Changes

The United States includes Republicans and Democrats, Timothy McVeigh and Martin Luther King, Unitarians and Seventh-Day Adventists, members of the Crips and members of Habitat for Humanity, vegetarians and gun lobbyists, the ACLU and Focus on the Family. America includes violence and America includes apple pie. I like to think apple pie is more mainstream.

The United States includes Republicans and Democrats, Timothy McVeigh and Martin Luther King, Unitarians and Seventh-Day Adventists, members of the Crips and members of Habitat for Humanity, vegetarians and gun lobbyists, the ACLU and Focus on the Family. America includes violence and America includes apple pie. I like to think apple pie is more mainstream.

Would you care to sum up "mainstream America" in a short, facile generalization? I wouldn't. <ref>Stokely Carmichael once said "violence is as American as apple pie."</ref>And I know a lot more about America than I do about Islam.

Would you care to sum up "mainstream America" in a short, facile generalization? I wouldn't. And I know a lot more about America than I do about Islam.

Hey, I didn't know what Shi'ites and Sunnis were until five years ago. And I barely know them now. (Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, but was he a "mainstream" Sunni? Quick, without looking it up: is Al-Qaeda Sunni or Shi'ite?)

Hey, I didn't know what Shi'ites and Sunnis were until five years ago. And I barely know them now. (Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, but was he a "mainstream" Sunni? Quick, without looking it up: is Al-Qaeda Sunni or Shi'ite?)

'''I''' sure don't know whether "mainstream Islam endorses violence." And I'm not sure how many of the pundits writing in English about such things can even speak Arabic. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 19:39, 5 April 2007 (EDT)

'''I''' sure don't know whether "mainstream Islam endorses violence." And I'm not sure how many of the pundits writing in English about such things can even speak Arabic. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 19:39, 5 April 2007 (EDT)