Islam: Cafe Wants to Call Their Bluff, NOW

This writer was in Hubbard this weekend and while walking my dog, Max, I ran into an old buddy and former famous running back at Hubbard High and Navarro Junior College in the early-to-mid 50s, the one and only Dudley Castalow. Dudley and I both tried to come up with an old story or two that would be like new if the other hadn't heard it before (which is not unusual since we have been doing this for too many years to remember very easily). On this day Dudley got me. It seems an old friend named, Gerald Wayne Pursley, had fallen on hard economic times years ago and had driven up what would be called today "a deficit" around town. Well, Dudley says Gerald Wayne went down to J. D.'s Humble Gas Station and asked J. D. if he could write a $25 check for cash. J. D., knowing somewhat about this deficit thing, told Gerald he could, but there was a $15 charge for hot checks. Gerald carefully studied his situation before responding, "Well, in that case, J. D., you better make it for 40."

Not only Gerald, but several other Hubbard folks occasionally played, and still play, a card game named Texas Hold Em. So its not surprising that their card speak bleeds over into political discussions and pretty much everything else. Scott Riddle, who would take either side of any bet at any time for any amount of money with anybody waded into the whole topic of our problem with the Islamic world, "Time to call these Arabs bluff. They keep telling us that terrorists are a tiny number of Muslims, that the majority of Muslims are moderate, and that those who worship true Islam are practicing a very peaceful religion. In fact, anyone that doesn't buy into this explanation is being called a radical, racist, and is against the freedom of religion. Yet the terrorists turn their own children into human bombs in the name of Allah who they say has ordered them to either convert infidels to Islam or kill them. They call it Jihad."

"I couldn't agree more with the problem, Scott," Billy Roy, himself entered this conversation early which always draws considerable interest from the folks. "Even after 9/11 there are dummies who say that we must engage our terrorist enemies, that we must address their grievances. Heck, their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one crazy prophet. Heck, we instill respect in our children towards all religions to a fault in my opinion. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a gentleman shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievances ain't going to be answered by any stinking Obama-type apologies. It just makes them feel we are impotent."

And here came Butch Jackson as usual with both feet, "Our sissy attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened these cowards to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization. Scott, we are locked up in our agreement on this issue, but how do we call whose bluff?"

"The only folks that can really stop this terrorism as it exist today are those who claim to be 'Muslim Moderates'. They say they are against violence and terrorist acts, so we need to make them show it by calling their bluff. We need to wake up and challenge these Muslims to take action against the terrorists, and I don't mean just speaking out. They should completely cooperate with the non-Muslim world to capture or kill Islamic radicals. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. We must either call out these so called moderates to police their own people or assume they are supporters of Jihad themselves, and make them pay the price."

Billy Roy summed it up as usual, "Scott, it is almost as if Obama thinks once the Iranians get nuclear weapons then the free world will be too scared to take actions against the radicals, and he will somehow be off the hook. The time to put our chips on the table is right now."

Otherwise, as Gerald Wayne figured out, this country will have to write a much larger check.

Think about it,

Jim