You know, tripwire, in the midst of all your vehemance and
angst, the opinions that you outlined are shared by most Muslims in
Singapore and Malaysia. Nobody in their right mind would continue
to follow a faith that consistently teaches violence and
intolerance. I have the blood of our Chinese forefathers in me, but
I'm also a Muslim and a Singaporean. As the Quran quite explicitly
states:
"Fight those who fight against you along God's way, yet do not
initiate hostilities; God does not love aggressors." (Holy Quran
2:190)
"If they stop, let there be no more hostility except towards
wrongdoers." (Holy Quran 2:193)
Islam as a religion is not evil, and Muslims as a whole do not
condone the violent acts of terrorists. Just as Christians are able
to condemn the acts of Christian terrorists like Timothy McVie,
Muslims also know how to identify what is "right" and what is
"wrong"...but its often very difficult to distinguish these matters
because nothing is ever black and white. True, the attack on New
York does not deserve to go unpunished. True, suicide bombers in an
Israeli marketplace are also horrendous acts...but equally bad is
the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from their
native homes, the murder of scores of Muslim youths in Palestine
and Jerusalem. You do not have to be a Muslim to understand the
injustice of it, right? When the Chinese tanks started rolling over
the student protestors in Tianemen Square, I felt the anger too,
the vehemance that you posses in such generous abundance. When the
planes crashed into the World Trade Centre Towers, I prayed that
whoever did this will be hanged. For the culprit is nothing but a
murderer.
It's easy to take the "wayward" responses of a dozen Muslims who
say things like "U.S deserve it" and reflect it back on the whole
community...but is this a fair deduction? I know a hundred other
Muslims who condemn the attacks. In our weekly Friday prayers, we
pray for justice to be done, and for god to accept the victims of
the WTC.
Nobody wants these things to happen to Singapore, our beloved
country. I love this place, not only because it is a baeutiful
country, but it is one of the only nations in the world that
manages to have a solid foundation of multi-culturism and
multi-ethnicity. When we give a seat in the MRT, we don't look to
see if the person who needs it is a Malay, Indian or Chinese. Our
compassion and understanding are our greatest assets. And they will
be our most powerful weapons in the fight that is about to come, if
it comes. If the whole community, Chinese, Malay, Indian, Muslim,
Christian, Hindu, Buddhist treats each other with mutual respect
and complete assimilation, how strong a foothold can any mad
monster like Osama gain in this region.
Indeed, I am pretty sure our "crackdown" on these people will be
harsher than even the U.S. Because unlike them, we have totally no
qualms about hanging our criminals!! 
Another thing I'd like to mention is that Allah is not an
exclusivly Muslim or Malay term for god. It's an Arabic translation
for god. Arab Christians and Jews call god Allah too. Just as the
Chinese call their gods "shen(2)".
Well, long thread. I hope it's worth at least 2 cents...")