I am tired of the Muslim bashing

I see that some have said that Islam IS fundamentalist and that's not true either. Some beliefs are more lenient than others but they like to think every Muslim has the same rules, customs and beliefs, and they don't. Then people act as if I'm a Muslim apologist who defends every single thing they do. I defend the innocent ones and there are innocent ones out there that get caught in the crossfire and will get caught in the crossfire due to all this mistrust.

They act as if all the Muslims in the world secretly want to take over the entire world and make everyone follow Sharia law. Most Muslims want to be left alone and not every Muslim majority country follows Sharia Law to the letter. Even when there are nice Muslims out there, I'm told "Don't trust them because they are only being nice to you in order to gain your trust so they can betray you later" This is how bad this hatred for Muslims has gotten.

I still find it utterly absurd that those people honestly believe we are at war with Islam. We are not, and Islam is not the real enemy. They haven't even realized who the real enemy is.

I'm not just defending Muslims, I defend any group I feel gets harsh treatment when they really don't deserve it. Like with Wiccans where some still say they practice devil worship, even though Wiccans, or most Wiccans worship two main deities, neither of them really look like the devil or act like the devil and even make it clear in their message that one is not to harm others. Or is it that they practice magic even though almost every religion, including Christianity and Judaism and even some parts of Islam has practiced what one could call magic, or spiritual power or energy work.

And some will use history as justification for hating Muslims when some Muslims invaded other countries to spread Islam in the past. Some countries were forced into it and some willingly adopted it. But the ancestors who did those terrible things have been dead for years. Don't punish the descendants for what the ancestors did.

Theweirdtophat wrote: And some will use history as justification for hating Muslims when some Muslims invaded other countries to spread Islam in the past. Some countries were forced into it and some willingly adopted it. But the ancestors who did those terrible things have been dead for years. Don't punish the descendants for what the ancestors did.

Agreed. It's just as ridiculous as hating the Catholic Church for the Spanish Inquisition, the Protestant churches for the witch burnings, or the German people for the Holocaust. Those are all things done by other people, and generalization can get very dangerous.

Lots of hatred come from ignorance. Many of the bashers know next to nothing about the actual beliefs of Islam, the cultures or branches or some of the history. Do they really think hundreds of millions of Muslims try to force convert every single person they meet? Doesn't make sense.

Really, I defend any group I feel gets unfair treatment, Muslims, Wicca and also the Jedi as well.

I understand where "Muslim bashers" are coming from, but they usually fail to see the whole picture.

"Muslim immigration" is not the problem. The bigger picture that they are missing is that it is more accurately "unchecked immigration of the less-than-good segment of the populations of third-world countries."

"War on terror" really just means "American imperialism," whether its supporters realize this or not (many do, and I say this as an American).

We need to look deeper than religion at this issue. I am not defending the actions of all, or even most, Muslim terrorist and militant groups, but they have a legitimate reason to be pissed off. America works to keep the Middle East (where most of the world's Muslims are, and the birthplace of Islam) destabilized, and pretty much all Western governments are at least apathetic, if not fine with it. The West has made no serious effort to improve the conditions of Israel's Arab minority (which includes Christians as well), and lets the Israeli government do whatever they want to them. I think the most immediate step we can take to remedying this is for Westerners to actively speak out against their governments' tolerance or support for American activity in the Middle East, and against Israel's crimes. I am not excusing the crimes of Muslim terrorists, and they should still be stopped and punished, but letting the average Muslim know that many of us stand with them will prevent a lot of them from answering the call to terrorism.

Now, as for immigration, I am less tolerant and friendly. Europe needs to reduce non-Western immigration badly. Actually, many who promote this view choose the words "Muslim immigration" rather than "non-Western immigration" to avoid being called "racist," and would rather settle for "Islamophobic." Doesn't matter to me, I guess I'm a racist.

Sorry for the rant guys. I'm awake in the middle of the night and hung over.

Star Forge wrote: Now, as for immigration, I am less tolerant and friendly. Europe needs to reduce non-Western immigration badly. Actually, many who promote this view choose the words "Muslim immigration" rather than "non-Western immigration" to avoid being called "racist," and would rather settle for "Islamophobic." Doesn't matter to me, I guess I'm a racist.

