paradox

Submitted by Anne (Japan), Jan 22, 2008 at 02:06

Silocondoc, you say

"I think this much is very clear. Wherever we in the west see Islam, we see war, death, and takeover of nations. Purging of the indigenous, a barbaric legal system, raging murdering by the masses in the streets, stonings, hangings, and limbs chopped off by the ruling governments as "just punishments".

You speak of taking over nations. How did the United States come to be? A continent peopled by another race was "taken over" by Europeans. The American Civil war was only 143 years ago…more than a little bloodshed there. Some U.S. states still have executions, is that called "unjust punishment"? I hope you've participated in some marches against those executions. The U.S. trades with China and the Chinese government carries out executions, a few thousand per year in fact.

You say "Nazi's and the Japanese almost took over the ENTIRE world."

Indeed, and they were Christian, Buddhist and Shinto. So really, as you pointed out yourself this is not about Islam being the root of all evil, the common denominator here is that we are human, and humans can be devious, vicious criminals.

I also believe that when you say "murdering masses in the streets" and take them representative of an entire country you do so in error. A country like Pakistan for instance has a population 170 million. A crowd of even 100,000 people is hardly representative of that nation.

You should ask the question, why is it that all you see about Islam is negative, could it be that the media doesn't often focus on the majority of boring law abiding citizens who are simply interested in making a living, providing a safe home for themselves and their children and observing their faith. Focusing on radicals and criminals attracts far more viewers, this is abundantly clear when I turn on American TV.

Is creating and focusing on a stereotype not a first step in demonizing the "other". When one thinks historically of the European Jews it appears indeed to have been one of the baby steps towards "the final solution".

Silicondoc, you suggest I should "MOVE THERE", could you be a little more specific, which country you had in mind? Perhaps you prefer to spend your family holidays in a safe Christian country like Colombia? I highly recommend a holiday in Egypt, Israel and Jordan, you might even enjoy yourself.

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