Jack Cade wrote:Yaya wrote:Someday, I might be rounded up with other Muslims into camps or prisons for what I believe in.
That's exactly what the principle of tolerance is here to prevent. But there will also potentially be serious disruptions to the way Muslims want to conduct themselves as Western societies fight to protect other rights besides those of religious people
from religious people. It's exactly the same ethical principles that will protect and trouble Islamic communities.
I'll finish with this. And that's it.
You're speaking about Muslims
in Western societies. I agree with you that it's the tolerance that makes the West an attractive place to live. It's why I'm still here. And I think most Muslims here recognize that. If they don't find America to be what they expected, then they should go back to where they came from.
During WWII, the enemy were the Germans. Did not Islam and Muslims exist and practice their faith then too? In fact, my grandfather fought against the Germans in the war as a devout Muslim. And I can tell you that Muslims were much
less Westernized then then they are now. During the 70's and 80's, it was the USSR and communism that were labelled "the great evil". To be Russian then was to be Muslim now. Did not Muslims and Islam exist then too? Hell, the U.S.
gave the Taliban weapons in Afghanistan to fight against Russia.
After that, those in power, those who thrive on international conflict, needed a new enemy to surface. That new enemy is Islam. Shanti states I am irrational. But if people like Shanti would only think rationally
themselves, they would understand that Islam isn't a
new threat. It's been there for the past 10, 20, 100, 400 years, sometimes as allies of the free West.
Why now? Why not India. Yes, India, where a human being can be born a slave in an oppressive caste system that purges the rights of individuals according to who births them? Why no call for justice there? Why are India and the U.S. now the closest of bedfellows now? Why not certain communities in other nations, like Japan, India, and many others, where there exist a pattern of 'male dominance' that is
culturally founded?
Islam becomes perhaps the easiest target for the greedy cabals that get rich when people die because Muslims are everywhere, and that idea scares people. Insidious prejudices are easily induced. The flames of hate can so easily be stoked when a people are ubiquitous.
This whole "West vs. Islam" issue that Shanti speaks about bringing him sadness? I honestly think it's overblown and has now come to the forefront primarily due to the political motivations of those in power. It's propoganda-motivated fear. If it saddens Shanti that rational Muslims can't see things a certain way, it scares the Muslims living here that rational and intelligent people have fallen for age-old propoganda tricks.
I was driving on the highway in South Carolina on my way home, and guess what I saw? A billboard, right off the interstate, saying in big bold letters "ISLAM IS RISING" with a picture of a Muslim women looking through a hijab with the widest, scariest, evil eyes you could ever see. I laughed out loud. Then, I thought back to this discussion and the posters here on this board. Then I thought about the thousands of ignorant people who see this billboard everyday to work.
It hit me hard then.
I don't ask anyone to like Islam. I give my spiel on what it is and what I am, and let others decide for themselves what they think of it.
But I would ask the question that I hope serious thought is given to, and that is, "Why now?"
"But the Costa story featuring Starscream? Fantastic! This guy is "The One", I just know it, just from these few pages. "--Yaya, who is never wrong.
