One thing i was wondering. I don't know how much this is true. But in the 1980s until before the break up of the Soviet Union, the Afghan Jihadees were being hailed, armed, supported, nourished, encouraged and fed by the Americans for waging a Jehad against "the Evil Empire (Soviet Union)". Osama bin Laden at that time was a great ally of America, a friend, whom America supported, for fighting a Holy War against the Soviet Union. Now for the same reason, he has become, and the AFghani freedom fighters have become, the enemies of America. Their very ideologies, that is Islam, have become the enemy of America, solely because "the Evil Empire" has been replaced by America itself! Now America is targetting Islam itself for just doing what America wanted it to do in the 1980s!! Now Osama is an enemy of America for the same reason he was once a friend of America!! Does the average American know this, before he or she blames and threatens Islam for being evil???

Jared:

You are correct. "It is the hearts and mind campaign that has to be won" . Unfortunately, Palestinians are not interested in their hearts and minds to be won by Israelis; and the Israelis are not going to win hearts and minds of Palestinians, no matter how much they try, unless they hand over Palestine to Palestinians; the differences between the 2 parties are just too wide to bridge. After 62 years, Israel is not ready to leave.

It is a losing game. So, why does one bother to go on playing a losing game.

Romesh: You show extreme naivete or perhaps you choose not to comprehend In the changing world order, it is the hearts and mind campaign that has to be won .

Romesh:
You are right. If US was at war with world of Islam, Islamic world would have been pulverized by this time. It is so pitable, that Muslims are so obscessed by these nonsensical conspiracy theories. It si sad.
kam
canada

Peace be Upon You Believers and good day to the real followers of Christ & Moses (AS),

We all have grown in belief & disbelief, now ask yourself, what is the basis of my beliefs? Are they authentic?

Now you judge...

We all want Peace, now tell me what is the Religion & Way of Life that by itself, is Peace?

Let us all get real!

I almost fell over my chair when I read the NYTimes article about Israel's "act of defending itself" and the You Tube clip that does not allow any comments to flow (How's that for a real You Tube clip?)...

Let us all pray that these hostilities will end and to those who plan to wage war and destroy others, God Knows Best.

the situation is being delt with in the usual way by jewish spin artists slanting /twisting the incident to gain world oppinion , while america condones any and every move israel makes,american jews are formost enemies of gentiles, the identification and concept of zionism is essential for all to become aware of,

The author writes "How can your average Muslim anywhere in the region not think that US is at war with Islam?".

If US were at war with Islam, then US would have bombed the holiest sites (like Mecca, Medina, Karbala, Qom) and the most important educational instutions like Al Azhar; US has done no such thing. Rather it is the muslims themselves who have been raining havoc in Karbala, and in Mecca (remember 1979). Sorry, muslims are at war themselves with Islam, not the US. However, if muslims want US to be at war with Islam, the above targets will be the easiest ones; and the war will be over in a few minutes; all muslims will have nothing left but to cry and mourn, because muslims have no capabilities to inflict any kind of damage to Vatican.

Sorry, you cannot convince me that US is at war with Islam.

Given the terrorising actions of Israel, the Somali pirates must not be condemned for their
raids on the seas.
I see no difference at all!

Mr. Chander:
USA never condems any terrorist act by Israel.
USA absolutely encourages and is always supportive of their every action.
USA maintains Mr. H. Mubarks position.
Musharaf's invasion of the Red mosque was to find the terrorists for the USA.

mr romesh you seem to be die hard evangelist or afbi agent . for your kind information recent british commander in fghnaistan who is perosnal advisor to david cameron has openly stated on the bbc news the west is aginst Islam and is at war with Islam and said that if muslims try to live by thier shariah rules they will not be allowed by the west in any pat of the world becaus the west would like evryone including the brainwashed and the cow like hindus like you to follow them in debauchery, homicide, suicide, homosexuality, fraud, organ trade, interst banking to indebt the entire world, pronography, slavery now in modern world is econmic slave to the west which are in turn slaves of the jews , the jews have fooled them by means of disney world and disney land and material things to kepp the christians drunk and stupid and make them fulfill the jewish agendas of the russina khazars .musharraf , et alll are similar peopl wthere are certain acts you do that make you fall outside the fold of Ilam and musharraf is not muslim from any angle at all ,but if jews , hindus and christians do all those eveil acts whcih I just stated because they have crossed their limits in the disobedience of the creator by changing thier holy books, disrespecting the prophets and messangers of ALLAH... the lord and have become wretched to the ultimate extent.they continue to still be called jews , but it is not true for muslims without shariah there can be no Islam and that will never happen no matter how much force you or your masters the jews and their supporters use. the world is owned by Allah and he will have it cleansed of the wrongdoers very soon inshallah remember that the world and good people in it existed before america and Israel existed so if you are alive just watch the lords power

If Islam want's a religious war then Biblical Christianity will be ready to take Islam on.

As long as super powers support Israel's aggressive policies, the
middle east problem can not resolved. We have to take middle
ground and condemn the wrong action and support the right
action. if we do not do that we will make our country weak
politically as well as economically.

