As an American Muslim, I am sick of defending myself. I'm tired of letting the media and those that know little about my faith judge me based on the acts of a few. I will not care if those that may have seen a DVD in the mail or read an article by a Islamophobic columnist determine what they think about me and a billion other people. If you want to think that way, go ahead. It is ludicrous to me in principle for someone to think in that matter, therefore, I will not encourage it by being baited into answering their mocking viewpoints.
If I formed my views of more than a billion Christians based on the KKK or Nazis, it would make no sense. I would have to question my methodology and figure how I could come to such a conclusion. I would challenge myself to meet more Christians personally, and not just stand from afar to judge a people. We may do that in reference to animals in the wild, but as humans, we should be willing to learn more.
Western minds have made this mistake time and time again. Framing the "orient", Africans, Indians to all be a certain way and these racist prototypes still linger in the minds of many today. As a people, we have come further than that, and as a nation, we are better than that. I challenge every one to break out of the mental slavery we have been shackled to and become more active learners in our assessment of humans.
2 comments:
out of curiosity what brought this on?
The Mahmoud Ahmadinejad display?
the "obsession" dvd distributed through newspapers in swing states across the nation inspired this.
ahmadinejad, i don't really consider an islamic/muslim issue though many frame it in this manner. it is more a political issue to me with some religious undertones.
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