[quote]pat wrote:
Preacher, not priest. Second, if you are muslim, then stand up for what is right. The PR problem muslims have is their own making. Muslims are the only ones who can fix that. You are at far more risk of the cancer with in than anything from outside.
Sure people may be prejudiced, may be hateful, and bigoted, but they won’t kill you. The perception is that every time somebody does something muslims don’t like, it’s death and violence to follow. You know why? Because it happens all the time.
When people dance around a burning carcass waving the Quran around and yelling “Allah Akkbah!” it can cause a bad perception. If it happens a lot so much more for the perception.
I am against the burning because of people like yourself. For your sake and other “good apples” I have no desire to hurt you or insult you.[/quote]
I feel like a large part of the problem within America itself is the lack of education about Islam AND the refusal to do so. Even if facts are laid out in front of some, even if an Imam comes out and condemns Al-Qaeda, a lot of people will flat out refuse to believe it. Instead of looking at the building of a mosque (blocks away from the WTCs) as a way to raise tolerance and understanding – some people actually think it is Muslims building a ‘victory mosque’.
I cannot even fathom thinking like that. The willing ignorance is just astounding.
But then on the other hand, we have Muslims in America who are so ethnocentric and stuck up it is just as astounding. And then we have the Mohammed cartoon bullshit where people were threatening the cartoonist’s LIFE over HORRIBLY UNCLEAR sketches. And then we have 9/11, the subway thing in England, the attempted attack in the Detroit bound plane, a US citizen plotting to blow up the NYC subway system, Al-Qaeda killing innocent contractors, etc.
And on top of all the terrorist shit - we have Islamic countries who are horrible to their women and hundreds of years behind the rest of the world, who are just as ignorant and bigoted, in regards to the USA.
–
At first, before I met my wife, I was like most other Americans. Completely uneducated about Islam and somewhat prejudiced towards Muslims. My friends and I used to confuse Muslims with Hindus and we would throw cracker cows at some of them in the lunch room. Somewhat funny? Yes. In horribly bad taste? Yes.
But we were kids. We only knew what our parents told us about Islam. The difference is I went and I educated myself about Islam, because, I didn’t want some petty religious shit to keep me separated from this girl I was falling madly in love with. In turn, I also educated my friends about Islam, and luckily because of the generation we belong to - they were too quite open minded once taught.
–
What am I trying to say after all of this?
The problem comes from both sides. There are a lot of people in the middle, but, as long as people on both ends of the spectrum keep flocking together and feeding off of each other and their bigotry, nothing will happen.
People need to be willing to educate themselves and people need to be willing to listen. People need to realize Al-Qaeda and the Taliban do not represent 90% of Muslims (and especially the ones who live in the USA trying to find a better life). Other people need to realize they need to try and create a better image for their people.
If you are a ‘good apple’ (like me) it feels like you are trying to climb a mountain with 500lbs on your back and a bullet hole through your thigh when you try to educate others about Islam or defend the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists.
There is too much on your shoulders (terrorists, ignorant Muslims, bad Islamic countries) and too much gravity (the willingly ignorant, people who find any reason to shoot down all Muslims, etc) to even begin to climb.
P.S. And btw, I actually didn’t know there was a difference between a preacher and a priest! Sorry.
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
You can’t cure hate and ignorance man… Sorry.[/quote]
x2
[quote]Rockscar wrote:
[quote]i work out wrote:
Would you leave town?
[/quote]
Too bad you think this way. The terrorists have you running scared and that’s what they want. You played right into it. Just the fact you are worried means they have won the mental fight.
They burn our flags, bible and bomb us. Where is American outrage from that? I think it’s funny so many are willing to tolerate Muslim INTOLERANCE, yet we will bash Christians at any turn.[/quote]
People will bash anybody they can at any turn.
And it isn’t Muslim INTOLERANCE. It is INTOLERANCE, period. Terrorists do not represent 90% of Muslims… or even 95% of Muslims.
Although, yes. I agree. The more people that are running scared… the more power the terrorists do have.
[quote]lixy wrote:
Ironically, Muslims get pissed if someone burns a Bible. Muslims see the Bible as a holy book, Jesus as a prophet, and Christianity as foundation for Islam.
