Trump, Muslims and the San Bernardino Shootings

Huffington Post - Donald Trump Calls For 'Complete Shutdown' Of Muslims Entering U.S.

Donald Trump came out and said that until we can figure out what is going on with Muslim Jihadists we should temporarily not let any Muslims into this country. I will start by saying that I don't agree with that; but, that is not what I am going to talk about. The responses from the other Republican candidates and how the media is framing it is what I find interesting.

Lets start with this simple fact. All the Republican candidates have been saying for weeks that we should not allow any Syrian refugees in because some of them might be terrorists. All of them have said that Trump is out of line because he has basically said the exact same thing they have said. Rand Paul even introduced legislation in congress a year ago to prevent people from 30 Muslim countries from coming to the United States and Cruz supported it. As for Carson, he has said that he would never want a Muslim to be President and is for strictly monitoring all visitors to the United States. Most importantly, not one of them has said that they wouldn't prohibit Muslims from coming here. What a bunch of hypocrites. Now I have read many outraged pundits saying how Trump is crazy by saying this; but, the truth is that most Republicans probably agree with him. The other Republican candidates have made an insincere complaint and this will probably get Trump more support not less. This could really pay off for Trump at the next debate, all he has to do is ask which of the candidates is for allowing Muslims from Arabia into the United States. They would be between a rock and a hard place as they have all said they don't want Syrian refugees here because some of them might be terrorists. Will they take that back? I think not.

Now, I want to talk in more general terms about Muslims and terrorism. For background I am Irish and my family has always been Irish Catholic. I am not a Catholic. When I was younger and an agnostic I was sympathetic to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). For a little background, my great-grandfather was in the original IRA before Ireland was freed from English control. In Northern Ireland the Catholics are still treated as second class citizens. While I am now a pacifist, I still want to see Ireland as a single country again with the Irish in charge of their own lands. The war in Ireland has never been about religion, it has always been about political control over Ireland. Now the war with terrorists is not about religion either. It is about political power and who will control Arabia. If they all converted to Hindu, they would still be terrorists. In fact, they are not killing people in Israel because they are Jewish, they are attacking them because they want the land back under Arab control. MOST WARS are about power and money. World War II was not about religion it was about control. Hitler did hate Jews, kill them and use them as an excuse; but, he also hated Russians and Slavs and killed even more of them. Most Muslims are peaceful and law abiding. Most Muslims are just like you and me, they just want to have a decent life with their family and friends. One should also remember that their are more Asian Muslims than Arab Muslims and we don't seem to be afraid of them. Maybe they aren't mad at us because, now this is just a thought, we are not bombing their homes.

In regards to the shootings in San Bernardino, I am extremely disappointed in the media. I have read that it is now confirmed that the female had pledged her allegiance to ISIS. That has not been proven, anonymous sources are not confirmation and no proof has been released to the public. It has also been stated that the killers had a "large stash of weapons and ammunition". That is also nonsense, especially coming from Fox news. The killers had two guns and two assault rifles all bought legally and a few thousand rounds of ammo. If you believe that is a large cache, two people each owning a gun and a rifle then you have no idea of how many people in this country have even more weapons and ammo. There are gun dealers with over a half million rounds of ammo in the United States, look up FPS Russia on YouTube and look at the sort of weapons he has access to. By the way, he is not really Russian.

The shooters in San Bernardino were definitely Muslim with one shooter being of Arab decent and the other of Pakistani decent (Pakistan is in Asia, not Arabia and it used to be part of India). They were not sophisticated with weapons. The bombs they mailed failed to detonate because they were not made properly. It may turn out that these two radical Muslims on a Jihad; but, we don't know that yet and I myself am not convinced. The whole point of a terrorist act is to let people know what you are fighting for or against. These shooters did not say anything.