Death to America

Submitted by Michael FitzGerald (United Kingdom), Jan 29, 2007 at 14:31

I do not dispute that there are many Muslims who are supportive of terrorism. In the same way, there are many Christians who support, for example, bombing abortion clinics and killing people. The Palestinians are a special case as they have spent many years suffering oppression and brutality.

I can remember thousands of Muslims condemning 9-11. I can even remember Yasser Afrafat, certainly no moderate, donating blood as he watched in horror the devastation. Many Muslims, particularly in Britain and Europe, consider that the antics of these so-called fundamentalists has about as little to do with their idea of Islam as Paul Hill or the Ku Klux Klan have to do with true Christianity.

I can assure you that not only Muslims as individuals but even Muslim nations vary greatly in their attitude towards these matters. Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, and even Egypt and Libya are all opposed to fundamentalism and nowadays even the Libyans have renounced terrorism and its support. In Turkey and Tunisia it is ILLEGAL for a woman to wear the hejab.

Certainly Iran and Saudi Arabia are nasty countries ruled by hate-driven fanatics, but they are most certainly not typical of the views of the majority of Muslims. It is often forgotten that Islam is not simply a religion for Arabs but is professed by people of many races and languages. In Europe, the Bosnians and Albanians are hardly queuing up to be suicide bombers. In Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Libya all try to offer progressive ideas while remaining believers in Islam. In Turkey, the bridge between Europe and Asia, the government has by law to be secular and although 98% of the Turkish population is Muslim, the government goes out of its way not to be fundamentalist.

As a British person who has American friends and has travelled to the US many times, I understand how paranoid acts of terrorism make you. It only seemed to dawn on Americans after 9-11 how much we in Britain had suffered from 30 years of IRA bombing, actively supported by the likes of Ted Kennedy with some disgraceful racist remarks into the bargain.

As a Christian, I hope that we can all live in peace together some day. I am not naive and think that major changes in attitude need to be made on all sides, particularly by the Israelis, the Americans, the Iranians and the Saudis. What I am certain of is that demonizing all Muslims because of the appalling behaviour of a few fanatics will only make things worse, and is equally as indefensible as anti-Semitic or anti-Christian or, indeed, anti-American remarks.

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