P.S: Please don’t use definite articles in “burning the Quran”. Write “copies of the Quran”. It’s not like the book will cease to exist.[/quote]
Unfortunately, this isn’t entirely true. Alot of people (Muslims included) will not care about something unless it happens to them.
[quote]i work out wrote:
The intelligence bulletin states that Jones’ advertising of the event drew an immediate response from a known terrorist website frequented by radicals. Postings on the Al-Faloja website included a forum member writing, “I wish to detonate myself in this church now. … I want to become a martyr and detonate myself in this filthiest filth.”
Another member warned, “Oh you Americans, I swear by Allah if you do this deed await a war that you have not witnessed … we will not rest until we kill tens of you in place of every letter in the book of Allah. …” [/quote]
Internet tough guys. A cross-cultural phenomenon. Good luck with that visa process boys!
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Cockney Blue wrote:
And when a countries soldiers throw fragment grenades at civilians and collect fingers of dead civilians as trophys it doesn’t really help their course too much.[/quote]
And who is doing this? The U.S. doesn’t directly attack civilians and anybody caught doing so is charged with murder. I am assuming you were accusing the U.S.? War is ugly, but we do everything we can to avoid civilian casualties. [/quote]
Meh, if we were that concerned with civilian casualties we wouldn’t have gone to war on Iraq on a whim.
“Where they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn people”
Heinricke Heine
he called it off.
When school let out after tenth grade me and two of my friends went down to the crick and burned our chemistry books. It took a lot of lighter fluid to get that waxy paper going. My friends parents wanted to sell his books back so they asked him about it and he told them we burned them. He got in trouble but my parents never found out. That was a close one.
[quote]Eli B wrote:
he called it off.[/quote]
Quitter. Can’t anyone back up threats anymore?
I don’t think he straight called it off. Last I heard he was trying to use it as leverage to stop the WTC Mosque. He’s traveling to New York Friday to see if he can stop it. I wonder if that was his intention from the get-go.
[quote]lixy wrote:
Ironically, Muslims get pissed if someone burns a Bible. Muslims see the Bible as a holy book, Jesus as a prophet, and Christianity as foundation for Islam.[/quote]
They certainly have a curious way of showing it.
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[
… while their child was torn to pieces right before their eyes.
[/quote]
Please… No, stop…
Oh, the horror! The tear-wrenching grief!
You’re breaking my heart with such sadness!
I’m going to write a note to the president, demanding he take the “How to Tear a Child to Pieces Right before a Parent’s Eyes” page out of the Official US War Fighting Manual.
Hopefully, the statistics on such cases will reflect a drastic drop in them.
[/quote]
As I said, obvious double standard.
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[
… while their child was torn to pieces right before their eyes.
[/quote]
Please… No, stop…
Oh, the horror! The tear-wrenching grief!
You’re breaking my heart with such sadness!
I’m going to write a note to the president, demanding he take the “How to Tear a Child to Pieces Right before a Parent’s Eyes” page out of the Official US War Fighting Manual.
Hopefully, the statistics on such cases will reflect a drastic drop in them.
[/quote]
As I said, obvious double standard.
[/quote]
No, the fallacy of “appeal to emotion.”[/quote]
Yeah well, if you kill their offspring people tend to get emotional.
Which was kind of my point, if you had cared to read my post before responding.
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[quote]Chushin wrote:
[quote]orion wrote:
[
… while their child was torn to pieces right before their eyes.
[/quote]
Please… No, stop…
Oh, the horror! The tear-wrenching grief!
You’re breaking my heart with such sadness!
I’m going to write a note to the president, demanding he take the “How to Tear a Child to Pieces Right before a Parent’s Eyes” page out of the Official US War Fighting Manual.
Hopefully, the statistics on such cases will reflect a drastic drop in them.
[/quote]
As I said, obvious double standard.
[/quote]
No, the fallacy of “appeal to emotion.”[/quote]
Yeah well, if you kill their offspring people tend to get emotional.
Which was kind of my point, if you had cared to read my post before responding.
[/quote]
Why would I do that, when you always write the same drivel?[/quote]
Why would I need to do that, if you did not even get that “drivel” ?
How come they do not get equally upset in Pakistan when a Muslim suicide bomber blows up a market and tears their offspring to pieces right before their eyes?
Mass rallies around the world because some nutjob THREATENS to burn a holy book…
No mass rallies around the world against daily mass murders committed in the name of God?
WTF?