Yes - I have Muslim Friends from Planck's Constant

Katie-Lee, a reader of mine, left a comment to my article Nothing Wrong with Banning wearing of Hijab asking me, "Please do tell how many Muslim friends do you have?" and "How many Muslim people do you personally know?"

So if I don't personally know any Muslims, I am prohibited from fearing them? I have never in my life actually met or come anywhere near a grizzly bear, but I certainly would show pictures to my children and tell them that an encounter with one is a dangerous, deadly thing. I would certainly instruct them in the best possible way to avoid being attacked. Or should I wait until I personally meet a bear or become friends with one and get mauled before I can counsel anyone with caution?

But it so happens that I have met many hundreds of Muslims in my life and because my company does business in nearly 40 Muslim countries (yes, 40 and growing), it is impossible for me to avoid them.

When I studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem back in 1965 I had a number of Muslim classmates and there were a few that I did become friendly with.

In 1992 I hired a number of Muslim telecommunications programmers, one of whom was born in the same Muslim country and city that I was born in (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and we became friends.

In 1994 I went into the phonecard business and began a relationship with a number of Muslim distributors. There are two that I consider as friends. If you ask how can I be friends with people I fear, it's simple - I don't fear these particular handful of Muslims, although I would prefer if they were not Muslims. They are safe because they live in America and are allowed to have Jewish friends and they are not yet a majority in this country. If we lived in Saudi Arabia, they would not be my friends. There is a danger that if we keep letting Muslims in and Muslims continue to have a high birthrate then eventually, as is now in Eurabia, they will start demanding that the rest of us comply with their notions of what it is to be faithful to God.

I am sure that anyone who has a family dog feels safe with him in the house. But let that same dog run around with a pack of wild dogs and then see how he treats you when the rest of the pack begin to attack you! But even without exposure to a pack, there are millions of dog bites a year of a seemingly docile and "safe" dog against an innocent child. No matter how much you think your dog would never attack your child it happens, it is in the nature of a dog.

In the same manner that I have made friends with Muslims, I have two partners in my telecommunications business who are Liberal Jews. If you have read any of my articles (Idiocracy - A world filled with Liberals and Muslims) you will know that while I fear Muslims I despise Liberals and in particular Liberal Jews. So why do I have business partners I despise? Because they help me make money. Yes, I am a money whore. I am opposed to unrestricted, illegal immigration into this country, but it happens that I make a lot of money from illegal immigrants who buy my phonecards to call Mexico. Would I like it better if had atheist/libertarian partners? Yes. Would I like it better if I could make a ton of money without illegal immigrants? Yes. Would I prefer that my car ran on products that did not come from Saudi Arabia? Again, yes.
But we do not live in a perfect world, nor do I want to live like a fundamentalist Muslim who refuses to shake hands with a Jew and who demands that the world conform to his strict guidelines. I would prefer if the whole world were atheist, but I would not force it at the point of a gun.

So, Katie-Lee, if you thought I was writing bad things about Muslims because I never met one, you are wrong. I have met Muslims who wish me no harm, but I also have met Muslims who do wish me harm and there are many more Muslims who hate me simply because I am a Jew and wish my destruction because that is what their religion teaches them. As long as they are kept to a small minority I find that Muslims seem to be like everyone else in the world: normal people with the same aspirations and hopes as I have. But when in the majority, they will find it hard to ignore:

Likud Nederland,
Islam's mandatory war against Jews and Israel
The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until the Muslims make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"

So the reason I fear Muslims is precisely because I have met them not because I don't know what they are. I have more than a passing acquaintance with the Quran, and in fact I have no doubt that I know more about Islam and Islamic history than the average Muslim. I was not brought up to despise or hate any group and as the picture of me and a man in a bear suit shows, I was not taught to hate bears either. But there is nothing wrong with developing fear based on experience and intellectual research. I fear bears not because I have never met one, but because I have read about bear attacks. Does that mean every bear in the world is a man-eater? I don't care to make that distinction - my life is more important than a fine point in bear-philosophy.

The reason I do not fear Christians is that I live in a country that is a Christian majority and yet I do not have to pay a jizya or tax that I would in a Muslim-majority country. So although there are indeed Christian fanatics, they are the exception rather than the rule. As for Muslim fanatics, although they are in the minority, they rule the majority. And that is what I really fear: a moderate, peaceful, nice-guy Muslim majority ruled by a fanatical minority that wishes my conversion or destruction. Turkey was once almost all Christian, now it's 98+% Muslim, and here we are talking about the most secular, least fanatical Muslim country in the world. In time it will be like Saudi Arabia and 100% Muslim. It's just a matter of time. Unless...