OK, this has been bugging me for a while since the 9/11 incident, and now that there are all these lawsuits against travel companies for racial profiling, etc, I'm just going to throw this out there.
Since the 9/11 attacks, I have not seen any protests on the part of "moderate" or alternative believing Muslims that say hey, we promote peace, our religion is not one of hate, and our misguided brothers and sisters are victims/followers of a bunch of fundamentalist deranged leaders. You get my drift. Every now and then I hear of a suicidal Jew or a suicidal Sikh blowing up some bus or mosque or temple. But it seems Islam is a religion that can be easily distorted or at if not distorted, then one that preaches that it is ok to hurt/kill/maim non-believers because they are doing harm to the Earth and moreover, actually be rewarded by Allah.
Now, I also know the reality is that Muslims make up a large part of the developing world where poverty is rampant. So, when people are poor, easy to manipulate beliefs and get them to rise up against whoever. Speaking of which, in Africa, there is a lot of poverty too, and I don't hear too much of a suicidal maniacal killer coming from there either.
I really wish a Muslim person would help me understand why their religion still has so many of these schools that seem to teach nothing but hatred for non-believers, and even taking it one step further and say to eliminate the non-believers. Secondly, I wish a Muslim person would help me to understand why I don't see more protests among shall we say, moderate Muslims, or at least Muslims that don't believe that way. I mean, if Catholics decided one day that every non-believer was a devil incarnate and decided to kill indiscriminately, wouldn't you think Protestants or other groups would make it known that that is not what all Christians believe in?
Thousands of years ago, the Christians engaged in same type of Crusades, killing non-believers etc, but seems they have developed a better understanding of the Bible and word of God. Oh, I know, we still have fundamentalist Christians in the US who are really borderline racists and if it weren't for the laws, they probably would kill a few non-whites themselves but when that does happen, look how quickly other Christians speak out.
Rambling now. but it bugs me because some Arab Americans are victims of racial profiling, say they are being discriminated against etc. That is sad but hey, if they don't speak up to the contrary, I can only think that maybe in their heart they believe the terrorist message is correct, only maybe the means was wrong. So to the day to day issue, why should a grandma from the midwest be searched as thoroughly as a single Arab male trying to get thru security on the airplane? Because that is what our values in this country stand for, equality for all? But the reality is, 19 men of very similar appearnce undertook a cowardly, dastardly act, so of course if I were waiting to get on a plane, I'd be eyeing the Arab, not the grandma from Iowa!
(that said, I do know that there are people like Timothy McVeigh, and many others so our vigilance can not be just focused on Arabs or Pakistanis, etc).
Just wondering and trying to understand.
Judy
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