Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
- 58,308
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Why are you afraid of Muslims?
There is a growing group of people who are afraid of Islam. We see them everyday, and it is starting to worry me. Their voices are getting stronger, and they are getting more influential in our culture. They work for the government, at major news organizations, and even stand in the pulpits of churches.
They are not who you think they are.
They are the ones who, when a magazine in Paris gets firebombed go on NPR and say "I heard a comment from a French Muslim who I think got it exactly right, which is that just because you can do this thing because you have a First Amendment right or you have a right to free expression in Western societies doesn't mean you should do them. So I think I would hope we get to a place where we condemn this constant provocation. Why these provocations to a vast minority group inside of France? I think it's irresponsible."
They are the editors of Time magazine who write "Okay, so can we finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by “majority sections” of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that “they” aren't going to tell “us” what can and can't be done in free societies? Because not only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses from extremists their authors claim to proudly defy in the name of common good. What common good is served by creating more division and anger, and by tempting belligerent reaction?"
I wonder, do these people also blame women who get raped because they were in the wrong place or because they were dressed provocatively? If Christians suddenly started firebombing newspapers and magazines that said less than flattering things about Christianity and Jesus would they call for more tolerance of Christian values, or would they demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice?
Making fun of Mohammad and Islam is not Islamaphobia, calling for it to stop because people might over react is. If you laugh at bullies they loose their power over you, we should laugh at the Muslims who firebomb magazines the same way we laughed at the Christians who burned crosses on people's lawns. We did not call for more tolerance of their values when we offended them, we banded together and made them such a joke that they no longer have the power to scare us.
If the price for that was offending a few people who did not burn crosses, then that is the price of living in a free society. If we worry more about offending people than we do our own freedom we no longer have freedom, and anyone who argues otherwise is wrong.
There is a growing group of people who are afraid of Islam. We see them everyday, and it is starting to worry me. Their voices are getting stronger, and they are getting more influential in our culture. They work for the government, at major news organizations, and even stand in the pulpits of churches.
They are not who you think they are.
They are the ones who, when a magazine in Paris gets firebombed go on NPR and say "I heard a comment from a French Muslim who I think got it exactly right, which is that just because you can do this thing because you have a First Amendment right or you have a right to free expression in Western societies doesn't mean you should do them. So I think I would hope we get to a place where we condemn this constant provocation. Why these provocations to a vast minority group inside of France? I think it's irresponsible."
They are the editors of Time magazine who write "Okay, so can we finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by “majority sections” of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that “they” aren't going to tell “us” what can and can't be done in free societies? Because not only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses from extremists their authors claim to proudly defy in the name of common good. What common good is served by creating more division and anger, and by tempting belligerent reaction?"
I wonder, do these people also blame women who get raped because they were in the wrong place or because they were dressed provocatively? If Christians suddenly started firebombing newspapers and magazines that said less than flattering things about Christianity and Jesus would they call for more tolerance of Christian values, or would they demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice?
Making fun of Mohammad and Islam is not Islamaphobia, calling for it to stop because people might over react is. If you laugh at bullies they loose their power over you, we should laugh at the Muslims who firebomb magazines the same way we laughed at the Christians who burned crosses on people's lawns. We did not call for more tolerance of their values when we offended them, we banded together and made them such a joke that they no longer have the power to scare us.
If the price for that was offending a few people who did not burn crosses, then that is the price of living in a free society. If we worry more about offending people than we do our own freedom we no longer have freedom, and anyone who argues otherwise is wrong.
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