Look, I hate me some Muslim extremists as much as the next guy, but I look forward with fond anticipation to the day when Michele Bachmann falls from the public eye. We have some real coo-coos in Congress these days. Just remember that when contemplating sending any Republican to Washington whether it be House or Senate. You are contributing to this nonsense when you do so.

Sorry Juliette, but radical Muslims are the enemy. Nidal Hassan has shown that political correctness is the prevailing ethic at many levels of our government, where it is seen as a badge of honor to elevate Muslims to higher levels. In Hassan's case, it led to death and destruction at Fort Hood. Muslims MUST have a higher level of scrutiny, because, while not all Muslims are jihadists; all jihadists ARE Muslim.

I'm not sure if there is any purpose being served by Ms. Kayyem by this particular piece. I respect what she is attempting to do, however the inability for some to see beyond ethnic or religious identity makes it impossible to enlighten them regarding this particular subject. Even Sen. McCain has taken to the Senate floor to disavow this malicious attack. Regretfully there will be few who will call Ms. Bachman to task. (NP) Ms. Bachman is of course appealing to that sector of any society that is full of hate, fear and paranoia. She is attempting to add to the chorus of white noise that says the current President is a foreigner, not one of us, whoever us is. Ms. Bachman doesn't believe the young lady is a Muslim extremest. Ms. Bachman simply has no shame when it comes to personal destruction for political gain. Like so many she plays the part of the Christian, but in the end really only cares about Ms.Bachman.

Ever heard of Stephen Coughlin? Back around 2008 he was one of a very few, if not the only expert on Islam working within the DoD. A Muslim staffer named Hesham Islam working for Under Secretary of Defense Gordon English managed to get Coughlin fired because of his outspoken warnings about Islamic infiltration. Since then the situation has only gotten worse. There is an on-going and wide ranging systematic purging from official directives, training manuals and courses any wording or references that Muslims might in any way shape or form find offensive. This purge has spread to the FBI and DHS as well. The pressure to sanitize all discussion about Islam is coming from somewhere, its not just happening in a vacuum. It's long past time when Congress should get off their butts and find out the how, the why and who the prime movers are. At this point in time the biggest threat to our national security is coming from Islamic terrorism and its travelling companion, Islamic sharia law. It's not coming from Nazi's, communists or any number of other past threats, it's coming from Islamic terrorism/sharia. That's just a plain simple fact. What is happening is our society is being conditioned to believe that the threat is not real, or at the very least it is overblown.

Thank you for a valuable set of comments from the heart. I share your distaste for discrimination against any religious or ethnic group. That includes the Arab Christians who are slowly but surely being driven from Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq by Muslim fanatics. It also includes the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were driven from Morocco, Yemen, and other Arab nations by intolerant forms of Arab nationalism and Islam. Where we part company, Juliette, is that I have come to believe since 9/11 that there is a real threat to liberty in the world from Muslim extremism. Muslims who espouse jihad against the West, as Major Nidal did, deserve scrutiny, not liberal tolerance. Mosques that train jihadists and funnel money to Hezbollah deserve to be shut down. Groups like CAIR that apologize for jihadists deserve criticism.

Seems like McCarthyism will soon be replaced by Bachmannism. These Tea Party paranoid rants about specific ethnic groups are a throwback to the early 50s play book of black balling and character assassination.

Where did Ms. Kayyem disagree with you regarding "extremism" in Mosques or in any form. I can't find it. Or did you simply wish to put your anti-jihadist feelings in print. In fact I don't know of any American who supports Jihadists. I haven't heard any politician say let's go jihad. (NP) As to their being a threat to American democracy, I fear a return of McCarthyism far more than I fear jihadists. Fact is when camels can fly, living in the most powerful nation in the world, I might, might mind you, lose a seconds sleep.

Civilizational jihad is an existential threat to the West. That's settled and we all have to start working with that. (Sorry to have to alert you to that Globe liberals, but you remain so uneducated on this). The Muslim Brotherhood has active chapters in the US fomenting and engendering terrorism , as proven in the Holy Land trials a few years ago. Steven Coughlin has indeed documented the MB penetration into the pentagon and other branches of the government. We should wholeheartedly support the calls for Bachmann to investigate the penetration. Juliette Kayem, you should focus your writing energies on the , horrible genocide that Christians, Jrws and other minorities are undergoing by their Muslim masters in Africa and the Middle East. Why do you ignore that ?

Michelle Bachmann's loathsome attempts to smear this fine public servant remind me of the mother in the book and film "The Manchurian Candidate." The same poisonous McCarthyite stance, the same appeal to the public's worst instincts. And of course, the mother turns out to be the real subversive. Bachmann fills the bill beautifully.

John McCain is the interesting person in all this. More than once he has stood against the extremists in his own party. When Dick Cheney and John Yoo were advocating and/or defending torture being as American as apple pie, John McCain stood up and told the draft dodgers in the Bush Administration that he knew torture far more intimately than any Republican hack or the writers on the TV show "24 Hours. He knew both that it was un-American and that it simply didn't work. Now comes the clarion call of a new McCarthyism. John McCain stands tall once again, telling Ms. Bachman that her new McCarthyism is un-American and it simply doesn't work. Let's give credit where credit's due. I have real differences with Sen. McCain on many topics but when he stands up for basic American principles, I salute him.

It's that kind of thinking that resulted innocent Japanese-Americans being imprisoned during World War II even as their sons fought and died for the US. Shame on you.

Evangelical Christianity is a bigger threat to the West than "civilizational jihad". We allow religious lunatics like Bachmann to gain and consolidate power among her equally irrational base, so why would any rational person think we're going to eliminate another form of it elsewhere?

Evangelical Christianity is a bigger threat to the West than "civilizational jihad". We allow religious lunatics like Bachmann to gain and consolidate power among her equally irrational base, so why would any rational person think we're going to eliminate another form of it elsewhere?

Evangelical Christians are being murdered across Africa and the Middle East by Muslims. The reverse is not true. You are simply wrong.

Not to mention cuckoos.