Where I Feel Slightly Less Guilty

Many months ago, Patrick Kelley of the Pagan Temple blog and I debated about the Swiss ban on minarets. I made a sarcastic comment about his ideas sounding great in their original German, and since then, I've been wondering if I was too harsh. Well, I just saw him make the following comment on Popehat.com (May 17, 2010 @1:16 pm):

I have to admit I’m not a big fan of the current pc buzzwords, like tolerance, diversity, equality, open-mindedness etc., and I’m fine with those so-called “American qualities” going the way of the Dodo bird.

Okay, I can understand bashing ambiguous words like "diversity" and impossible goals like "equality," but being against tolerance and open-mindedness? Really?

And don't forget this gem, written on his website on May 17, 2010:

Speaking personally, and honestly, I don't trust any Muslim any further than I could throw one, and I certainly don't trust them nearly as far as I would dearly love to throw a good damn many of them.

Oh, the idiocy.

Update: the U.S. has ordered a hit on U.S. citizen and preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki has influenced some of the recent terrorists who have attempted to attack the United States. Al-Awlaki uses anti-Muslim statements to motivate would-be jihadists worldwide:

You will find statements made by religious leaders for example, in the U.S., Franklin Graham who is the son of Billy Graham - one of the most well known evangelists in the US - making statements like ‘Islam is the religion of evil’. You have Pat Robertson saying that the Muslims are Ya’juj and Ma’juj. Statements like this are on the rise; they are not decreasing, they are rising.

Words have power, especially antagonistic words. Think about it: when a coach wants to pump up his team for an important game, one of the best motivational tools is the opposing coach's or team's trash-talk. Like it or not, when Americans publicly make negative statements about Islam and Muslims, those words are used to motivate would-be terrorists.