Something Worthwhile From Justice Thomas

The following was quoted by Justice Thomas in a 2003 opinion. While I question whether what is claimed in this quote is actually true, I do find it interesting. Americans often question the sanity of radical Islamic groups. We wonder how they could do such things, how they could be such terrible people. We debate what went wrong in those young peoples' lives to make them want to blow themselves up for their religion. But listen:

"The world's oldest, most persistent terrorist organization is not European or even Middle Eastern in origin. Fifty years before the Irish Republican Army was organized, a century before Al Fatah declared its holy war on Israel, the Ku Klux Klan was actively harassing, torturing and murdering in the United States. Today...its members remain fanatically committed to a course of violent opposition to social progress and racial equality in the United States."
M. Newton and J. Newton, The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia.

So before we view the Islamic world as crazy, maybe we should look at ourselves and our own history. They may detest the commercialism, waste and obesity of Americans, but we have some history of hating the equality of man. Now I realize that, thankfully, has changed throughout our country. American's are proud to be American. I, of course, am proud to be an American. But it doesn't change the fact that we have a lot in our history to be incredibly ashamed of. The rest of the world isn't perfect. And neither are we.