Sorry, Neil, I guess I wasn't making my point as clearly as I thought. Perhaps this will be clearer:

1. Mousethief's post, of September 2, 12:06, said that the purpose of dressing as a Muslim on 9/11 was "to show solidarity with the ordinary Muslims who are associated with the terrorists and in some cases assumed to be terrorists themselves, merely because they are Muslims".

2. An attempt to stop a terrorist attack would not be murder; it might be heroism; it might be a tragic mistake; it would not be murder.   

3. If West Virginians assumed that people were terrorists "merely because they were Muslim", they would attempt to stop the (presumed) terrorists from killing. They would (in this hypothetical situation) undoubtedly first try reporting the (presumed) terrorists to the proper authorities. If those authorities took no action, then the common people would take action themselves.

3. However, the common people have NOT taken direct action. This is strong evidence that the common people are perfectly capable of distinguishing between terrorists and ordinary Muslims..

4. I don't really think that the people of the Southern Appalachians are uniquely able to distinguish between terrorists and ordinary Muslims. People all over this great country have been proving, for almost 9 years now, that they have this ability. If Americans were really as bigoted as they are sometimes accused of being, there would be no Muslims left in America.

5. The implication that ordinary Americans need to be taught a lesson by "enlightened" people costuming themselves as if they were Muslims is ridiculous.

6. It is repugnant that such "enlightened" people would have the gall to choose September 11, of all days, to so costume themselves, imagining that they would thus be teaching us common people a lesson, a lesson that the absence of anti-Muslim "pogroms" shows we had learned even prior to 9/11/01.   

Kent

P.S.

What I have said about the U.S.A., of course, also applies to the U.K., Australia, Israel, and every other country which, in spite of being attacked by terrorists, continues to have a thriving and free Muslim community.