“All Islamic organizations in America should be the No. 1 enemy. All of them,” he says.

Why should we shut down every mosque and not shut down every Catholic church? If every American Imam is bent on terrorism, than why isn’t every Catholic priest bent on molesting children? Firstly, because neither statements are true. Secondly, this is the U.S. where we have freedom of religion and Muslims have as much right to this land as a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, or atheist for that matter.

I realize that Islamic terror is a worse issue and more difficult to deal with than Catholic priests molesting kids (well, theoretically!). I don’t want to get bogged down in those issues really. I only make the comparison to illustrate how impractical and quite frankly, unAmerican these ideas are.

Would closing down every mosque even work? Did it work during the Spanish Inquisition when Jews were forced to flee, die or convert? Or any other time Jews were murdered, kicked out of their countries or forbidden to practice their religion? Are we OR our religion dead? Nope.

In fact, there is no one solution that works or countries like Israel, Pakistan and Britain would be doing it. It’s not just complex, but each country has its own unique issues and political structures. Israel/Palestine is one. Iraq/Afghanistan another. The Sudan and Yemen. Syria, Iran, Hizbollah (aiding terror, in the least), on and on. Even Saudi Arabia, a nation we have a good relationship with, maybe the best in the Arab world, is mired in terrorism.

The heads of the beasts are the Taliban, Al-Queda, Hamas, Hizzbolah (at the top). This is where the main focus has to be. In some instances, there are no choices but to kill them and we have been successful at that.

Home grown terrorism, at least in my mind, isn’t where the crux of the problem lies, even though a handful of Americans have turned terrorist. We shouldn’t ignore the issue, of course, and have to be vigilant. However, if we turn our backs on the very people (Muslims) who are only seeking to live normal, productive lives in Western society, we actually ruin out best chances of discovering the home-grown terrorists. Wouldn’t we want to strengthen our trust in Muslims communities to have them help us fight this problem?

I believe if Shoebat had a real interest in fighting terror that didn’t have to do with Christian conversion, promoting Christianity, or just money, he would be conducting these conferences flanked by an imam on one side a rabbi on the other. Where all 3 religions could figure out solutions, with law enforcement, strengthen each other and realize we have to do it as a group.

Sorry. That’s longer than I anticipated!