just to clarify things...

Muslim =/= Arab

Islam is the religion, Arabic is the ethnicity. and it's silly (and fairly ignorant) to use them interchangeably when there are many many more Muslims who don't identify themselves as Arabic (and quite a few Arabians who aren't Muslim).

i've sat on this a few days, and thought very hard about the points brought up in reply to my posts,...i'm going to say this and then i'll let it go and not speak of the matter anymore

if you read correctly, i never said that all muslims were terrorists, or that they should be mistreated in anyway

what i did say was i do not believe the ideology of islam matches up with that i personally want in the american military

If they can fight why should it matter at all? There idea is to go out and destroy the enemy. If they do that then they should be in the army. If they don't then they should not.

I think the problem with America is that our government supports moral relativism. Our government should be speaking out against any belief that is wrong and dangerous no matter whose feelings get hurt. The radical Islam is just one example. We still need an atheist for a president who will be willing to criticize religion. Legislation discriminating it would be wrong, but the president who represents America should represent a beacon of reason.

political correctness may be the downfall of humanity

Political correctness is the shallow issue. It is relativism and skepticism that plague humanity. Everyone wants to throw out the best system we have in favor of arbitrary feelings.

I realise that. I know that there are Arab Christians and all sorts of other religions. I am suggesting the assumption others seem to make.

Why does islam in your opinion not "suit" the "american military"? It's like saying Jew's should be in the current German military.

why not? it's about a thousand times more restrictive than most other religions, and islamic military jurisprudence explicitly forbades unnecessary violence towards others and the fair treatment of opposing soldiers while under occupation. do you have any specifics or are you just going to wax libelously about a religion you know next to nothing about?

That's why it's so difficult for me to get a visiting VISA to the USA. *kissing my chance to visit Mulholland Drive goodbye*

My friends boyfriend who's Saudi Arabian, had to apply for a Visa to STOP OVER in Australia for 2 hours on his way back to Saudi Arabia. Is that not extremely ignorant? He's been living in New Zealand for 3 years for goodness sake.

What exactly in Islamic ideology conflicts with serving in the US Military?
I personally know and have served with several soldiers who converted to Islam. One of them was my platoon sergeant, and a damn good one. The other two were great guys and achieved above and beyond military standards.

I agree that an extremist ideology is not compatible with our military service, but I'm not about to call Islam, as a whole, extremist. Because it's not.

So because your ethnicy it's made extremely difficult for you to get a Visa to simply visit the USA? Thats out of order.

As is this example. I find it extremely difficult to see why these procedures were ever accepted without knowing it's obviously somewhat offensive. It defeats me honestly. Btw, my aunt moved to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, never been though. It's an extremely beautiful place. Even though the laws are difficult.

Hizbollah is a Lebanese organisation which, if I recall correctly, the Government of the US considers to be a terrorist group. So it's probably only slightly easier than for an Afghan to get a visa.

And if you read everything in the Bible and take it all literally you get the same thing. How much should I sell my daughter for? Raping the women folk of the enemy to demoralise them? Marching around the city blowing trumpets until their walls fall down? The point is with nearly any religion it's important to consider the relevance the text has to the modern day and the meaning it will have on our lives rather than to take it all literally and live strictly by it.


Missed this earlier. I think jumping to conclusions is probably more relevant when you consider it as a defence against Islamophobic backlash and assuming the shooting was a part of some collective Muslim psyche. The more information is divulged about the shooting the more it looks like a one off irrational instant enacted by a very troubled person.

I still have more than a sneaking suspicion that the incident in Afghanistan, where 5 British soldier instructors were shot dead by the trainee policeman (undercover Taliban fighter), may have been the trigger for what happened at the fort. He's almost certain to have heard this news.
The Afghan incident happened only two days prior and to an unstable mind...

I think he was probably at least on the verge of doing the act anyway. Plainly he's an extremely cracked person, at best it was copycat rather than as a part of some organised movement (at least in the case of Malik, not the Afghan).

this is scary stuff...my prof was telling me hood and carson reminded him of the stories coming out of vietnam...gotta take a break from this fighting

Didn't the original story include a second shooter?
The way I heard it when the news broke, was one shooter dead and the other cornered in a building...

I do recall something about a second shooter but nothing so specific about him being cornered. All later news reports seem to exclude this so it may have been confusion at the point that someone else turned up and started firing back.

It's all rather strange because they (high ranking US military spokesman) also 'confirmed' that one of the shooters had been shot dead too.

we've not heard anything about the other two since that night, and now they are just sayin they werw questioning them, who knows

i find it very interesting that they reported the shooter as dead,.....and well,...he aint

Yup,all religions show some sort of crazy form of "justice". Do you guys think we should change our money(usa) and pledge of allegiance? "One nation under **** and money "in ***** we trust? Just seperate religion and gov once and for all. What would you put in there? jk