The case for mistrusting Muslims

"... no one can ever be quite sure whether a Muslim who appears polite and accommodating is not simultaneously contemplating mass murder. Deceit, after all, is one of the terrorists' deadliest weapons."

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The latest terror plots are confronting tolerant Britons with uncomfortable choices.
By Theodore Dalrymple

July 8, 2007

THEODORE DALRYMPLE is the author of "Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses."

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ARRIVING IN BRITAIN by air the day after two men crashed a gasoline-laden Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal at Glasgow's international airport, and a couple of days after two car bombs were discovered in the heart of London, I was surprised by how calm everybody was. Apart from the prohibition of passenger drop-off and pickup next to the terminal building at Birmingham Airport, everything was as usual. Men and women in Muslim garb mingled in the crowd with perfect tranquillity, expecting neither violence nor even verbal reproach.

Was this a sign of the admirable tolerance of British society, or of its bovine complacency born of an inability, or unwillingness, to make the effort to defend itself? Was it decency, cowardice or stupidity?

I really don't know anymore, which is an indication of the problem: Only time will tell, and by then it might be too late...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-dalrymple8jul08,0,6923090.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions