Each election I become as close to depressed as I am capable of.  If you are too happy and need a bit of depression in your life take the time to look up the results of our recent primary. While thousands die by the sword, starvation, or ethnic hatred - while our government is more interested in studying and "fixing" climate control than they are stopping the terrorist attempt to take over the world and force us all to give up all we believe in and accept Sharia law - when the total disintegration of America's moral code is taking place and we are forced to not complain due to political correctness - when we have the ability to stop this march to oblivion by our vote and we put our heads in the sand and do not bother to educate ourselves and vote for those who could lead us back to common sense - YES, depression is possible.  Reviewing the turnout and votes of Susquehanna County in our recent primary showed that out of 24,854 registered and eligible voters, 8, 923 bothered to vote.  The lowest turnout was Clifford with 26.13% voting, and the highest was Jessup with a 46.29%. Montrose came in a close second with 44.19.%.  If I am off a few points please forgive an early review of the election.  Please, people, for the love of God and Country wake up.  Millions in our world give their lives each year for the right to vote for their leaders - for the right to live as they choose, while America is too busy, too ignorant, or just lazy.  You may not believe in a loving God but one day we will all pay for our neglect - for our God is as just as he is loving.   He wants and expects us to take responsibility for our actions.

Sincerely,

Annette H. Corrigan

Jackson Township, PA

Are you an Islamophobic, one who fears and despises Islam? If not, you should be. In the name of its God, Allah, Islam tortures, murders, rapes, enslaves, extorts, pillages, and wages a holy war (jihad) against unbelievers, especially “people of the book” Christians and Jews.

What's this? Condemning a religion, someone's faith, and with such accusatory and hateful language? Decidedly, yes, and for good reason. As we shall see, Islam is a religion of barbarism and unspeakable cruelty.

Abu al-Qasim Muhammad was a merchant in the small oasis town of Mecca. He catered to the needs of passing caravans until, as the faithful believe, the archangel Gabriel stopped by for a chat in 610 A.D. Gabriel had good news; Muhammad had won the prophet lottery.

The angelic messenger said that Muhammad had been chosen to be God's last prophet to the world. He was commissioned to lead idolaters out of a world of darkness into the blood-soaked world of Allah.

Over the next 20 years, Muhammad received a revelatory stream of heavenly teaching. As Muhammad was illiterate, his acolytes memorized the messages. Later they were written and compiled in the sacred book of Islam, the infallible Koran.

The prophet gave those who heard his message a simple choice: believe or die. At the time of Muhammad's death in 632 A.D., there were about 115,000 who “chose” to believe. Now it's 1.6 billion. Today, that same simple choice is offered: believe or die.

That is what the Koran commanded in the 7th century, and that is what is commanded in the 21st century. The number massacred in the name of Allah during the 1,400 years that Islam swept over the world is estimated at 270 million, other sources cite 590 million. That's too bad, but it was their choice, believe or die.

For nonbelievers, the Koran exhorts believers, that is, Muslims, to “slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them [captive] and besiege them.” It continues: “Fight and slay the Pagans, for them poured over their heads boiling water and punished with hooked iron rods.”

Then the bad news: “They will be crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off.” “Smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them.” Beheading is the most familiar punishment. There are 75 references to decapitation in the Koran.

Unlike Christianity, Islam is not just a belief; it is an entire way of life codified in a body of Islamic legislation called the Sharia or the “Path.”

The Path encompasses all aspects of private and public life: marital (wife beating when necessary or when unnecessary, polygamy and clitorectomy are also okay); sexual (sex with six-year-old girls, normal); etiquette (never use your left hand for anything, we'll skip the whys); dress (burkas in any color except yellow, that's forbidden); diet (teetotalism and Kosher-like restrictions); criminal (amputation, honor killing, stoning “use only small stones least death comes too quickly”, lashing, and the old standby, beheading; lastly, political (it's a theocracy, democracy is an abomination).

For these reasons, Islam is uncompromisingly incompatible with any other religion, philosophy, lifestyle, or culture. Muslims, who follow the Koran, are unassimilable.

All this is a preamble to questions about Islam that vex us today: (1) Should Muslim refugees from Syria be admitted into the US? And (2) What about Muslims who are citizens of the US?

Let's examine the first question: Should Muslim refugees be granted asylum in the US?

• Forget about attaching adjectives to Muslim such as jihadist, fanatical, radical, extremist; they are redundant. Measured by the Koran, Islam is by nature all of these.

• Muslims should never be underestimated. They outwitted the intelligence agencies in France and orchestrated seven highly organized and synchronized attacks in Paris; they can do no less here.

• Muslim refugees from Syria cannot be vetted. Syria is a failed state. It cannot provide any information about refugees or anyone. Fingerprint them until the ink runs out. Back that up with iris scanning, voice analysis, DNA testing, and facial recognition, but if they can't be compared to something---and they cannot---they are useless.

Even the documents that some have cannot be trusted. A forged passport can be bought for $800. To admit any refugee from Syria into the US is to admit a possible terrorist and a Paris-in-New-York-City event.

• Muslims are a formidable foe. For a Muslim to die in the service of Allah is the highest honor. He would gladly zip up a suicide vest and blow himself up for his God. A martyr is guaranteed entrance into Allah's paradise with access to 72 virgins and an eternity of copulation. We wish them well in their quest for martyrdom---but not here.

But what about the second question: What are we to do with the five million Muslims who reside in the US and are citizens? Essentially, nothing.

As citizens, Muslims are guaranteed their First Amendment right to exercise their religion. However, if they choose to practice Sharia, we can choose to lock them up. That's fair.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

Over the past several years, I've read the frequent laments of people on the right, including a regular correspondent and a columnist for The Transcript. Getting through all the abundant verbiage, it all boils down to one idea, repeated over and over: "Things aren't the way they used to be, and I'm plenty upset!" In their complaints, rightists also claim to want less government, but ironically, there's no way to make things go back to the way they were without a lot more government. Even then, it's extremely unlikely-- time has an annoying habit of moving only forwards, not back. So instead they should follow the advice of Niebuhr and accept the things they cannot change. They'll be a lot happier. Perhaps also they might heed Ecclesiastes (7:10, RSV): "Say not, 'Why were the former days better than these?' For it is not from wisdom that you ask this." (Or, as the Douay puts it, "This manner of question is foolish."

Now I hate to, once again, shift to an unrelated topic, but Donald Trump again forces my hand. I think the way he impugned the patriotism and decency of Arab/Muslim Americans with his "thousands and thousands" accusation is downright evil. This man, who bragged of having "the greatest memory in the world" (of course) apparently cannot distinguish news footage of the West Bank and Gaza (who shamefully celebrated the 9/11 attacks) with Jersey City, who didn't. Not according to the mayor, the police, and the local media, all of whom would know. Trump then compounds his offense by mocking the physical disability of the reporter involved. Trump pretends he didn't know about it, but the reporter is someone who has covered Trump for years and is well-known to him, the man with the greatest memory in the world. Really, when will his worshipers abandon this disgraceful boor? Is their anger and hate so extreme that they must elevate someone whose only value is as a giant middle finger to the system? It's time to grow up, people, and move on to a serious candidate with serious policy proposals, not shoot-from-the-hip blather.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA