The "Islamic Threat"
I was just now perusing Religious Freaks, one of my favorite websites, when I found an article about a talk show radio host by the name of Neal Boortz basically calling all Muslims terrorists. Watching that video was infuriating for me. I felt compelled to respond with my thoughts of the situation, which I now post here in full. My first post responded to the question asked of whether this man in some sense was right (also, I recommend that you read the article and forum posts first to get the context of what I was addressing):
"I made it to 1:17 before I had to stop that recording. It is comments like this radio host makes that made me become an atheist.
But that's not the point. The question here is, "Is this man right?" And the answer is a resounding no.
Why are there so many angry Muslims? Why do they bomb us? Because that's the story of civilization. People who feel downtrodden are angry. The people of the Middle East have become the center of the world all of a sudden. They see others who are better off than them, but they don't think it's fair. So what do you do when you feel angry and it seems as though the world is against you? You find a reason. An answer. For many this is religion. Religion gives purpose. I always have and always will support religion because it helps to give purpose to those that would otherwise be without. I have met people who got their lives back thanks to religion.
But religion should never justify rage and violence. The angry Muslims that are causing so much violence are saying, "Look at these foreign pigs, who have all this money but come to attack us! But you must believe in Allah, for he is behind us! He will make these foreigners pay, and we will help him!" With this rationale they justify killing people.
Not only that, but it is often the case that people simply become too subservient to a faith, to the point where they forgo anything that does not seem to be in line with it. All else is unlike them, so it can only be evil. This is how you become a bigot. Too many religious wars were started with both sides praying to God to grant them victory.
Furthermore, who's to say that religion is actually the reason some of these people are even fighting? This is only something I've heard, so I cannot claim it to be true, But I heard the reason Osama Bin Laden originally came to hate America was because he lost some oil land in some way or another to the US. Might religion only be a mask in front of a more selfish goal?
Whatever the reason, we must remember that most people are not so extreme. I believe that most Muslims just want to be left alone. I have never gone to the Middle East,so I cannot say for sure, but I think they just want to be left alone because it seems to me that most people in the world just want to be left alone. So many Muslims in the Middle East are quiet because they just want this all to go away so they can live without fear of a bomb.
So, I conclude, saying all Muslims hate us and want to kill us all is wrong. As long as people are different, there will be some that will hate and some that will destroy, but most of us want to live good lives. We must take it upon ourselves to silence the raging minority for the good of mankind. And calling all Muslims terrorists is sure as hell not the way to do it."
My second post came after I had actually managed to watch the whole video:
"Okay, I've managed to finish the rest of that video, and I would like to respond to Neal Boortz.
Why, Boortz asks, was the Muslim world silent during all those atrocities?
Why, I ask, were Christians silent during the Inquisition?
People, like I said before, want to live in peace. To oppose these fanatics where their influence is strongest would be more than dangerous. Most Muslims, I am quite sure, don't want to make martyrs of themselves. They want to raise a familiy and live well. I admit to not being a brave man, and so I think I would keep quiet too, for fear of my life.
As for the sudden outrage over the cartoons, there I find that I partly agree. The response was way too high. This goes back to the reason I became an atheist. We must learn that the world has a lot of people, and many of them disagree with us, whether we want them to or not. However, saying that we should slap Islam across the face and threaten it with eradication is not the way to solve problems."
Why must people be so infernally thick-headed?
"I made it to 1:17 before I had to stop that recording. It is comments like this radio host makes that made me become an atheist.
But that's not the point. The question here is, "Is this man right?" And the answer is a resounding no.
Why are there so many angry Muslims? Why do they bomb us? Because that's the story of civilization. People who feel downtrodden are angry. The people of the Middle East have become the center of the world all of a sudden. They see others who are better off than them, but they don't think it's fair. So what do you do when you feel angry and it seems as though the world is against you? You find a reason. An answer. For many this is religion. Religion gives purpose. I always have and always will support religion because it helps to give purpose to those that would otherwise be without. I have met people who got their lives back thanks to religion.
But religion should never justify rage and violence. The angry Muslims that are causing so much violence are saying, "Look at these foreign pigs, who have all this money but come to attack us! But you must believe in Allah, for he is behind us! He will make these foreigners pay, and we will help him!" With this rationale they justify killing people.
Not only that, but it is often the case that people simply become too subservient to a faith, to the point where they forgo anything that does not seem to be in line with it. All else is unlike them, so it can only be evil. This is how you become a bigot. Too many religious wars were started with both sides praying to God to grant them victory.
Furthermore, who's to say that religion is actually the reason some of these people are even fighting? This is only something I've heard, so I cannot claim it to be true, But I heard the reason Osama Bin Laden originally came to hate America was because he lost some oil land in some way or another to the US. Might religion only be a mask in front of a more selfish goal?
Whatever the reason, we must remember that most people are not so extreme. I believe that most Muslims just want to be left alone. I have never gone to the Middle East,so I cannot say for sure, but I think they just want to be left alone because it seems to me that most people in the world just want to be left alone. So many Muslims in the Middle East are quiet because they just want this all to go away so they can live without fear of a bomb.
So, I conclude, saying all Muslims hate us and want to kill us all is wrong. As long as people are different, there will be some that will hate and some that will destroy, but most of us want to live good lives. We must take it upon ourselves to silence the raging minority for the good of mankind. And calling all Muslims terrorists is sure as hell not the way to do it."
My second post came after I had actually managed to watch the whole video:
"Okay, I've managed to finish the rest of that video, and I would like to respond to Neal Boortz.
Why, Boortz asks, was the Muslim world silent during all those atrocities?
Why, I ask, were Christians silent during the Inquisition?
People, like I said before, want to live in peace. To oppose these fanatics where their influence is strongest would be more than dangerous. Most Muslims, I am quite sure, don't want to make martyrs of themselves. They want to raise a familiy and live well. I admit to not being a brave man, and so I think I would keep quiet too, for fear of my life.
As for the sudden outrage over the cartoons, there I find that I partly agree. The response was way too high. This goes back to the reason I became an atheist. We must learn that the world has a lot of people, and many of them disagree with us, whether we want them to or not. However, saying that we should slap Islam across the face and threaten it with eradication is not the way to solve problems."
Why must people be so infernally thick-headed?
posted by Derek at 7:21 PM
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