A special report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, reveals that approximately 8,000 — and, in certain years, as many as 9,000 African Americans are murdered annually in the United States. This chilling figure is accompanied by another equally sobering fact, that 93% of these murders are in fact perpetrated by other blacks. The analysis, supported by FBI records, finds that in 2005 alone, for example, African Americans accounted for 49% of all homicide victims in the US — again, almost exclusively at the hands of other African Americans.

During the September 11 attacks, 2,996 people were killed: 2,977 victims and the 19 hijackers. These immediate deaths included 246 victims on the four planes, 2,606 victims inside the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 victims at the Pentagon. The event on September 11, 2001, was the deadliest terrorist attack in world history and the most devastating foreign attack on American soil since the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

All of those killed were civilians excepting 71 law enforcement officers and 343 firefighters who died in the World Trade Center and on the ground in New York City, New York, one law enforcement officer who died when United Airlines 93 crashed into the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and 55 military personnel who died at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Overall, 2,605 U.S. citizens, including 2,190 civilians, died in the attacks but an additional 372 non-U.S. citizens (excluding the 19 perpetrators) also perished, which represented about 12% of the total. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks, including the United Kingdom (including the British overseas territory of Bermuda) (67 deaths), the Dominican Republic (47 deaths), and India (41 deaths).

Don't know who "Dean" is, but if he is expounding the idea that Islam is not dangerous. He doesn't have any idea what he is talking about. After living and working in a Muslim country for several years and reading the Quran, I can tell you this. While it is true that not all Muslims are Jihadists, all support the expansion of their religion and will do nothing to stop the violence. They may or may not actually lie to do it, but how can you be sure when it is a tenet of their belief.

How can you trust any individual or group that needs to lie to support their belief? Answer, you should not. How can you trust any individual or group that needs to kill those who they deem unworthy, and to be honest most religions have done this at some point, but not in recent history? Answer, you should not. How can you trust any individual or group that feels that their "God" requires them to kill any mortal that may insult him, by whatever means? Answer, you should not. The list goes on and on.

If you know a Muslim personally, ask them to explain the above questions, watch their reaction, and listen carefully to the answer. Then ask yourself this question, was it a lie?

I still keep in contact with some of the folks I knew then, they are as incredulous as I at the state of the world. Yet they will say nothing derogatory about what is written in the Quran, nor stand up to those murder in its name. They want to remain victims of misunderstanding.