From one Infidel to another

Submitted by Michel C. Zala (United States), Jan 8, 2007 at 20:38

Infidel – : Again my sincere apology, if I offended you.

When I came to the US, I looked for a spiritual home and went from one (Baptists) to another Non-denomination). The Baptist preacher was the one who yelled about the "infidels" going to burn in hell. So much anger, it was appalling. Of course they will not bomb planes or wage war now - it was simply the feel of excluding everybody else but the believers. Given the right country and epoch, this attitude could have led to the same aggressiveness towards others. In the non-denominational church they talked about nothing but how to spread the gospel and their missionaries.

And – our preachers quote still the Old Testament (when deemed appropriate). Especially my own Roman Catholic Church where the Pope still decrees no condoms to aids infested African countries. And no - they do not have catholic terrorist….only a few shootings at abortion clinics.

Once again – I mean no offense and have never stated to be the owner of the ultimate truth. But looking back in history, has the Western Culture really never committed insane atrocities? Cortez, Inquisition, Crusades, the many wars in Europe in the name of either form of Christianity?

It is us, the civilized western world which has produced Monsters like Hitler with neo- Nazis and white supremacists still around. The body count of these guys alone tops all ISLAMIC atrocities in history combined. How about The Ku-Klux Clan and non tolerance to our own black population until only a generation ago? We mention the genocide the Turks committed and forget Stalin? What about Tibet? Idi Amin, all of which demonstrates that fanatism is not a quality only applying to ISLAM but can happen to literally all systems and all religions throughout history.

While I appreciate the grave danger of Islamic Terrorism, wouldn't you think that with the already enormous numbers of Muslims within our western countries we should have seen a much larger level of terrorism and destability already, if they all were so militant?

For the record: I do neither want nor can compare the various aspects of past or present cultures. All I promote is to accept that in order to defy any outside enemy, one must understand and appreciate the own weaknesses first. ( For once – I recommend a writing too (Sun Zsu - the art of war)

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