I gave an example from the book "the reluctant fundamentalist". I believe (not without basis) that it was a very common phenomenon. Not everything comes with a smoking gun or photographic or video vidence. People who want to continue living in the USA have an obvious incentive to hide their true feelings, especially in front of non-Muslim audiences.
True intentions come to the fore under the cover of anonymity provided by the internet or in closed circles.
Now obviously, not every Muslim who immigrated to USA falls in this bucket but a very large number did. There is no way to know which category is bigger, not for you and not for me.
The point being that the people who are opposing this are doing it because they know that the extremists will rejoice in the "weakness" of American democracy against them. The non-extremists should have no specific issue about the same spot.
Same as the KBS was contemptuous of the USA and threatening them even when he was arrested. He was sure of getting the Miranda rights and therefor had only contempt for the USA. He only started cooperating when given the "enhanced treatment".
Did I understand you correctly in that you are referring to a work of fiction by a Pakistani author to make a very broad claim about the sentiments of American Muslims?
You speak of 'true intentions under the cover of anonymity provided by the internet or closed circles', but how on earth can you claim to argue that a majority, or even a significant minority, of American Muslims subscribe to the views expressed 'on the internet', and similarly how are YOU privy to enough 'closed circles' to make a judgment on how many American Muslims believe what? This is really poor substantiation of your argument, built on an edifice of anecdotes, 'secret sentiments' and 'conversations in closed circles' - in essence you have no clue, but are willing to believe the worst about American Muslims, and all Muslims, on the basis of very little.
As for the part about 'neither you nor I can show our claims to be true', that is a fallacious argument. You are the one making the accusation here and ascribing a particular sentiment to American Muslims, and Muslims in general, without any empirical evidence to support your contentions. And in order to make up for the lack of supporting evidence, you want to argue that the accused party needs to prove its innocence, rather than the accused prove guilt. One cannot disprove something that never existed, but one can point to the publicly available statements from Muslim groups and the publicly expressed sentiment against terrorism and the 9/11 attacks to make the case that the expressed sentiment clearly indicates a viewpoint that does not match with the viewpoint you claim American Muslims possess.
A bit off-topic (leaving apart the accuracy of the claim). Indians are not indulging in those activities. It is Pakistani Muslims versus Pakistani Muslims here. The opinions of some Indians may be hardline because of the decades of terror by Pakistan (as they see it) in India. Some may feel this will teach Pakistan that terror is nobody's friend.
BTW, show me one article in the two newspapers that supports terror in Pakistan or anywhere.
The point is not about who is indulging in what activity, but the fact that those tens of thousands of comments on mainstream Indian media sites show Indians as rejoicing in the killings of Pakistanis in terrorist acts, and rejoicing in the misery of Pakistanis in other disasters. Similar comments even appear in mainstream Western sites such as the WaPO, WSJ and NYT. These articles are archived by most of these media sites. Go back and locate the pieces on terrorist attacks or other negative events in Pakistan and read the comments sections yourself. Comments on Indian defence fora and some blogs are another obvious validation of my POV.
BTW, I am referring to the comments made by ordinary Indians reading the articles, not the articles themselves.
As an aside, India is no angel when it comes to supporting 'terrorism', as evidenced by Indian support for terrorists/insurgents in East Pakistan and its support for the LTTE, let alone Pakistani accusations over support for terrorists in Baluchistan.
If you took a Pew/Gallup opinion poll of the 19 terrorists on 9/10. what do you expect the result to be?
This is a red herring.
Even you know that the issue is not about "American Muslims" only. It is about the general perception and whether you like it or not, there is a problem there.
Do you consider yourself an American Muslim BTW?
If you took a poll of the people who massacred 2000 Muslims in Gujarat and the CM Modi before the massacre, what do you think the result will be? Does that imply all Hindus are vile murdering bastards?
The 'red herring' here is your argument - your argument is that a criminal will not admit to a crime before the crime is committed, and therefore, all people belonging to X,Y,Z identity marker common to the criminal are also criminals, despite their 'non-criminal' lives and expressed sentiment to the contrary. That you have to grasp for such absurdities to vilify Muslims only indicates the desperation of your position.
As for myself, I consider myself a Pakistani-American Agnostic Muslim, for so long as I retain that connection to both nations. But if it comes to having to make a choice, it should be obvious where my loyalties lie.
