Friday, February 24, 2006
Are Muslims so unique?
Ok, given the nice comment I received yesterday about the "great horror" of Islam and Muslims, I'd like to take a moment to reflect. Are the Muslims who have been rampaging for the past few weeks so unique in their violence and destruction?
I seem to remember the murder of 6 million European Jews, and countless Catholics, Poles, Slavs, and homosexuals, at the hands of... was it Muslims? Oh no, it was Europeans.
And how about the deaths of some 2 million Cambodean people. Gosh, that wasn't Muslims either. That was at the hands of the communist Cambodean government under Pol Pot.
And lets see, 1 million dead in Rwanda... that must have been the Muslims. Oh, no, that was the Hutu, one of the three ethnic groups living in Rwanda.
How about the rape of Nanking, the genocide in Bosnia, Pinochet's reign of terror in Chile, Sabra and Shatilla, etc, etc, etc.
These all took place in the past 60-70 years --within the memory of people alive today. It's not ancient history.
And how about terror tactics -- again just in the recent past, within the memories of people living today -- kamikazis, the IRA, Basque sepratists, the Irgun gang, drug lords... yeah, there are plenty of instances of people using terror to try and get their way.
Clearly, no race or nationality can claim innocence.
One might argue that the most violent peoples have been the white Europeans who are now so condescending to their brown Muslim neighbors. Starting with the Crusades and the slaughter of the entire population of Jeruselem (a massacre of 60,000 souls carried out by hand), moving to the slow decimation of Native populations in North and South America, continuing on to the genocide of the extremely well integrated European Jewish community, from the IRA mailbox bombers to the ETA carbombers, it is clear, we are a people who should call for tolerance, justice, and an end to violence not with haughty arrogance and condesending pretentions of superiority, but with the humilty of knowing our own history. ¶ 12:30 PM
I seem to remember the murder of 6 million European Jews, and countless Catholics, Poles, Slavs, and homosexuals, at the hands of... was it Muslims? Oh no, it was Europeans.
And how about the deaths of some 2 million Cambodean people. Gosh, that wasn't Muslims either. That was at the hands of the communist Cambodean government under Pol Pot.
And lets see, 1 million dead in Rwanda... that must have been the Muslims. Oh, no, that was the Hutu, one of the three ethnic groups living in Rwanda.
How about the rape of Nanking, the genocide in Bosnia, Pinochet's reign of terror in Chile, Sabra and Shatilla, etc, etc, etc.
These all took place in the past 60-70 years --within the memory of people alive today. It's not ancient history.
And how about terror tactics -- again just in the recent past, within the memories of people living today -- kamikazis, the IRA, Basque sepratists, the Irgun gang, drug lords... yeah, there are plenty of instances of people using terror to try and get their way.
Clearly, no race or nationality can claim innocence.
One might argue that the most violent peoples have been the white Europeans who are now so condescending to their brown Muslim neighbors. Starting with the Crusades and the slaughter of the entire population of Jeruselem (a massacre of 60,000 souls carried out by hand), moving to the slow decimation of Native populations in North and South America, continuing on to the genocide of the extremely well integrated European Jewish community, from the IRA mailbox bombers to the ETA carbombers, it is clear, we are a people who should call for tolerance, justice, and an end to violence not with haughty arrogance and condesending pretentions of superiority, but with the humilty of knowing our own history. ¶ 12:30 PM
Comments:
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"Clearly, no race or nationality can claim innocence."
Pamela, this is so patently true that I can hardly believe Gravelrush could leave such a post and then claim him (her?) self to be part of the Judeo-Christian tradition. This is what appalls me about the conservative right: this arrogance that they, and they alone, can judge who is right and who is wrong. Christ Himself taught not to do that; the most important of His commandments was to "Love thy neighbor." He didn't say, "Love the neighbors who agree with you!" Gravelrush needs to examine his conscience, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and have the courage to face what he finds there.
Pamela, this is so patently true that I can hardly believe Gravelrush could leave such a post and then claim him (her?) self to be part of the Judeo-Christian tradition. This is what appalls me about the conservative right: this arrogance that they, and they alone, can judge who is right and who is wrong. Christ Himself taught not to do that; the most important of His commandments was to "Love thy neighbor." He didn't say, "Love the neighbors who agree with you!" Gravelrush needs to examine his conscience, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and have the courage to face what he finds there.
# posted by 
: 1:12 PM
: 1:12 PM
Louise, I know so many Christians who strive on a daily basis to implement this beautiful teaching. Truly wonderful people. It is sad when the most strident, hateful voices are the ones that get heard.
Of course, when you are dealing with a population of 2 billion a "tiny" minority of only 1% is still 2 million people!
We have the same problem in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad said, "No one is a true believer until he wants for his fellow man what he wants for himself." The radicals who would like to ignore this and the teachings of religious tolerance, may be a tiny minority, but with such a large community that translates into millions of people.
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Of course, when you are dealing with a population of 2 billion a "tiny" minority of only 1% is still 2 million people!
We have the same problem in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad said, "No one is a true believer until he wants for his fellow man what he wants for himself." The radicals who would like to ignore this and the teachings of religious tolerance, may be a tiny minority, but with such a large community that translates into millions of people.
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