Yes, the people burning buildings and killing people are mindless [censored] idiots, but they DO NOT REPRESENT ISLAM AS A WHOLE. Islam is a peaceful religion. There are individuals within it who happen to be psychopathic ****wipes but that means nothing. You have to remember Islam has a much flatter, less heirarcichal structure than christianity. No-one represents Islam in the same way the Pope represents Catholocism, so any head-up-his-arse tosspot with a headful of other people's martyrdom can speak up and be heard. The more moderate ones speak up too, it's just that "hey, let's all be nice to one-another" doesn't grab the headlines in the same way "KILL ALL THE INFIDELS! SEND THEM BACK TO HELL!" does.
To a certain extent the fault lies with the media. Quite apart from the fact that certain media interests are more than a little influenced by certain political groups who might find that the demonisation of a particular religious persuasions could possibly go some way toward justifying certain less-than-friendly and politically-sensitive actions taken toward those groups in the recent past (and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this latest development turned out to be a deliberate attempt to antagonise the muslim world in order to more easily demonise it), the plain fact of the matter is that hatred, conflict and intolerance sell newspapers/ news TV a lot better than moderation and calm. And it works on both sides of the fence I'm sure- I don't doubt that the Islamic media have had a part in whipping up the storm, and shame on them.
Look at us from Muslim eyes. Imagine how their news reports told the stories of the last four years (or how their how their history books tell the last four HUNDRED years) and try to see the picture that must be presented to them. If we want them to believe that the abuses of abu-graib, guantanamo bay and the like are mere abberations in an the behaviour of otherwise well-behaved forces, we have to accept that the actions of the minority of muslims in this case do not reflect the majority. If we want them to believe in our humanity, we must first ackowledge theirs.
Anyway, if you want to read the words of a moderate muslim calling for calm and understanding, please go back and read the link I posted upthread. If you don't want to read it, then tough [censored] because I'm going to quote it, coz it seems clear to me that no-one bothered to read it before. Yay to the BBC for giving these words some airtime.
Quote:
(Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister) said mere talk and being nice to one another were not enough, and mutual respect should replace hegemony.
"They think Osama bin Laden speaks for the religion and its followers," he said, quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
"The demonisation of Islam and the vilification of Muslims, there is no denying, is widespread within mainstream Western society."
But Muslims for their part had to avoid "sweeping denunciation of Christians, Jews and the West", he added.
"The West should treat Islam the way it wants Islam to treat the West and vice versa. They should accept one another as equals," he said.
|
Remember, there are a zillion examples of Islam living comfortably and peacefully side-by-side with other religions and cultures in the east, the west and everywhere else. That is the norm. That is Islam.