Obama’s Speech to the Muslim World

I make no secret about the fact that I distrust Islam. Despite arguments and protests to the contrary by some Muslims, the recent history of that culture displays an appalling tendency toward violence, intolerance and ignorance.

On the other hand, people are people and maybe if we stopped fighting and talked about it honestly, we would find more common ground than expected and perhaps learn better how to get along.

Hey, you never know, it’s possible. So I guess I applaud Obama’s attempt to reach out to the Muslim world. If I sound less than overwhelmingly enthusiastic it’s because I’m still suspicious that there is some endemic characteristic of Islam that makes it more amenable to fanaticism than even other religions.

As much as I like to equate fundamentalist Muslims and fundamentalists Christians, they’re not really the same. They’re both nuts but the Muslims somehow seem to be even further over the edge into la-la land than the Christians. At least Pat Robertson isn’t pushing for honor killings and Ray Comfort isn’t screeching that apostasy should be punished by death.