I read this article this morning: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_mosque I liked what Bloomberg has to say. The part that got me all fired up was about 2/3 of the way through. There they were talking about a recent poll and I read this:
"The poll of 1,003 randomly chosen adults was conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and showed that a majority, 62 percent, also said Muslims have equal rights to build houses of worship."
Where do I start? Perhaps with the fact that the writer seems excited about this number?
No, let's go with the obvious. 62 percent? 62 percent? Now I have been out of school a while now, but I am pretty sure that means 38% think that Muslims DO NOT have equal rights. That so many people want to make an entire religion pay for the acts of a few just makes me so mad!
Throughout this battle I keep thinking back to one of my favorite things I saw on the West Wing EVER. It was the first episode back after September 11th. Aaron Sorkin wrote an episode about terrorism that broke from the longer story lines of the show. In the episode, Josh is stuck in a room with high school students that had been on a tour when the White House went in to lockdown. A frank discussion of the nature of terrorism ensues. At one point Bradley Whitford delivers the following line, “You're juniors and seniors. In honor of the SATs you're about to take, answer the following question: [writing on dry eraseboard] Islamic extremist is to Islam as "blank" is to Christianity.” His answer? The KKK. Every religion has extremist groups. They always have. They always will. Few topics can force humans to extremes, but religion has shown to be one of those topics, century after century.
We are supposed to be a land of freedom. Dr. Laura may have lost her radio show, but she isn't in prison for the rest of her life. We can say what we want. We can own guns. We can practice any religion we want. That is what makes us unique as a nation. If we are to embrace that, we need to embrace those who live here, no matter their race, religion or sexuality.
There are many other points in this article that bear discussion, but I am doing my best to stay close to the topic I started on. I already have ideas for at least three more blogs now!
Continue thinking for yourself.
I think a better example for an extreme Christian group is the Westboro baptists. Those guys are full on loony. Another comparison I liked was that if you're going to blame Islam for 9/11, you can blame christianity for the Oklahoma bombings. What really scares me is the people who don't get that it's the same thing. They have some serious cognitive dissonance that some how the extremists define Islam but they're the exception to christianity.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad how many peoples strongest views and opinions are based on ignorance. Religions should be defined the same way that families are. Everyone has a crazy member, but the bulk of you are just trying to do the best that you can despite the crazy one bringing you down :)
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