No, we shouldn’t fear Islam. That makes about as much sense as fearing all men because the 9-11 terrorists were all male.
Sharia Law isn’t present in all Muslim countries either.
If someone is living in fear of a billion people because they are Islamic, that person must surely be a coward.
During my lifetime, I have seen the horrors of what happens when people of one religious faith or ethnic background are feared in mass by others. I’ll have no part of mass hatred.
Some of you are old enough to remember the incredible ice dancing by Torvill and Dean at the Sarajevo Olympics. They skated to Ravel’s Bolero. He was the matador and she was his cape. No one has come close to skating so perfectly again. They scored the maximum points allowed with nine 6.0 for artistic impression. But the place – the building – in which this magic happened was torn down and that plot of land is a cemetery for the victims of ethnic war there.
When did the American ideal stop being standing up for what you believe in and kicking ass if necessary to get there and become cowering in fear at other’s futile posturing?
People scared of Islam just need to grow some balls. If you think the spread of Islam is a problem: do something about it. By that I don’t mean oppression, violence or discrimination, I mean engagement, education, support of moderates and setting an example of American ideals. Embrace and extend.
It’s not entirely a Christian problem, since clearly a lot of American’s are homophobic whether they’re religious or not. Equally being a Christian doesn’t automatically make you a homophobe. The problem has more been that Christian churches have served as a means of spreading intolerance and form the heart of many organisations fighting the advancement of gay rights. Without the widespread Christian belief and the power this gives to the Christian churches to advance whatever agenda they like I don’t think you’d see nearly the same level of resistance (especially the organised sort) to the gay rights movement.
It’s not ONLY a Christian problem. But it is (in the USA) a religious problem. Whether that religion is fundamentalist Christianity, ultra-Orthodox Judaism, Mormon or whatever. The most vocal opponents of equality are religious voices. Now, that includes Islam, yes, but in the US, Islam really doesn’t have a loud voice, because there are so few Muslims. And, frankly, the idea that there are going to be enough Muslim immigrants who WANT shari’a law moving to the US that they’ll have any kind of powerful influence toward actually making the US a shari’a country, is delusional.
For the foreseeable future, I’m in much more danger, as a gay man (and an atheist) from Christians (not exclusively, but their numbers make them more dangerous than any other faith in the US) than from pretty much any other religion here in this country.
Why do we have to discuss fear of fundamentalist Christians killing us? The big fear right now is attacks on science and education, along with threats to rights of gays (or any other undesirable). These are real and there are consequences.
So yeah, I fear Christian fundamentalists more than anything else because they have political power here.
I actually got onto a sidetrack with that. The point is actually that it may very well be a cultural problem. But so may a lot of the “What’s wrong with Islam?” problems we have (it’s my understanding that female genital mutilation is one of these). If I’m not supposed to consider all Christians dangerous despite what their scriptures say about me and despite what some of their governments have done to people like me, then why am I supposed to consider all Muslims dangerous because of what their scriptures say about me and because of what some of their governments have done to people like me?
You might want to notify the folks on the OTHER side of this controversy from me, since they’re the ones who are bullying Muslim communities in places like Tennessee and California to keep them from opening new mosques and community centers. They’re the ones talking about how Islam (as if it were monolithic) is not a religion but a political ideology.
Fear can turn people into slaves. Fear is used in many ways to control people. In some Muslim countries and even the terroists are slaves of fear of the West. Facing fear is a way of not being enslaved.
In the early days, people were taught to fear Roman Catholics, then it was communism, then blacks, now it is Muslims. Politicans use fear when they campaign . Rossevelt was correct when he said ,“We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”
Any expansionist, imperial authoritarian movement should be feared. However most muslims aren’t into that from what I know. I have read about 10% of muslims support RWA (right wing authoritarian) movements like Al Qaeda, but 10-20% is roughly what you’d find in any country. Even countries like France and Denmark have 10-20% of the public who support their own RWA movements. So my impression is that Islam, like any culture, has 10-20% who support authoritarian, militant, expansionist policies. As long as those movements are kept under wraps world wide that is fine.
As a secularist I do fear Islam though. Most of societies benefits came from abandoning religion and pursuing science and reason instead. I don’t want to revert to the middle ages.
No, the so called Islamic threat is being blown way out of proportion for use as a tool for the milltary-industrial complex to replace the Soviet Union. It’s well known now that the Soviet threat was knowingly over estimated to scare the people back then.
What’s going on today is even worse than that, as the whole story the American people are being fed is a made up fairy tale, a myth that has people believing they are fighting an epic battle against evil.
The excellent documentary The_Power_of_Nightmares goes into great detail on why these phony threats were and are being forced on the American people, and where it all started.
Some of the interviews with members of the G.W. Bush administration are down right chilling when you see what they really believe. I worry more about what they are capable of.
(though, in all honesty, my wife is white and my kids are half white, and I don’t fear them so maybe ‘all’ is a bit of an exaggeration. Some of my best friends are white too, so don’t be thinking that I have this thing about white folks)
As to the OP…should we fear Islam? Um…hell no. If we cave into fear then basically the folks who perpetrate terrorism (a small percentage of those who follow the Muslim faith) have won, since the whole idea behind terrorism is to, well, instill terror in their target audience. It’s silly to fear ‘Islam’, and it’s not even smart to live in fear of actual terrorists, as it will distort your perceptions and make you much more likely to lash out blindly. It’s a Bad Idea™ to live that way, and I dislike people who attempt to instill this for political reasons, let alone people who allow their lives to be controlled by such fears.
No, the proper attitude towards terrorism and terrorists (of whatever stripe) is to hunt them down like the animals they are and give them a fatal case of lead poisoning.
Citing as an example Phelps as a Christian and as an example of mainstream Christianity is no better than citing Osama Bin Laden as an example of Islam. Everything has extremes and Phelps is a better example of a nut job. Remove his religion and he is fundamentally nuts.