Radicals vs. moderates: British Muslims at crossroads

CNN reported At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is: "I come to slaughter all of you."

He is right. That is what Mohammed said and did. The question is whether Muslims want to act as if it is the 7th Century, and be in a state of war with the West, and have the West wipe them out, or do they prefer following the Five Pillars of Islam, and living in peace in the 21st century.

"We are the Muslims," said Omar Brooks, an extremist also known as Abu Izzadeen. "We drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad."

7th Century Jihad is like that; 21st Century Jihad for most Muslims is an internal struggle to do as Allah wants you to do.

Anjem Choudary, the public face of Islamist extremism in Britain, added that Muslims have no choice but to take the fight to the West.

Then the West should fight back.

"What are Muslims supposed to do when they are being killed in the streets in Afghanistan and Baghdad and Palestine? Do they not have the same rights to defend themselves? In war, people die. People don't make love; they kill each other," he said. But in the same debate, held on the prestigious grounds of Dublin's Trinity College in October, many people in the crowd objected. "These people, ladies and gentleman, have a good look at them. They actually believe if you kill women and children, you will go to heaven," said one young Muslim who waved his finger at the radicals. "This is not ideology. It's a mental illness."

Well put.