Clowns to the Left of me, Jokers to my Right...

For a long time now I've noticed a dismaying trend in the so-called Counter-Jihad (someday, perhaps, to become a more robust and consistent A.I.M. -- Anti-Islam Movement): namely, that most people seem to be on one side or the other -- either way over to the freaky right in a hectic fever of conspiracy theory that sees some nefarious Western evil as worse than (because it's the "real" problem pulling the strings of) the Islam problem; or way over on the other side in a squishy asymptotic nougaty softness deriving its sustenance from the broader PC MC mainstream it pretends to be against.

Thus, for the former, one gets a strong whiff of it whenever one visits the comments threads of Bare Naked Islam or (slightly less so) Gates of Vienna; while for the latter one's sensibilities are regularly assaulted with its insult to our intelligent concern about Muslims when one visits the comments threads of Jihad Watch.

Beyond these two dismal camps, there does seem to exist a "silent" group -- whether a majority or minority, it's hard to tell, as they tend to remain rather passive.  At a moment in history where a Conversation about the problem of Islam is more than ever urgently needed -- and at a moment where such a Conversation would find enormous facilitation through the Internet -- we see, instead, disarray, passivity, and obtuse wrongheadedness every which way we turn.

As I've appealed before, we need to avail ourselves of this amazing opportunity the Internet affords, and begin to have a conversation in one place.  My door is always open for this purpose.  I'd like to see dozens, hundreds of those concerned about the problem of Islam -- you all know who you are, you who spend a lot of time in the comments threads of Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, Debbie Schlussel, Bare Naked Islam, Gates of Vienna, and many other sites -- come in here for the express purpose of having a conversation about this problem of Islam.  Some might protest, "what's to talk about? we already know it's bad".  That's not the point.  Obviously, there still has to be a conversation, if we can't seem to agree on what to DO about the problem -- and that semi-incoherent inability to pin down the prescription, reflects a semi-incoherent inability to pin down the diagnosis.