How could anyone be angry with the U.S.?

Anti-American rallies held across Muslim world -- Tens of thousands of Muslims marched Friday in Islamic countries from Asia to the Middle East, burning symbols of America to protest the reported desecration of the Qur'an by military personnel at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo, Bay, Cuba.

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In response to this report, a conservative comrade gives a deep and thoughtful response:
Let the idiots hold their rallies and marches if they don't have anything else productive to do in those Muslim countries....

I wish more Americans were a little more vocal and would protest the continuous assault on our religious freedoms and our Constitution and our long-standing laws by the socialist elites and the anti-American ACLU scumbag lawyers in this country.

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To you my friend:

I acknowledge that there is a tendency on the left to capitalize on reports like those in the article below as evidence that U.S. policies are corrupt and those in power must, by definition, be evil and rightly deserve international scorn. Unfortunately, it appears that anti-american sentiment is continuing to grow (with or without the Qur'an incident) and our adventure in Iraq is desperately close to civil war. * I can already hear the fingers typing out all the various Iraq war defenses, chest-pounding "USA is #1" slogans and the "we bring enlightenment and freedom to the world" spin. I think we can all agree that no one is being swayed to other side of the argument, so it can probably be put to rest...though I suspect it will live on.

With regard to the statement by Markus, I am unsure what assault on religious freedom he is referring to. It certainly can not be Christian religious freedom, unless he considers the separation of church and state to be an assault. I apologize for assuming that it was a Christian perspective, but you almost never hear a Buddhist or Jew in this country vocalizing such concerns. I do not believe there is any systematic attempt to subvert Christianity in this country. I do believe that religion should be left to individual, family and church - not practiced in public schools, government spaces, buildings, etc. I have been a student of comparative religion for years and I enjoy the history, art and expression of all religions. I even enjoy a good religious debate. Religion has a place in our society and that is as a private practice by individuals, families and private organizations.

As to the implied leftward, godless trajectory of this country, I have to once again disagree. Most of the research on the subject (which does not include O'reilly's xenophobic machinations) shows that the U.S. has been moving to the right on many key social issues, and most certainly has moving in more religiously conservative direction. I refer you to a fine book on the subject, which has received much conservative acclaim as well, Right Nation. It is written by two British researchers who look at religious trends in the U.S. over the last 50 years and compare them to the other leading industrialized nations (yes, that does include Western Europe and your much loved France- but hey, it also includes our war buddy and friend Britain!) Their findings support the notion that the U.S. is solidly Christian, attends church more frequently and is more socially conservative than all of the other nations surveyed.

Anticipating the obvious reply, I do not consider the stem cell research, equal rights for gays/lesbians/bi-sexuals, etc to be properly addressed in a religious forum. These issues are matters of science and human rights of the modern world, not to be defined and decided by fallible human interpretation of ancient religious texts. And let's be honest, most of the religious leaders involved in these debates are of the "literalist" camp, with an absolutist notion of scripture. A very narrow and, in my opinion, unwise interpretation of scripture and unbefitting an advanced and modern society such as ours.

Finally, the socialist elite? Man, I wish I knew where to find them - I would sign up in a second!! Get real, the socialist movement in this country has almost completely disappeared over the last few decades. An unfortunate happening as I firmly believe this country could benefit from a vibrant socialist dialogue.

Enough for now. Feel free to hit with all the conservative zeal you can muster, but try keep it somewhat constructive.

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Qur'an/Koran
Muslim protest
Guantanamo scandal
Newsweek