A K M Mohiuddin, the partners with Israel is America, but Amercian partners are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Gulf Countries etc..... Please complete the sentence.

We Muslims should see our dirty faces in the mirror. We lost the spiritual and social leadership about 600 years ago. This was the greatest tragedy in the history of humankind. But, the greater tragedy is that we still neither recognize that incident and on top of that we do not even wanted to sit and have serious and critical analyses why we have lost the world leadership in terms of spiritual and social aspect 600 years ago. We were the masters of the world materialistically even 200 years ago. However, the greatest loss was the social and spiritual - and that is the real one. Come to the current situation, can Saudi Arabia stops the flowing of oil? No. Can Pakistan leverages its nuclear arsnel to warn Israel? No. Can we hang Musharraf publicly for attacking Red Mosque and massacring 500 toddlers (I don't care those kids were Hindus or Muslims)? No. Can we condem the joint Muslim attack upon Iraq in 1991? No. America is wrong by supporting Israel! I have no problem with that. However, can Egypt pull out its Ambassador in protest for good? No. Can all the Muslim countries vow to punish those companies who are trading with Israel? No. Alright. If we are so much of Muslims, can we organize massive protests all over the world without violence and cheap slogans? Can we force our governments to pull their Ambassadors from Unites States?????? Hello. Sir, we are in mess. We are disoriented. We are hypocrites. We are unreal people. Like Allama Iqbal has said, Muslims are not even realizing that how and why they fell apart like Children of Isreael hundreds of years ago. Can we at least shut our mouths please? We hate each other. We worship our imams. We hate other school of thoughts. Unless we come to the terms of the Glorious Qurn, we have no chance to bounce back.

Good take on it, Paul.

Are we at war with Islam?

Well, what would happen, if Muslims officially said and wrote that they want to change the Vatican or the Christian seminaries in Europe and the Americas? It's not talk about education, science or technology, mind you. It would be considered intrusion, meddling, flagrant overture, etc., if not more.

Well, US, if not European (I haven't had the opportunity to access them) government documents refer to impacting Muslim madrassahs directly as a part of the US government's diplomatic and aid agenda to Muslim countries.

How is that going to improve the lives of the Muslims?

So, one is left wondering, can a people feel and act warrishly without expressing it in so many words, even denying it? Afterall, propaganda today is no less complicated and insidious than some of Picasso's paintings.

Besides, who defines whether it feels war-like - the prepetrator or the victim?

First to Romesh Chander, the examples you gave to butress your point have holes in them, in that the incidents as you claimed both happened in EGYPT and PAKISTAN. This atrocity of Israel occurred in INTERNATIONAL waters. So Israel is calling the world a bluff and is saying we can attack anybody anywhere on earth cos we get the might, just like they did the killin of the 'Hamas' agent in Dubai. Ramesh if anybody is suffering from intellectual whatever its YOU.

Now to the article, our christians brethren in this country introduced the concept of going to Israel on pilgrimage just to rival the muslims annual obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca. They did this not cos of the rivalry but also their ardent support and love for the 'jews' in Israel. How ironic the black man that the average israel considers the lowest of the gentiles is now claiming a love affair with the ENEMY. Where am i heading to? Obama and the state of Israel. We may not be seeing the true color of this relationship for now but my bet is that at the end of it all the result is gonna be worse than the Bush era. Don't mind the Indonesian background garbage and the speech in Egypt. These are necessary in order to cover up the continuation of the evil machinations of the zionists and to cool the fire genrated from the blunder of Iraq by Bush. My prediction is that the worse is yet to come.

I want to put simple question before so called world community, how it had reacted, if it had been done by any muslim country against any non muslim country? Everybody knows they would have bombarded that country.

Certainly world is biased against Muslims. So called world community, US, and UN are not impartial. It is time to say, by entire justice loving countries, enough is enough.

Israel and US are threat to world peace and stability. Entire world should unite and isolate these two countries, unless they agree to heed.

According to the US, two countries in the world, itself and Israel, can say or do anything they like.Those who cannot agree with them must be evil people. What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is doing in partnership with the US.

The author writes "How can your average Muslim anywhere in the region not think that US is at war with Islam?".

Wait a minute. Now what has US do with this Israeli action? Is US involved in it? Absolutely not. Now why should US even be involved in it? Israel is not a colony of US. Now if Hosni Mubarak puts members of muslim brotherhood in jail, why does not every muslim blame not US for this action? Or when General Musharaff invades Red Mosque in Islamabad, why does every muslim not blame US for this action?

The most absurd article one can come across. Funny, title of the article does not even match with the contents. The usual intellectual dishonesty / absurdity of the left (Jewish left, Christian left, and muslim left, if there is any muslim left).

How can US be at war with Islam in Israeli / Palestinian conflict? May be your average muslim is too brain washed by those obscdruntaist mullahs. Hey, can't you guys find any better arguments. Sorry to be blunt. But intellectual dishonesty / hypocrisy and stupidity does make my blood boil.