Re: Jim Barros’s July 3 letter "Living with differences — or not":
Here we go again with the same knee-jerk reactions.
Why do I live here? I am a U.S. citizen, and America is my home. That does not mean I should not like all to enjoy the safety, security and open brotherly hospitality that I have enjoyed elsewhere. Is life perfect in Oman and Libya? Of course not, but people in many countries Barros and others vilify do have qualities which, if adopted here, would improve our lives.
As for living with our differences, America has fought wars with England, Spain and Germany. We just happen to be able to live with those differences. I missed the bit in my letter where I defended Saddam Hussein. Of course, he was a staunch ally of the United States when he was slaughtering Iranians. U.S. foreign policy has been based on convenience, not morality. The pious hypocrisy used to justify “regime changes� shouldn't fool anyone. Am I glad to see Saddam go? Yes, but I am not happy to see America bogged down in a financially and morally bankrupting war that was avoidable.
More that a billion people practice and defend the religion of Islam. The Bible contains plenty of incitement to violence against nonbelievers. Christians have killed more people in the name of religion than any other group on Earth. Thankfully, most Christians, like most Muslims, do not pick out and concentrate on quotations taken out of context by rabble-rousers. The Quran specifically excludes Christians and Jews from being coerced in respect of their religious beliefs. That is why Christians and Jews lived for centuries in the Muslim World. In contrast, Christians in Spain disposed of 500,000 Muslims in religious cleansing in a period of 50 years.
— Yahya Merchant, Simi Valley
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