J89Jeeper: I must say, for you to speak out like this is a very brave thing to do and I admire your courage to do so.

It would be like a black man knowingly walking into a KKK meeting.
I hope you can see where we are coming from. All we’ve seen for years is death and destruction by one group of people who have the commonality of being Muslims and doing these awful things in the name of Islam. 911 is a terrible time in our history and to hear about others cheering when the towers fell gets me pretty pissed off.
I’ve only meet a few people whom I’ve assumed to be Muslim (they were Arabic and African). I had good talks with them and enjoyed the conversation. I’ve yet to meet a Muslim like you who is very different than what we’ve come to know as a Muslim. You seem to be more of a redneck Muslim with the ink, beer, and pork. No insult intended here. You sound like you may be a fun guy to hang around.
We read all the time that Islam is a peaceful religion and then read on the same page about the suicide bombings and beheadings done by Muslims in the name of Islam. For example. I read an article just today that I’ll post on this subject. I also read a good article relating this to Nazi Germany that you may find interesting.
How do people like you change the hearts of the extremist? If people like you do not stand up and say that the extremists are wrong then you will find that you will some day be in the minority or dead by the hand of those who preach from the same book.
I don’t hate Muslims. I hate those who murder under the name of Islam. Though I think your religion is wrong, I respect your right to practice it as long as it does not infringe on my right to practice mine. But hear lies the problem- many of the Islam faith do not want me to have that right and say, demand, that I either convert or die. Well, as a Christian, I will die for Christ as He died for me.
I’m sure you may have some pretty bad views of me based on my postings and I can understand that if I tried to look at it from your side. I’m very open about my Christianity and how I feel about those who want to deny me of my right to practice it. All I ask is that you try to see it from our side and I think you have. Overall, we (all religions) just want to be left alone and live in peace, raise our families, drink a beer or two or three or..., have a good pork dinner on the grill, lie about the monster fish we caught and shoot our guns.