MOST AMERICAN MUSLIMS ARE GOOD AND LOYAL AMERICANS

Emails and blogs to the contrary are nothing more than messages of hate

A couple of days ago, a friend forwarded me a disgusting and hateful email which asked the question, “Can a good Muslim be a good American?” The email then lists reasons under theological, religious, scriptural and seven other categories why Muslims owe their allegiance to Allah, to ‘the five Pillars of Islam’, to the Quran and to Mecca, all this according to someone “who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years.”

The writer concludes that “They obviously cannot be both ‘good’ Muslims and ‘good’ Americans.” And the email ends with: “THE MARINES WANT THIS TO ROLL ALL OVER THE U.S. Please don’t delete this until you send it on.”

Well, I certainly did not send it on. Instead, here is the reply I made to my friend:

J.T., this is downright disgusting! I'm sorry you forwarded this crap, and that's what it is - CRAP!

There are all kinds of Muslims, just like there are all kinds of Christians and Jews. While this crapola holds true for the fundamentalists of Islam - like the Saudis - it does not hold true for most American Muslims who are loyal and productive citizens. Both of my doctors are Muslims and so is one of wife's. These doctors are not only outstanding physicians, but they are loyal Americans as well. That crapola is an insult to those doctors, as well as to all the other loyal Americans who are Muslims.

Yes, we do have some dangerous and treacherous Islamists in this country, but only a small minority of American Muslims fit the description put forth in that hateful message.

The message you forwarded reminds me of the time Jack Kennedy was running for president and his opponents claimed he owed his allegiance to the Vatican, and not to our country, because he was a Catholic. Kennedy was first and foremost a loyal American, and a war hero at that.

And let us not forget that right after Pearl Harbor, we uprooted and shipped off the Japanese-American families who lived on the west coast and interned them in concentration camps because some stupid bigots in our government thought they owed their allegiance to Japan. By doing that, all we did was to give ‘loyal’ Americans the opportunity to steal the property and businesses of people who had been hard working loyal Americans.

At the end of this shit it says, "The Marines want this to roll all over the U.S." That's an insult to the United States Marine Corps. The bigots among the Marines who are involved with this message of hate, do not represent their fellow Marines any more than Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, represented his fellow Christians.

I'm sure you sent this crap to a whole bunch of people. As your friend, I'm asking you to forward my comments forthwith to everyone you sent this shitload of hate to, but I doubt that you will do so.

EDITOR’S NOTE: J.T. did go ahead and do the decent thing. He sent out this message: “There are some very good American Muslims. Howie is right. I was wrong in putting this out.”

I just wish he had said ‘the majority’ instead of ‘some.’