrorism. Well guess what? They don't have to and they don't owe YOU or ANYBODY anything. They pay their taxes and work hard and that is enough. They don't have to defend themselves. They are Muslims and don't have to answer to you. They are against terrorism. Of course they are. Many of their friends and family are killed by Islamic terrorism. Of course they hate terrorism. They don't have to speak out or parade around convincing you clowns. They don't owe anybody anything. (By the way, look closer and there are actually many Muslims especially young americans on youtube, on streets in school going out of their way to let you in and see that they aren't all killers)
Ok so what's the solution? Well, looking at every brown skinned person you pass on the streets as a terrorist is only hurting you nobody else. Living in that kind of paranoia is a sad life. They aren't going anywhere and you hating on them does nothing at the very worst, if one of the weak minded ones are victims of hatred enough times they will succumb and add to the problem of domestic terrorism. We need the muslims to stay vigilant and report on any talk of extremism in the mosques or in the community. Look, India has been dealing with it for years before america and europe. All muslims aren't bad in fact most aren't.
I'ms sure nobody read all of this so I'll stop here. I can make many more points but I won't bother.
I'll say this though, if some of the paranoid about muslims nuts on this site were right that most muslims are bad then you would be in a lot more trouble and facing a lot more attacks.
Ship them out! Nuke them! Well what do we do about all the white kids that constantly shoot up schools? I'm actually more worried about a white kid shooting up a school and killing my kids than a muslim extremist bombing the school. Look at the past decade in the u.s White kids shooting up schools have scared me more than muslim attacks. (I'm back and forth with my family due to my business in commercial real estate) So what should I look at every white kid and look at him with suspicion? Is every pastor or priest a child molester?
Look, muslims arent going anywhere and neither are whites, chinese etc. America has this big pblack mark against them since they formed as a country. Always turning on their own. THE BLACKS, THE IRISH TREATED LIKE GARBAGE, THE ITALIANS, THE JAPS, IT GOES ON AND ON.
YOU KNOW HOW YOU BEAT A POWERFUL COUNTRY LIKE THE U.S? THE OLDEST TRICK IN BOOK.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER!!
BLACKS AGAINST WHITES, MUSLIMS AGAINST WHITES!
CLOWNS IN THE U.S CELEBRATING LIKE THEY DID AN AMAZING FEAT IN KILLING OSAMA! REALLY? HE JUST STUCK IT IN AMERICA'S BUTT WITH THE ATTACKS, MADE TRUE WHAT HE VOWED THAT NO AMERICAN WILL FEEL SAFE AGAIN AND LOOK, IT'S COME TRUE. THE TRADE IN OF LIBERTY FOR SECURITY IS WELL UNDER WAY. DID HE LOSE OR DID HE WIN?
I'm not hating on the U.S I'm just saying India went through this year and years ago. The british came in and divided us by religion and conqured us until the brave indians of all religions set aside their differences enough to get rid of the british and reclaim their great country.
It's too easy to hate on eachother and be paranoid.
Be vigilante but don't hate.
Don't let those extremists play you like a fiddle. They WANT you to hate on some weak midned muslims in america to recruit them when they feel like the won't belong.
I don't know. I've had a few beers, I could have been more concise.
I'm no hippy, but I'm just saying, don't be arguing over things you don't understand.