There are presumptions in this assertion that do not really hold up under logical examination. They are really questions in terms of numbers.

Certainly, there have been examples of other ethnic groups, including Caucasian, who have participated in suicidal rituals as a part of some (what most of us would call misguided) religious or political conviction. In the U.S., one could point to occurrences such as Heaven's Gate, Waco and Ruby Ridge, among others in recent history. In Europe, too, predominantly Caucasian extremist groups have also engaged in suicidal strategies to advance political (and religious, though I would argue VERY loosely religious) agendas.

Tango says "very few Americans," though. So these groups do not represent a majority of Americans, Europeans or Caucasians. Fair enough.

But the implication is that Middle Eastern extremism that engages in such behaviors DOES represent a majority of Middle Easterners. This is the main logical fallacy in the argument. I have not seen the numbers to demonstrate that the majority of peoples of Middle Eastern descent or nationality buy into this philosophy at all.

One thing that always strikes me is that, particularly in periods of crisis, we regular janes and joes seem to forget what makes news. It's not the ordinary and typical; it is the unsual! The exception! If the majority of terrorist suicide bombers that have been shown in the American news media have been of Middle Eastern descent, it does not necessarily follow that the majority of people with that ethnicity are terrorist bombers. The news is not going to show people going about their daily lives -- having meals with their families; going to work; even sitting on the computer posting messages to bulletin boards (though this is still something of an exception in the world population as a whole).

There are no easy answers to this situation, including the marginalization of any particular ethnicity in this country. We should, perhaps, have learned that in WWII. I know that Tango is NOT intending that the U.S. repeat its mistakes during that time of presuming guilt or even suspicion based on ethnicity alone. So please do not take this as an attack on Tango, but rather a challenge to his argument.