@gftchris said:

Don't hear much about this anymore. Is England under Sharia law?

@gftchris said:

I take my news in by radio and by reading, not so much by TV. Obviously there is no such thing as unbiased reporting in this day and age, so what I do often is read from multiple sources. I like public sources like NPR, as well as BBC and Al-Jazeera. I think you can start getting at some sort of truth by doing this.

Also, I consider myself reasonably devout (my definition of devout rejects the primacy of ritual and rote learning), though not conventional in my approach to religion and more liberal and willing to question than the average Muslim. I think too many people focus on the ritualistic aspects (in all religions) and not enough on the intellectual, human (and humane) aspects of it.

And gftChris is correct. If you read what I've been saying, I've obviously been speaking out about it. I at one time had a website called takebackislam.org which was a website and forum designed to discuss and answer questions about Islam. "Take Back Islam" was a reference to the feeling many Muslims have that the definition of our religion is being hijacked by both extremists and the media that would like to portray all of us as said extremists and the idea that Muslims should take that control back from them.

I've also written articles and submitted them to newspapers (example: right after the Marathon bombings that occurred 30 minutes from my home), but they chose not to publish them. So like I said, we can and do speak (their are entire organizations/websites devoted to speaking), but the other part of speaking is that someone needs to be willing to listen. This forum is a testament to the fact that most people only listen to those they already agree with.

And it's the national media I'm speaking of. I'm just not hearing the outcry, sorry not even on al Jazeera America.

WSS

@westside-steve said:

Do you have to be a devout christian to speak out against WBC? I'm pretty sure nobody here really supports picketing dead soldiers' funerals.

And I don't get the feeling that our friend Osiris is all that devout. I may be wrong...

WSS

@diehardbrownsfan said:

Why do you think that is? The kneejerk 'libtard' answer is of course to blame the western media, 'fox is so right wing it hates muslims etc etc' but I suspect it's more than just that.

BTW, in Osiris you're seeing a muslim here speaking out against these things...

@osiris said:

Such as? I suspect that truly unbiased reporting coming from Africa is a difficult thing to find! That being said, a friend of mine is actually a journalist specialising in Africa - he's just been posted to South Sudan for 6 months or so I think.

@westside-steve said:

A couple thoughts. First I sympathize with the president in this situation. As much as I don't agree with him or like him most of the time he's a human being and a father.

I would imagine he is furious about this situation especially because he, being the most powerful man in the free world, is completely without satisfactory options here.

My second thought is that whatever the percentage is of rational Muslims around the world, and I assume its a reasonably large percentage, it is well past time they should be speaking out .

WSS

It's a common misconception that we are not speaking out. We can't force the media to report it, though. You want to hear those voices, you'll need to follow non-Western media outlets.

@diehardbrownsfan said:

No thanks. I will stay here with our drug addicts, crooks and savages. Here we try to help such people, by putting them in jails. LOL

Over there the Gov't doesn't care about anyone

@diehardbrownsfan said:

The USA is a country of crooks, drug addicts and savages also. But at least here we try to do something. It doesn't always work, but there is an effort