Be forewarned, the lack of an open mind ( closed-restrictive-frigid thinking ) is not the path to God. Generalizations appear to hold for most societies, cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, and languages, except for Muslims. For them, being a Muslim appears to be an all-encompassing, all-consuming identity that overrides and trumps everything else. For them, nothing else, their race, their nationality, their occupation, their language, matters except for being Muslim, which unites all Muslims, particularly radical factions, in the world. It’s true, most Muslims speak the same language, Arabic, but not all; neither Indonesians nor Chechens speak Arabic for example. Nor do Iranians. It’s tempting to dismiss these observations by saying that they are all “ extremists ” or “ Jihadists ”. That would be politically correct and comforting, but factually inaccurate. With that said, recognize 50% of Muslims throughout the world applaud the actions of their fellow Muslims on 9/11, and presumably other murderous acts against westerners, while the other 50% actively condemn them. Yes, 50% is only half, not a majority, but it nonetheless represents 800 million Muslims worldwide. If we assume that 50% of them are male, and about 30% of them are young, between the ages of 15-30, then we are talking about 120 million ready suicide bombers worldwide. It took only 19 of them to kill 3,000 of us. And this is not limited to faraway places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. According to recent reports by the Pew Research Center, 81% of Muslims in the United Kingdom consider themselves Muslim first, British second. 81%! This means to four out of every five Muslims in the UK, being Muslim is more important than being British. The comparable figure in the US is 47%, and it’s 46% in France, 66% in Germany, and 69% in Spain. I cannot think of any ethnic or religious group in the United States, with the possible exception of recent Mexican immigrants in the Southwest, of which half of the members consider their ethnic or religious identity to be more important than being American. For example, can you imagine how it would tilt the scale if African Americans were to wake up and consider being Black more important than being loyal to White America and her norms, values, and goals??? It would completely shift the fiscal, political, and social fabric of America as we know it today in all its daily norms and human interaction-dynamics. Ask yourself why is being Muslim so completely different from being anything else in the modern world today? Why is being Muslim such an all-encompassing, all-consuming identity? I suspect the answer resides in the desperate desire to see social and economic fairness come to fruition for all demographics. What erodes any sympathy for the Muslim cause is their ugly approach for bringing about these changes. While the intent is good, the methods leave much to be desired. markhumphrys/islamic.world.html wakeupethiopians.wordpress/ Just some food for thought.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 13:47:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015