Stop the Hypocrisy
Posted: May 6, 2016 in Activism, Islam, Opinion, UncategorizedTags: Army of God, Christianity, Hypocrisy, Islam, Islamaphobia, Lord's Resistance Army, Religion
Comments
Tags: Army of God, Christianity, Hypocrisy, Islam, Islamaphobia, Lord's Resistance Army, Religion
Warrior Citizen's Blog 
I support much of what you say. Certain the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorist and from the recent Pew surveys there is almost universal Muslim distrust of ISIS in countries with Muslim majorities.
I do however have some reservations about what you say on terrorism. My understanding is that in general most terrorism is a standard way of dealing with a perceived mismatch of power. When a strong power threatens a weak power – terrorism is often chosen as a way of causing maximum damage with the minimum of resource. When the US invaded Iraq one consequence was an apparent threefold increase in Islamic terrorism.
Terrorism involves attacks on the innocent to further an ideological agenda. It comes in many forms but is NEVER acceptable or justified.
Totally agree. Killing civilians by terrorism OR dropping bombs or white phosphorus is certainly totally unacceptable – but surely so is NEVER dignifying the killing with propaganda from a Western ideological agenda eg the hunt for weapons of mass destruction (which later turned out to be an unfortunate lie) etc – or is that a step to far in stopping the hypocrisy???
I believe there were chemical (not nuclear) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Those weapons were moved to Syria before the invasion making it pointless. I don’t believe it was justified and many Americans agree with me. Bush (or should I say Chenney, since he was the mastermind) and his cronies were criminally wrong. The American people said as much in the next election when the GOP was overthrown. Obama just didn’t have the balls to put Bush and his accomplishes in front of the International Criminal Court.
Certainly the chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds were not only supplied by the US but two US officers showed the Iraqi army how to use the weapons. In my book that was the equivalent of a gross infringement of acceptable behaviour. Unfortunately we shut our eyes to such matters and direct our horror to terrorists.
We? Speak for yourself. “… a true patriot … is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.” – Frederick Douglass
Possibly like me you found it hard to make an effective protest. My main protests were largely ignored. Eg I protested involvement in the Vietnam War, I was a convenor of Scientists Against Nuclear Arms, wrote numerous articles and a text about the causes of Terrorism (Anatomy of Terror) I am afraid even the mainstream Churches had very little serious involvement in the protests and were very muted in their criticism of the Government.
Of course well after the event we don’t mind our morality showing. Few now defend those who deliberately chose not to notice what was happening in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc etc yet even today it is OK to encourage the bombing of an entire city into rubble then refuse to accept as refugees the innocent victims of the bombing.
That’s what happens when fear sets in and mob think starts. I am a veteran of the United States military but, I have always opposed the targeting of non-military (non combative) entities. Had I ever been ordered to do so, I’d have considered it an illegal order and disregarded it accordingly. I support the United States fulfilling it’s obligation to take in the refugees of Syria and Central America.
One of the most reprehensible aspects of terrorism on the modern battle field is that terrorists use civilians for cover. Collateral damage is getting harder and harder to avoid and (more importantly) to hide in the age of the 24 hr news cycle. Terrorist must be held to account for using civilians as human shields.
I keep hearing that not all Muslims are alike, but I did not find it true when I was still working. Back before ISIS, I could walk through my place of business exchanging hellos and nods to customers and employees – all races and all religions – except Muslim. They would look me square in the eye, put their head down and ram into me. [men and women] They KNEW here in the US, we HAD to let them get away with it. And now look what state we’re in.
That’s not been my personal experience with Muslims. I’ve never had an entire religion react to me the exact same way.
Couple of questions:
How do you know it was only Muslims reacting that way?
How do you know (among employees and customers) who was Muslim and who wasn’t?
Being mostly women in traditional dress, some accompanied by a man.
FYI: “traditional dress” implies all Muslims dress the same. there are 1.6 billion Muslims world wide. many of whom dress IAW their ethic, national and cultural traditions.
You may be conflating Arab with Muslim. Just as not all Muslims are Arab, not all Arabs are Muslim.
You don’t need to get technical – you know what I mean. This was before we all learned about the differences. FYI – I used to wonder why they never smiled, even the children.
Unhappy parents raise unhappy children, I guess.
But, I’d always been taught that Islam was a peaceful religion and now these people are even more free here in the US – I just don’t get it. I keep trying to understand.
I don’t know. Culture shock, perhaps? Immigration is a trade off. You get more freedom but you have to make sacrifices too. You’re severing ties with your homeland, family members…leaving everything you know behind, for a shot.
Many others have done it before them – Irish, German, Chinese – from every country in the world – that does not give them the right to take their self-pity out on us.
I’ve met many unhappy Irish, German and Chinese people. I’ve also met many happy Muslims. I don’t know what the issue was with the specific Muslims/Arabs you encountered. I do know that nobody is “always’ or “never” anything.
I hope the ones I met will one day be happy here.
I hope they find happiness but, it’s entirely possible their unhappiness had nothing at all to do with being here.
Then my point is made – don’t look right at me and walk into me.
I wasn’t there. I don’t know.
The vast majority of Muslims I have met are also fine. The fact that the new Mayor of London is a Muslim suggests that a good proportion of Londoners were not under the impression he was unhappy. But here is a thought. There are clearly big chunks of the US population who support Donald Trump and his Xenophobic attitudes to Muslims. If GP Cox happened to live and work in such an enclave it would hardly be surprising if the recipients of such attitudes showed distinct unhappiness. If they were not disgruntled they would be very far from being gruntled!
Like I told GP, I wasn’t there. I don’t know. I do know not all 1.6 billion Muslims world wide are terrorist.