A musing Beam

Bash evil acts.  Stop using the Koran to bash Muslims.   I frequently see people bash Muslims and act as if Islam is simply evil.  Having known several people who considered themselves Muslim who were wonderful, and having known many more horrific people who considered themselves Christian, I find this Muslim-bashing to be disturbing at the human level, the investigation level (who is doing bad things), and the practical level (who are we ostracizing). Often these bashes are simplistic, Fox-news-esque swipes.  Slightly less lazy people will often use decontextualized verses from the Koran.  You know the type of statement, where somebody says, "Look, true Islam says you should kill the infidel." The point of my post is to show that decontextualized verses can easily make any religion -- definitely including Christianity -- seem evil. Remember, though: Religions aren't entities, so they can't really be evil.  People can be evil. BEFORE THE VERSES Before I get i

(An excerpt from a hypothetical) Open Letter to Saddam Hussein (from sometime pre-2003 invasion): It has come to our attention while observing the discussions concerning your possible programs of weapons of mass destruction that you may not fully understand our constitutional system.  Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution -- the power to make binding international agreements and the power to make war -- which you should seriously consider. ... (In case you can't read between the lines, you are an idiot that could not possibly have asked any of the lawyers in your country that specialize in international law ... or your U.N. Ambassador ... or any 1L ... or even most high school students that paid attention in Civics ... or, you know, read the document yourself.) (Also, this has absolutely nothing to do with internal politics, and you should ignore the fact that I'm a junior senator who just started my first term, that I actually