Us vs. Them, a perspective
 

Them:


updated 1 hour, 55 minutes ago
KHOST, Afghanistan - Taliban militants shot dead a teenage boy in southeastern Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, police said on Thursday.

Taliban militants have killed a number of teachers and students in recent years for attending government-run schools, taking part in classes for girls or what the hardline Islamist militants consider un-Islamic subjects.

Armed men arrived at the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province and grabbed a 16-year-old student and dragged him outside.

"Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," said General Esmatullah Alizai, the police chief of Paktia province.


Us:
LAPD shelves Muslim mapping program
Department scraps heavily-criticized plan, but continues outreach efforts
Stand and be counted

updated 3:21 a.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 15, 2007
LOS ANGELES - A police plan to map out Muslim communities, a proposal that civil rights groups sharply criticized as racial and religious profiling, has been shelved, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The LAPD planned to have its counterterrorism bureau identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to "violent, ideologically based extremism."

Several Muslim groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized the plan and sent a letter to Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing expressing their concerns.

"There was a clear message from the Muslim community that they were not comfortable with it. So we listened," said Mary Grady, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. She couldn't immediately say when the plan might resume.

Grady said the remaining part of the initiative, which includes outreach efforts to strengthen ties with Muslim communities, would continue, and police planned to meet with Muslim leaders Thursday.

Muslim leaders hail decision
In a statement, Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, praised the decision.

"I am glad to hear (Downing) is putting the plan aside," Al-Marayati said. "All Muslim organizations are united in purpose to defend the rights of Muslim Americans while developing a positive and constructive relationship with the LAPD."

Downing and other city officials had defended the plan, saying the idea was to deepen ties with Muslim communities. The plan would have had data assembled by the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events.

There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties.

Has anyone taught them to speak English?

If so, then you could ask them if anyone ever taught them to take a bath.:D

you got it all wrong..your are supposed to learn 'their' language, and adopt 'their' custom's.
What do you think this is ..America..
Rika

I'll eat their food................good stuff.:)

and of course, all 500K of the muslims in LA county are Taliban militants...ie "them".

Proving that the "Us vs. Them, a perspective" is somewhat universal.

Thanks Sam. I was feeling pretty relaxed preparing my lecture on pediatric immune deficiences for a class of med students tomorrow morning. Now I feel disturbed and overfilled - smoke coming out of my ears from fueling my negative sentiments toward muslies. Am I completely off charts or are they totally mad!!! Killing a teenager for teaching a language!!!

It is the unfair assymetri I have hard to digest. If WE come to them and do something they do not approve of we are just shot. If they come here and do something we do not approve of we may express a lame complaint before they suicide bomb us on our own soil.

I must be missing something. They can´t be that bad. Can they?

It's quite likely that they speak English better than most of us.

Hold it, this is too easy to do. Any LA cops reading this? Just look for the satellite dishes, they don't watch American TV, they watch 20 channels of Al Jazeera in their own language.

I can post pictues of this in Dearborn, Michigan...........it's all very interesting how technology allows ethnic communities to remain isolated and not mix.

I can guarantee you that some of them are militant extremists. You may be comfortable with them living next door to you, but I'm not.

Right you are! Since we have a report, in fact multiple reports of violence perpetrated by Muslims, we can confidently conclude they are all dangerous and should be treated as such.

And......by this same reasoning, we would also find that Christians should be similarly regarded. Indeed, this program of tracking Christians should have started right after the Timothy McVeigh incident.

In fact, since we find that virtually any community can produce a homicidal monster, we should have the gubmit just track everyone. For a stronger America.

Xenophobia is not the sole purvue af any single culture.

When you shoot those that disagree with you, you don't have such problems. Not exactly an ACLU in Afghanistan.

Of the terrorists that are here, do you think they laugh at us? I would think probably so. It amazes me that we are facing terrorist organizations made up primarily of middle-eastern muslim men, but you aren't allowed to look at race when investigating terrorist organizations. Just amazing..........

Preventive maintance...not a bad idea
Rika

Couldn't agree more. Let's just put numbers on everybody. It'll be safer that way!

"Have the gubment just track everyone...."


Done.

..

