Dear Liberals: Being Critical of Islam Is Not Racism

[ericson00]

Legitimate criticism of Islamists has been acute but sparse, and the pushback against debate has come in many flavors -- almost all widely missing the point. In Europe and the United States, the left are a great deal of the problem. One of the characteristics of the liberal left is a political preoccupation with defending those who are disenfranchised; those that are viewed as victims. Often, I count myself as one of these liberals.

In the last 50 years, the liberal left has accomplished much by flouting a negligent Establishment, strengthening civil liberties that would have otherwise been lost in stagnant conservatism. But any chronic preoccupation eventually leads to myopia, and in the case of Islamism, the left seems to have lost its way. Perhaps this is a result of some deep-seated fear of offending, but I submit that dishonesty is at the heart

link

Darn straight, and if Democrats want to prevent scenarios where Donald Trump, of all people, polls nearly as well as HRC on terrorism, or where Obama has sub-40 terrorism approvals, they ought to take heed.

Why do I post this? It seems the extreme-left is the force that pushes the POV the author criticizes in this piece. While most of those types are supporting Bernie, Hillary also has some of those types. The Dem Party needs to clean house on this. Ditto the Israel-haters. You are driving away Jewish voters (who not only have actually contributed to America's growth, but voted Democratic and supported progressivism, and the margin dropped 10% from 2008 to 2012) as well as a lot of gentile voters as well. As we've seen in Europe for some time, and in the Middle East, Jews are most at risk by Islamic extremism.

The big reasons I'm a Democrat is because I do believe in equal rights for gays, ethnic and religious minorities, freedom of expression (including clothes that don't cover one's hair). Almost zero [link:pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/|Muslim societies] and places from where these refugees would come have it, nor do people who emigrate from those countries to Western ones tend to integrate. We don't need that kind of sentiment in our political system influencing politicians. We not only have enough of that in con Repubs; too many Muslims are Falwell x1000 on social issues.