thinking
just thinking the other day about muslims. if i was a muslim, i'd be pretty pissed off right now. i mean, everyone thinks i'm a goddam terrorist. just because of the colour of my skin or my funny looking clothes. what's that all about?
if i was a muslim, i'd think about forming a group and giving it a catchy title. something like muslims against terrorism (MAT). we could get together every so often and talk about how shitty the whole middle east situation is, and how much blair and bush are bodging it all up. we could slag off the handling of the situation in iraq and afghanistan and what a waste of time and lives it's all been. could also talk about israel's bombing of civilain areas and killing children. could talk about what to do about lebanon and iran. we could also talk about other things too.
we could talk about how we abhor murder and death. could talk about how the few have hijacked our religion, our symbols and our beliefs and turn them into recruiting tools for the innocents. how our sacred text have been splatted with blood and even our god is now pictured with a bomb under his shirt. our places of worship are now viewed as training barracks. could talk about who is spreading these sick ideals and how to combat them.
we could plot how to take it all back. how you can hate the current events of the day but not want to kill people. take back the books and the buildings. raise our voices and not our fists. become a political force. condemn blair and bin laden with the same breath. tell them that they cannot kill in our name anymore; they cannot kill in the name of our god anymore. we could give the moderates a voice and show we will not be divided. peace, protest and prayer
maybe i would do something like that. if i was muslim.
6 comments:
How about being brown and everyone thinking your a MUSLIM?. How insulting is that?.
yeah, TERRIBLE.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5297822.stm
The pity about moderates (on any side, from any ethnicity) is that they usually prefer to remain silent... I guess that’s part of what defines them as moderates!
The right-wing and left-wing shout themselves hoarse from any available soapbox... the moderate silently listens to both, shakes his head - but does NOTHING!
The vast majority of people from any ethnicity/ religion are moderates. Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews etc etc. - take your pick. Most people would just rather be left alone and do "their thing"... live their life - and let others live theirs...
Why single out Muslims for forming a club? Pretty much every religion/ race/ nation has more than a few skeletons in their closet... Does everyone now need to be on a collective guilt trip for things done by people they never knew OR sympathized with, simply because they are from the same religion??!!
Do you reckon, white Americans should form a collective "guilt trip club" for the genocide of Native Americans committed by their forefathers? Or for African slavery? Sounds silly doesn't it?
Should be ask the Brits to form a "guilt trip club" for the various atrocities commited by their forefathers during colonial times? Sound silly?
Cheers!
i'm not sure what you are talking about.
i'm not talking about forming a guilt trip club. i'm talking about defining yourself and not let others define you. the club that you form is not about guilt, it's about saying "i'm here. and i'm not this person or that what you think, but this".
and it is much more important that muslims do this because your image is under attack. everyday things are happening. people are trying to twist and stain your beliefs. if you don't believe me try this word association game. say the word muslim to any non muslim and see what word comes to their mind first. i reckon 90% will say terrorist or suicide bomber. this is what has to change. what would happen if you said jew or hindu? would the first word to their mind be such a negative image?
Allow me to clarify - I am not a Muslim. Not that it (my religion) should make any difference either which way, but it seems you presumed that I was - and maybe you reckon that my post was coloured by a need to justify on behalf of my religion!
Anyhow, moving on to what you have written in your reply... I agree that in recent times the image of Muslims (especially) in the western world, has taken a real hit... And it is troubling to note that societies which so far have prided themselves on their tolerance and freedom are increasingly loosing patience - even with their own Muslim citizens.
Sure, almost every terrorist that makes the headlines these days seems to be a Muslim and this just keeps on reinforcing this (negative) image. BUT, it is unfair (to say the least) to presume an entire community to be guilty and have its individual members consistently have to prove their loyalty and innocence.
The bedrock of the modern judicial system is founded on the basis of presumed innocence (unless proven guilty). This sort of thing simply turns that principle on its head and presumes all Muslims to be (potential) bombers and if this sort of thing will not further alienate the entire community - then what will? What if every Irishman/ person of Irish ancestry had to consistently prove his innocence vis-à-vis the atrocities perpetuated by the IRA in the 80's? What if we went around presuming every German/ person of German descent to be a closet Nazi?
If there is a need to do something today - it is not for Muslims to do some sort of PR exercise but instead to try and get the alienated Muslim youth back into the mainstream. And for their non-Muslims neighbours to stop thinking of them as Muslims - people are people, irrespective of faith, and to judge someone based on his/ her faith is... well, let me put it this way - do you make friends with someone because you get along with them, or do you make friendships based on whether the person is a Christian/ Jew/ Hindu/ Buddhist etc?
My $0.02
Cheers!
Abhijeet
ahh, i understand what you are saying now.
yeah, i agree, especially with the comments about alienation and getting back into the mainstream. i also agree that it will take more than a big PR exercise to fix all these problems.
i still stand by my point that this PR exercise is still necessary. despite this world being full of information at our fingertips, people still judge on headlines and soundbites, without delving any deeper. maybe exercise is a bad word for it. it should be a regular workout or daily routine.
i think this is the world we live in. ideally, people wouldn't judge a whole race/religion/community on the actions of a few, but is this always the case? does this ideal match with reality, especially in regard to muslims in the west?
i also agree other muslims shouldn't feel guilt about the action of others. why should they? they have nothing to feel guilty about! i guess what i'm try to say is that they should feel anger and indignant that someone has taken THEIR image and used it to represent a cause that they don't believe in or even are totally against. and your early comment about doing nothing, i agree this is what most people do. i say this is the time to do something! anything is better than nothing. even talking about it or writing a blog is ok. the worse crime is to do nothing because surely the problem will get worse.
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