imported post
This is an instance, situation and condition in which I think that moral relativism will prove fatal for its purveyors and believers and perhaps to any they lead politically.
History has clearly shown that when any nation or people express an intent to control the world (or at least a significant portion of it) and to commit genocide, we ignore such a threat at our own risk. Ghingas Kahn, Alexander, Mao Tse Tung, Hitler, Lenin/Stalin, Napolean to name a few. These people were not kidding. Significant percentages of the population were killed. Neighboring peoples had to fight, die or be conquered. In modern times, millions died, often tens of millions. The death rates and types of people chosen for death fundamentally changed the history of certain peoples as their best and brightest were executed or slaughtered on the battlefield.
Anyone who thinks their "Death to America", "Submit or Die", etc signs are just rhetoric are ignoring the last 2000 years of world history. Because we are a secular society with a bastardized usage of the 1st Amendment we have nearly scrubbed religion (in the classic usage) from our daily lives. I think many Americans forget how important religion is to many people in the world and how incredibly serious they take it. They forget that there are people who literally strap a suicide bomb vest to their own children because their religion and their hatred of you, me, us is more important to them than the (to us) precious life of their child.
Many of our left leaning politicians (and admittedly a few on the right) think this is a negotiable situation. They think that we can give them something to be left alone or just practice, "I'll quit touching you if you quit touching me," like children and everything will be fine and we'll all get along. The radical on their side don't want "stuff". They want you to believe and live like they do or die. Period. This is not opinion but what they have said time and time and time again in the streets, in madrassas, in mosques, in on the record media interviews, in writings. This is only a secret or mystery to those who choose to not pay attention or dismiss the gravity of their threats. And certainly this is not all of them, not by a long shot, but no world conquest attempt has ever started out with a majority. As they fight and win they grow until reaching critical mass. The quesiton is not if it is all of them, or even a majority of them. The question is, "is it enough of them?"
edit: typos