"BUT, if we DON'T do what the Muslims are doing, we may not have a way of life or a democracy left to protect."

If you take away Freedom of religon, and Freedom of speech, then what do you have left to protect? What good is democracy if you can't speak out? Your worried they may take your Freedom, and your answer to that is to take their Freedom. Freedom should not be for just some of the people, it should be for all. Punishing everyone for the actions of a few is a fucked thing to get in the habit of doing. In germany a religion was claimed evil the same as is being done now with muslims. By the time that mess was over what had happened was, well, disgusting. While some of the things said about muslims may be true, I still think punishing a whole group for the actions of an individual, or even a few peoples actions, is wrong.

"Or do you suggest we carry on shutting our eyes, and slurring those who object as racists?"

I suggest that we not screw with Freedom, and try to find a way to live together. It's not an easy thing to do, and it's been tried a lot and failed a lot. Does that mean we will never get along? If so, maybe we should just nuke them all out of existence now and be done with it once and for all. Islam is my least favorite religon, but I could no more oppress them as a group then I could christians or satanists. My group may be next on the list, and I don't want to be oppressed like that.

"The Muslim preachers bear much of the blame for radicalizing Muslims and goading them into 'holy war'"

True enough!

Toker