[Vision2020] Arrest aftermath

[Carl Westberg]

Doug Wilson references the example of an 85 year old Swedish grandmother 
having her bags rifled at an airport while a 23 year old Saudi Arabian male 
goes on through without being checked.  This sounds horrible, but speaking 
as an American of Swedish ancestry, I must bring up one chilling scenario.  
What is this kindly looking, sweet old lady was smuggling lutefisk into our 
country?  Have you ever had an 85 year old Swedish grandmother force 
lutefisk on you?  I have, and if you have not, you can't imagine the horror. 
                                                                             
                                                               Carl Westberg 
Jr.






>From: Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] Arrest aftermath
>Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:56:24 -0800
>
>Dear visionaries,
>
>Carl Westberg asks if I would be willing to urge residents of our town to 
>treat the strangers among us with respect, kindness and dignity. The answer 
>is absolutely.  "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall 
>not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as 
>one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were 
>strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God" (Lev. 19:33-34).
>
>But kindness, respect and dignity are, like everything else, defined by a 
>particular standard. As a Christian, I think that standard ought to be 
>biblical, and not to be defined by a mule-like PCness that refuses to 
>profile according to ethnicity at airports. Forgetting this, we rifle 
>through the luggage of 85-year-old Swedish grandmothers while letting 
>28-year-old Saudi young men go on through. My position is not a violation 
>of the Golden Rule. If the roles were reversed and I was in Saudi Arabia, 
>and some Anglos blew something up over there, I would expect them to 
>profile *all* the Anglos leaving the country. They would do it to -- not 
>being wooly-headed like we are.
>
>Tom Hansen has applied his insights in such a way as to make detective work 
>an impossibility. When a bunch of people are intent on doing bad things to 
>you, and you know their general description (language, country of origin, 
>race, etc.) it is not a hate crime to look closely at everyone who answers 
>to that description. If a white guy knocks off a convenience store, you 
>don't have the cops patrol black neighborhoods looking for him in the 
>interests of fairness.
>
>My use of "as has not yet been established" was to make the opposite point 
>from how Tom Hansen took it. The gentleman arrested is innocent until 
>proven guilty, and that is the way it ought to be. Mr. Hansen italicized 
>"yet" when he should have italicized "established."
>
>Auntie Establishment was talking about *somebody* when she averred that she 
>would not give a plug nickel to hear an intolerant preach talk through his 
>hat on the nature of Islam. She is in luck, for I am willing to offer all 
>these observations for free.
>
>Sunil said the "only conclusion that could be drawn would be that the 
>particular person charged was not following the rules he is to follow." 
>This is one possible conclusion, but not the only one. Another possibility 
>is that the rules are not what they are being represented as being. In 
>other words, it is at least a logical possibility that jihad means real 
>physical war, and that lying to the infidel is no more reprehensible in 
>some Muslim eyes than lying to Nazis would be to me.
>
>Here is the dilemma you all have. My "intolerant" insistence that jihad is 
>about far more than subduing the lusts within (a medieval Islamic 
>innovation) is a position that is *shared* by many Muslims around the 
>globe. Such Muslims can find themselves in positions of influence -- e.g. 
>cockpits of highjacked airliners. You cannot condemn my position that jihad 
>involves physical warfare against the infidel without simultaneously 
>condemning the many Muslims who agree with me. Are you willing to say that 
>United Methodists in Moscow, Idaho have a better grasp of what makes a true 
>Muslim than does, say, Osama?
>
>Doesn't it bug you to have spokesmen for the Bush administration making 
>pronouncements about what does and does not constitute true Islam? It bugs 
>me. Why not let Muslims define it?
>
>Cordially,
>
>Douglas
>
>
>
>_____________________________________________________
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>                              mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
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