Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Counterpoints Date:   6/14/2016 8:52:35 PM

I haven't forgotten and frankly I think sending missionairies into foreign countries is a bad idea.  I know there are a lot of good stories that come out of doing that, Peace Corps and otherwise, but at the end of the day, we are always trying to "Chistian-ize" them and make them something they are not.  Look at what we did in Iraq - we destablized the country because a group of our lunatic political appointees thought it woud be a great idea to establish a democracy in the region.  We see how that came out and I don't think Iraqis suddenly have a better opinion of us.  I am aware of our long and sad history with Muslims and Muslim countries (at least as far back as the Shah).  They, rightly or wrongly, blame us. 

I would somewhat disagree with you about Saudi. We didn't exploit them, we did business with them to the extent it was in our mutual interest.  Despite what they now say, they would hardly be in a position to defend themselves for many cultural reasons.  They have neither the training nor the will.  As usual, they would pay someone else to defend them.

But when you know someone ranges from distrust to outright hatred of you, your beliefs and your way of life, do you then invite them to live with you?  I don't think so.  We need a better way to screen people who wish to move here.  Other countries do it.  They don't give access freely to whomever shows up.  We need to know who their families are (as in are they radicalized) who their associates are and their political connections.  We have the tools to do this, but we need to come up with a system that is workable.  I think that is smart.   And I believe on your visa application you have to list your religion. 

To just blindly ignore the problem and worry about hurting their feeling is just not smart. 

I'd love to live in a world where we didn't have to worry and we could just embrace the world, but that isn't the real world unfortunately.