Immigration itself is not the problem, cultural assimilation (or lack therof) is. I've had plenty of friends travel to both the US and to Europe, and while my friends who travel to the US assimilate the culture (their values become more "American"), friends who travel to Europe do not become more European. Wherever cultural assimilation is resisted, segregated communities rise. However, it should be noted that most Latin Americans are quick to integrate to a new country and assimilate its culture, whereas people from Near Eastern countries in general do not.

This thread topic could easily be "I am tired of the INSERT HERE bashing". Replace "Muslim" with woman, black, communist, immigrant, cop, LGBT or any other term we use to separate ourselves from others. The result is typically the same. We are playing "black and white" or "us and them" rather than accepting that each of us is connected to every other. Violence, and the fear it creates, is a problem we all share equally regardless of religion, nationality, race or gender. When we "bash" others we are bashing humanity, and therefore bashing ourselves.

As a political activist in my state (South Carolina, USA) I point out on a regular basis that more people die per year of drunk drivers than every American death since 9-11 to this very day. Sensationalized news makes this an issue, when it really is not an issue at all. Sensationalized news has taken over America and many other countries, where the sobering real news is buried under jaded acceptance in lieu for the 'wow' news that gets people riled up in Us vs Them mentalities which has been common in every war against every people the United States of America fights. It is nonsense that can stop if we fight for the truth and do more then allow ourselves to become jaded with the everyday realities of things we CAN prevent without need of hate or destroying our economy to line the pockets of a few.

In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes

Reference:
http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

Total deaths in the Global War on Terror; 6,582 as of 24 May 2015.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/many-americans-died-u-s-wars/

One of the powerful things we've noticed over here in regards to assimilation is that it really starts to work from both ends when the new communities develop their own unique type of popular self deprecating humour. It seems to have to be exaggerated, and not intended to actually demean themselves. It sort of seems to be a good way to allow natural merging and good intention mixing of cultures into a society. I guess each group needs a clown for everyone else to point at perhaps... and the point probably is to laugh with, rather then laugh at, so it probably needs to be made by (or at least for) those new communities obviously not to offend them and marginalize them further.

While humour has value in communication when their is confusion but still good intentions, I think its real benefit is it gives established groups a set of 'local' stereotypes which they find non-threatening. Instead of viewing them as foreigners moving here, they become different people living here.

It's success and necessity seems to vary depending on the extent of differences, and perhaps one of the sticking points for Islam is that fundamentalist component which rejects change entirely. It would undermine efforts for the rest of the muslim communities to quickly have a naturally progressing merging and mixing of cultures.

Since there are all the sorts of impediments naturally arising with the mixing of diverse cultures, IMO it also requires both sides to try and take the view that the opportunity can be seen as a chance to create something new by taking the best bits of each others cultures and creating a new multicultural society.

Otherwise the tendency is to see isolated pockets of different cultures spring up as separate groups. While this happens anyway, it's usually a part of the natural mixing, but if they become closed off groups then margin's are drawn and its no longer a multicultural society, but a multi-society culture. The later would seem to be a fast track to conflict.

Though we have to remember the new communities are faced with the fear of being a minority, often not being able to fully communicate, weak support networks due to geographic dislocation of families, and generally not understanding the local customs in much detail at all. So there is a lot of room there for a smile, and a laugh from us, to make it clear we aren't a threat - because many might not know how to tell otherwise.

I feel like i can agree with what you are saying
And that all muslims are terrorists.. That's just a stupid statement, yes there are always some bad apples in the basket, no matter color [meaning religion] but that dosen't make all apples bad

I belive the common cause for islamophobia is fear for terrorgroups such as daesh, or just ignorance.
A person that has put even a little time into studying the Koran and Islam will see that it does not agree with what the terrorists do, and people who claim that often pick out sentences from the koran, like picking out the chocolate in a cookie, you can't get the whole flavor if you don't eat the whole cookie

And so i wonder.. if we are at war with all muslims because of the actions of a few, are we thereby also at war with all white people because of the KKK?
I often see that people wich thinks Daesh is representatives of islam, don't think that the KKK are representatives of white people (wich they absolutely aren't!) but it's the exact same stupid logic