Not quite everyone... just us "law abiding citizens" :)

My Camp, my rules/laws.....should I want to live in your camp..I will abide by your rules/laws
Rika

Worked great for the Native Americans, original inhabitants of Texas, etc. :)

Nice try KC..but
my dad is a fullblooded indian from the reservation..He served this country, and would tell you..different times , and not the same.
Rika

Acknowledged, not all muslims are Taliban militants.

But all Taliban Militants are Muslim. Therefor the only rational place to look for them is in the Muslim community.

He would have my utmost respect, and I'd be glad to listen, but I don't think he'd change my opinion about some of our sordid "policies" from the past...

Thank you Keith ,
Rika

C'mon now, that's not very PC of you. We have to be careful not to offend anyone as we search for those who seek to perpetrate mass murder.

Once more the brain of steel proves infallible. Your comparison is utterly ridiculous. There are hundreds if not thousands of instances of islamic terror world wide. According to your brilliant deduction, one act by a nut ball should put basically everybody in the same class. BRIILLIANT!

In the words of Carlos Mencia, "If you are a dee, please don't marry a dee, 'cause then your kids will be, dee, dee, dee.

Trying to find a non-radicalized Muslim is like trying to find a metro-sexual redneck.....

Wow. So.......you have the impression that there are virtually no peaceful Muslims? You don't get out much, do you?

Mull, there have been more instances of Christians engaging in terrorism than one. WAY more. But hey, I think you would agree on one thing. The government tracking everyone and evaluating their behavior is the only way to ensure freedom in America.

Spit it out. Wanna compare lists?

Nope, just don't see too many metro sexual red necks.....

Muslim doesn't = Arab Terrorist

But since the media says Muslim = Arab Terrorist, then I guess it's justified. :rolleyes:

But Arab terrorist does = muslim. Do you have a point?

ANY (ALL) religion(s) that does not stand against members of its faith conducting such actions IMO is a accomplice to the actions. IMO the Muslim community has not distanced itself enough to make that distinction clear. I value your opinions, but this is how I make my opinion in the matter.SmileWavy

What are the Bible verses they quote to justify this Christian terrorism? I do read the news quite a lot, but don't recall many stories about Christian terrorists who commit their terrorism in the name of Christianity.

As usual, you read something into it that wasn't there. I probably share the responsibility for that, I probably could have explained my posisiton better in hidnd sight. At the time I posted it i thought it was pretty clear tho.
Us vs. Them was a meant as a comparison of the values of the United States to the values of the Taliban. We (the US) tend to bend over backward to respect other cultures and religions even to the point of ridiculousness, they (being the taliban) tend to kill people who think or believe differently.
I believe the examples are valid in pointing out the difference between the two cultures.
Your inference that my post was anti-muslim was unfounded and incorrect.

Alright Supe, hit me. But the Crusades don't count. Lets go with the last 20 years or so.

When do they say that? In fact, I'd say that the media goes out of their way to NOT mention the religion of criminals or terrorists. Unless they're a white male, then it's a hate crime. For the most part, our media outlets are on the frontlines of the PC battle. Let's not let the facts get in the way of being sensitive.:rolleyes:

Ditto. Where is the outcry from the Muslim community? Where are the press conferences from the American muslim clerics, condemming the acts of terrorists? Nowhere to be seen, and it really makes you wonder.

Based just on what I read in the papers, they are probably too busy filing lawsuits with the ACLU's help against the US government for not conforming to their way of life.

You guys are not getting my point. You're reporting that Muslims conduct terrorism at a higher rate than Christians, so the Muslims should be parsed out for intense gubmit scrutiny but not Christians. I guess you know what the cutoff point would be. And with that remark, you're still not going to 'get it.' Okay...........

When we release someone from prison, we know for a fact that this fellow has the inclination to commit violence. Perhaps we should implant a tracking device for life.

Indeed, we have habitual speeders. They should be tagged too, with a GPS tracking device.

In fact, heck, why don't we just tag everyone a few months after birth. That way, we can just enter into a database the activities we think they might be inclined toward.

Supe...mule argues from the specific to the general. A failing grade in basic debating would be his reward.

Some people cannot be reasoned with and see everything through a very narrow lens.

No wonder the world is in such a mess. Technology has permitted us to instaneously broadcast our fears and prejudices while our emotional/logical aspects have not caught up.