Nature of the conflict

A wise man once said, “God must loves fools; he made so many of them.” An example of that truth is the black-robed fools of the 9th Circuit who apparently feel all Muslims are good, which is just as incorrect as those who say all Muslims are evil.

Conflicts in the past centuries were never caused by wide religious differences, where most conflicts had Christians and Muslims on both sides. The Moorish conquest of the majority of Iberian Peninsula in 711 was territorial and mercantile in nature, and few Christians were harmed once control was established. Later King Ferdinand persecuted and expelled the Muslims and the Jews, who were then rescued by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid.

Throughout history, there have been frequent occurrences of Muslim leaders being tolerant of Christians while predecessors or successors were despots to all their subjects. Religious intolerance around Jerusalem was used to trigger the Crusades, but was not widespread across the Muslim world then nor now.

This is not a defense of the radical Islamic crazies in the Middle East. Some scholars attribute Wahhabism for the basis of the violent nature of Sunni radicalism practiced by ISIS and similar groups. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, for whom this strict form of Islam is named, was a conservative cleric whose daughter married into the Saud family, for which Saudi Arabia is named.

We must recognize the majority of Muslims are genuinely decent people as opposed to being at war with their entire faith. The 9th Circuit needs to quit playing the petty game of “We hate Donald” and focus on the reality that dangerous individuals from the six Middle Eastern countries may attempt to enter the United States and inflict acts of terrorism. Restriction and additional screening steps are appropriate no matter what the source of the order. DENNIS L. BOSCH Hot Springs