Comment of the day: "“We wish Muslims to be free and happy in Canada but we insist they are reasonable. Driving in a burka is not reasonable to us. It is dangerous. Asking for a thumbprint instead of a photograph on a driver's license or passport is not considered reasonable here." -- CanadianPOV
Emotions fly at controversial hearings on Muslim Americans
Many were outraged by a congressional investigation into the “radicalization of Muslim Americans,” launched Thursday. While Committee Chairman Peter King said the hearing was neither “radical or un-American,” many of our readers disagreed.
BubbleKush said, “ The U.S. Congress has deteriorated into nothing but a dog-and-pony show. This witch hunt will go down in infamy.” Plank said, “I am willing to give King his chance, but if the hearings are nothing more than Islam bashing, sorry folks, it is a witch hunt, similar to McCarthy and Nazism. “
Others questioned what the uproar was about. blah9999 asked, “Aren't the people in these hearings just talking about Islamic extremism? What's wrong with sitting around and talking about this? Islamic extremism shouldn't be the elephant in the room.”
lordbyron85 answered, “Maybe we can start by recalling the events after 9/11, when Muslim American businesses were broken into and vandalized, when many Muslim American families' lives were threatened, and when law enforcement merely turned a blind eye to all.”
Kiwimama suggested that if those in Muslim communities were disturbed, they should police their own. “What are the American Muslims doing to help prevent the homegrown Muslim terrorist? Muslim leaders need their ‘congregants’ to reach out in good ways to their fellow citizens, not trying to hide away or keep low profiles.” Slag asked, “How come these Muslims havenever protested against Muslim terrorists?”
sw6blues1905 answered, “Why doesn't the Christian community come out and denounce extremist Christian activity.” AndAarrgghh07 said, “Oh you mean just like the Italian communities stopped the Mafia? Or how the Irish communities stopped the IRA (which this congressman supports), or how the black and Hispanic communities stopped the gangs?”
Fear accompanies road to freedom
Recently, bonded laborers – workers in India bound to those who gave them or their forefathers an advance or a loan -- have been spotlighted in CNN’s series on slavery. Many commenters, apparently Indian, wrote to express horror. Some didn’t believe it. Sampath suggested the laborers could not really understand the interviewer's questions in English and that laborers were necessary to extract natural resources. “If one person has a problem with a supervisor, it's not that everyone has. Correspondent should need more guidance on research.”
Ambika responded, “Do you know anything about bonded labor? Being defensive won’t help! If you don’t believe this report, there are hundreds of reports about this made by Indian media. Go read them! Enlighten yourself. Come to Tamilnadu (one of the states that boasts of high literacy rate), I'll show you. Go to Dharmapuri district and do some research. Bonded labor still exists in India. That’s the ugly truth.” Chirag agreed, “I am an Indian and I know one thing: India is only shining in the big cities. You don’t need to go far from a metro to see this happening all around us. It is one thing to have a child labor law and it’s completely different to enforce it.”
Many blamed the problem on the caste system. Abhishek said, “The people in the picture are from the lowest caste! And in shameless states like Uttar Pradesh such things are continuing in modern India! What a shame!” Loke said, “If Indians can’t shed off this caste system, which deprive the poor and enriches the landowners, India will never be able to catch up to China. I personally encountered a receptionist who is a Brahmin but she can’t attend an engineer friend’s wedding because he is of lower caste.“
Vivek replied, “Loke, wake up, I don’t know which India you have experienced firsthand. I know the caste system is bad, and I am against it. But it’s not as bad as you are portraying it to be.” Sendhilkumar replied, “Vivek, Loke is correct. It is a curse upon Indians, and it doesn't matter what generation we are in. We may not witness people practicing caste system in the ‘world’ we live in unless we see the real world (where poverty prevails). If one person in the world sleeps in hunger, the day is meaningless. We see a lot of people spend their money in posh restaurants and people waste food in the same place where people die of hunger.”
Chirag said, “I applaud the hardworking non-governmental organizations who are trying their best to stop this but without the will and backing from the system, it will be many decades before this young boy will see India shining.”
Vegan diet for dogs: A question of thriving vs. surviving
How we love our dogs. But is it love to eliminate meat from their diets? A story about one person’s path to rid her dog of an ear infection got owners arguing.
Some thought it would work. HealingNews said, “I have had a Dalmatian for five years now. I noticed she loved carrots and tomatoes and enjoys grazing on wild sunflower leaves. After putting her on a vegan diet, her skin improved, ear infection got better, missing fur came back, smelled better, and now at close to 11, is one of the healthiest dogs around!“ chiragp86 said, “I had a Doberman in India that was a vegetarian, not vegan, but he lived a full long life. Never fed him dog food; always gave him what we ate. I swear dog food is hyped up by corporations as a necessity for dogs and they don’t really need it. He was always healthy and energetic.”
Some agreed that any diet would be an improvement over commercial pet food. trav202 said, “It seems to me that most of the benefits noticed in the diet are more the result of it being high-quality whole foods than it being vegan. If you're taking the time to cook meals for your dog, of course there's going to be some nutritional benefits. I'm not convinced that it's the lack of animal products.“
Like Poohbearnb, however, many thought that a vegan diet was “extremely selfish and unhealthy for the animal.”inyourhead00 said, “ Yeah, I can't see my 100-pound dog surviving on lettuce or carrots. Sorry, but that's just ridiculous.“AnonVet said, “This is almost as ridiculous as someone feeding their rabbit or horse a strict diet of animal protein because they believe in the Atkins diet.”
OrUnreality said, “The dog can probably survive on a vegan diet for awhile, but expect major problems later on in life. Note the vet recommended a temporary change in diet, not permanent. And a home-prepared or raw diet for dogs is much healthier than prepared dog foods, so of course, temporarily the dog will show improvement. If you want a pet to eat a vegan diet, get a vegan pet, like an iguana.”
Jimvsmij said, “ I knew a girl who converted her dogs to vegan diets because she thought that the dogs should share her ethical views on killing. She was so proud of them, but later she found out that they got really good at hunting and eating rabbits and squirrels in the woods behind her house. There were carcasses littering the ground everywhere back there!“
Mandozink said, “I can see the upcoming headline: ‘Meat-Deprived Dog Finally Eats Vegan Owner: Dog STILL Lacking Proper Protein.‘ "
Compiled by the CNN.com moderation staff. Some comments edited for length or clarity
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