Friday, September 03, 2004

I'm Angry









Anonymous said...

Mike, you need to distinguish between religion and its followers. By your reasoning, Christianity would be behind the high rate of drunk driving related deaths in America. Islam has nothing to do with this behavior. Sure, many of these people call themselves Muslim, but it isn't the religion that prompts them to do it, but bad cultural effects. Does Christianity encourage people to drink and drive in the US? No, but every day there are drunk people calling themselves Christian getting behind the wheel and running innocent children over. Those people, if they were following Christianity, would not do such things. teh same could be said of Islam and Muslims.

In answer to your need to hear from Muslim leaders, read this:

And its not just the leaders who are upset, we ordinary Muslims are very angry about what happened too.

Mike said...

Thanks for your post. I very much appreciate the link.

Muslims need to be more vocal about their outrage and condemn these actions publically within their communities. Perhaps this might help make the young people realize that the so-called leaders who are telling them to strap bombs onto their bodies are not speaking for their religion, but for their own hate-filled agendas.

Your analogy though is flawed. The difference between your example of drunk drivers and suicide bombers is that the drunk drivers are not intentionally going and killing people in the name of God. The drunk drivers have no agenda, save their own criminal stupidity.

As long as these terrorists announce their actions in the name of Islam, mistrust and hatred will exist. Abdulrahman al-Rashed's words are a step in the right direction. Muslim's must unite and stand against acts that are an abomination to their own religion. Without that, nothing will get better.

Anonymous said...

You make a good point, but if non-Muslims were more knowledgeable about Islam, they would see how ludicrous it is to connect such actions as what happened in Russia with Islam in any way. Would anyone who had even a small inkling about Christianity have expected all Christians to stand up and condemn what Jim Jones did or else everyone would mistrust Christians? No-it's a double standard.

According to Islam, all children are born Muslim. They are not considered to be accountable for their choice of religion until they reach puberty. Therefore, any Muslim who understands and follows their religion would realize that those children in the Russian school were by definition of their religion Muslims. Killing non-Muslims would not be right either, but it is doubly insensible that they could do so with any justification from Islam because they were children.

Jon Papaioannou said...

Mike, I wanted to make a point that fortunately has already been made for me.

You just cannot distrust/hate/wage war on all Muslims, "just" because it's (reportedly) Muslims performing these acts of horror. Maybe you would be justified to do it as self-defense if they specifically picked Christian targets, but you said yourself this is not the case (they also kill Muslims).

I don't think that "going over to the dark side" is going to help... it has never helped. Why do these people organize suicide mass-slaughter missions? Because they are being oppressed (this word here is my own opinion) and because they come from a culture that allows them to justify these acts.

Which of the two can you blame them for, and back an attack on them?

And before advocating an attack, think a while that EXACTLY what makes you angry could be a very reasonable counter-attack if "we" had started attacking them. Gives you a good idea of what an escalation of these events would lead to.

Just my two... pence... ;-)

Mike said...

Hi Jon.

Thanks for your post. I actually do agree with you. I am not prone to hate or war. More and more, I find myself in agreement with John Lennon's song "Imagine". My post was made to start conversation about this issue. I have to believe that Muslims in general don't support this either, but without hearing loud denouncements, I can only assume.

The one difference I have come across is my feelings toward murder vs. the Muslim's faith view of murder. My view is simple - murder is wrong! The Muslim faith seems to be able to justify it in specific cases. I read that a group of Muslim leaders will get together soon to decide whether acts like the ones in Russia can be considered as just. I'm sure they will decide that they can't, but I'm horrified that they have to discuss it.

I don't view this as Christian, or Jewish (or Punjabi, or Sikh) vs. Muslim. I'm not a practicing anything. But I do have morals that I live to - ones that I thought were shared by all of us.

Anonymous said...

I'm Angry because I just got in another fight with my brother and mom. This is the second fight today. I am just a teen in a messed up world. I try to enjoy myself as I am, but it seems like my brother and my mom wont let me do that. Everyday we find something to fight about. I want to go live with my dad but i dont know if he can afford to have me in his household. So I am trying to just fight it out here and I was just wondering if you had any tips on what I can do. Thank You,


Mike said...

Hey Brock -

I'm no expert on these matters, but keep trying to talk to those you care about. Its normal to argue, just try not to let it escalate to hate. Find a trusted relative or friend to talk to, and hang in there.