I am Stanford summer student for 2008, and I was not even granted the visa! I lost hundreds of dollars, faced insults at the embassy, did not even get the visa, and that's it.

I would be crazy if I even think of applying for a U.S. visa again! It's a dignity matter.

It's America's rights to protect it's land, but it's not America's right to be paranoid about Islam forever.

If America wants to continue to be the leader in this world, then America has to keep it's doors open... there is no choice!

It's really so weird for me that America is acting like that, while we are in the globalization time... I can order books from Amazon, sell my old items on ebay, look at any street in America using Google maps, make a new friendships with guys at Stanford, and read nytimes at a time while I am in Cairo, Egypt!

It's very weird because America focuses much more on the physical security, while leaving the online security, which looks much dangerous for me!

The minimum wage moron (MWM) on the desk said my visa should have another piece of paper attached - he was wrong, but you can't appeal, you can't question, you can't see his superior. Fortunately my institute is famous enough (and my project has Nasa/goverment/military links) that they managed to get a letter from Washington confirming I worked there. Then I just had to arrive at the INS office at 5:00am queue all day to be shouted at by another bunch of MWM because there was nothing wrong with my Visa and I should have had it stamped at the airport.

But it has put me on some sort of list - which means an extra search and bag check now whenever I fly in the US.

Did anyone faced such troubles before 9/11? Believe me, America did not even care about activating it's immigration laws as it's happening now.

extra search and bag check now whenever I fly in the US.

These words remind me with what an egyptian girl told me, when she traveled to U.S.: "Their procedures are very repetitive"

Why would they keep make a search everytime you travel, since they already knew that you are working for the government, and you look like a "low risk traveller", according to DHS!

If America is serious about it's security, then they should make it automated with "human editors".

The Department of state in D.C. is talking about work shortage... I don't know how does Americans check their security at their airports, but if they can have automated systems with data mining figures, and automated detection for "high risk travelers", then it should allow them to keep "secure", keep costs low, no need for more employees, and it's done!

I think that Usama Fayyad can do such a thing for them.

I regret that I have but 8 karma points to give.

Islam, like all religious faiths, is predicated on the notion that rational thought is to be subjugated to some holy book or higher power. As such, Islam, and all other faiths (including even every moderate branch of mainstream religions in the U.S.) are susceptible to radicalization and militarization. While abortion clinic bombers are currently a much smaller problem than Muslim suicide bombers on a pure numbers basis, the potential is still there.

That said, Islam has proven itself to be exceedingly prone to militarization. The subordination of the intellect is an explicit tenet of even the name of the religion. The intellects of Muslims are, by definition, enslaved to the Koran and, by common practice throughout the world, enslaved to two-bit Mullahs and the insipid fatwas they issue. Western secular civilization, by definition, has not only the right but the obligation to be paranoid about Islam for as long as it take Islam to prove itself benign.

The only reason the western secular civilization need not immediately take remedial action against other, more moderate, strains of religious belief is that, currently, their capacity for sheer mindless barbaric murderousness has been rendered latent by the secularizing force of modern technology and society. Specifically, for example, there is no danger that printing an image of the Christian god will result in mobs of anti-intellectual zealots rioting in the streets, overturning and burning vehicles while chanting, "Death to America!" There is that danger with Islam.

It is only radical and misguided political correctness to say that Islam is not the enemy of the west, when Islam itself is explicitly opposed to such shining examples of western rationality and moral values as: 1) The seeking of equality of opportunity for women, 2) The seeking of knowledge via the scientific method, even if (and especially if) it leads to the overthrow of current understanding or doctrine, 3) Due process and commensurate punishment for individuals accused and found guilty, respectively, of crimes, 4) The separation of religious entities from the government, and so on.

Any sect that explicitly and in its founding texts is opposed to virtues such as the ones listed above is not only an enemy of the West, but an enemy of the scientific method that has brought so much benefit to mankind and even an enemy of every great thinker since the Enlightenment. I am not ashamed of my hatred for Islam, nor of my dislike for other organized religions. We can thank Islam for shepherding rationalism through the Christian Dark Ages but, currently, its only other gift to mankind is showing us explicitly how severe the latent danger of the religious mind really is.

Although you admitted that you are an Islam hater, I really find it useless to make a debate with you. Do you know why? Because most of the information you listed above is wrong!

You have made the same mistake that many others do everyday... You judge on Islam just because of less than 0.000000001% of Muslims have declared the war against America.

Do you think that Islam agrees on bombs? If there is a religion that asks you to kill others, then it's not worth believing in it!

I am sure that when you will have the correct information about Islam, and about Muslims too, your point of view will be totally changed!

How many bombers are out there? Million bombers? Although million bombers is not realistic number, but even if it's truth, then there are more than 1.5 Billions muslims in the world!

Devide 1 million/1.5 billion and then * 100 , and look at the percentage!

Having said that, the proportion of orthodox, Koranic literalists to more liberal Muslims does seem to be significantly higher than the proportion of Christian biblical literalists to more liberal Christians I think this is the point mkn was trying to make, even if using that to justify hatred makes him look kind of dumb.

And yeah... most Muslims don't really take their religion as seriously the intellectual framework commands... although we suppose to take Islam as a framework for our lives!