September 13, 2012 6:21 AM

This is what I mean when I say that free speech can be, and often is, ignorant and offensive speech

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

(apologies to Keith Olbermann)

Eric Allen Bell

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

  • Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

Ah, yes…9/11: the annual Anti-Islam Hatefest. I deliberately missed most of it this year, because I’m frankly tired of those who reflexively hate what they can’t be bothered to understand. It’s the most basic and ill-informed false equivalency imaginable:

1) 9/11 TERRORISTS WERE MUSLIM, therefore:
2) ISLAM IS BAD, EVIL, AND DANGEROUS, therefore:
3) MUSLIMS WANT TO DESTROY US, ergo:
4) WE MUST DESTROY ISLAM

Bell’s hate-and ignorance-filled diatribe against Islam is one of the most vile, ethnocentric, ignorant, and intolerant screeds I’ve come across. It’s no small accomplishment making Pamela Geller and Frank Gaffney look like altar boys, but he’s managed to do just that. It’s just too bad he couldn’t find a direct all that passion toward doing something positive.

What haters like Bell choose not to recognize is that the “logic” by which they define Islam could be applied to Christianity as well. After all, Scott Roeder and the Rev. Paul Hill, among others, committed murder in the name of their Christian God. There’s a convincing argument to be made (particularly via the Old Testament) that Christianity sanctions murder. Of course, that argument encompasses truths that are inconvenient for those committed to hating Islam- not that truth, fact, or logic has ever stood in their way of their malevolence.

I respect and defend Bell’s right to state his opinion, but it seems to fall under the “better to be thought a fool than to write a long, hateful screed on Facebook and remove any lingering doubt” banner.

Free speech being what it is, Eric Allen Bell’s repugnant diatribe deserves a thoughtful response. I recognize that humanity will benefit little by my response; I should just ignore Bell’s lunacy. I know full well that my argument will do nothing to dissuade Bell and those who think as he does. There’s just something in me that wants to demonstrate that there are thoughtful people who don’t equate Islam with 9/11 anymore than we equate Christianity with killings and bombings at abortion clinics. Terrorism is terrorism. It’s not about ideology; it’s about hatred and zealotry taken to a point where those who think, live, love, and/or believe differently are viewed as The Other- subhumans unworthy of continued existence. There are those- like Bell- who would use their fear and malevolence to justify destroying Islam…and with it Muslims who follow the teachings of Mohammed.

Yes, when you get right down to it, what Eric Allen Bell is really talking about is genocide- killing Muslims in order to destroy Islam. He’ll plead innocence, of course, but you can’t destroy Islam without destroying Muslims.

One thing I find particularly amusing (and indicative of an epic lack of self-knowledge) is this gem from the “Basic Info” section of his Facebook page:

HATE SPEECH AND PROMOTION OF VIOLENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ON THIS PAGE !

Evidently, “hate speech” by his definition is anything that prevents him from spreading his anti-Islam hate speech.

Stay classy, eh??

Hate cannot kill hate…and that’s the lesson that Bell seems willing to ignore.

Islam is war. Really? And Christianity by contrast is a religion of peace? One would have to be completely ignorant of history to ignore the reality of Christianity’s bloody, murderous legacy. Islam is no more about war than Christianity…but that’s an inconvenient truth Bell chooses to ignore.

Islam gets off on making you submit. Again, Christianity’s history is not exactly one of peraceful persuasion. Anyone remember the Crusades? Or WWII? Or Bosnia and Croatia?

A non-Muslim is a second-class citizen called a Kafir. You and I are Kafirs. Much of the Koran concerns itself with the Kafir - how to control us, to subjugate us and to kill us. The Koran and the Bible were written a couple thousand years ago. The world was a much different and far more brutal place. The Bible reflects this reality every bit as much as the Koran. Early Christians weren’t exactly consumed by a desire for tolerance, charity, and peaceful co-existence. To ignore this reality while simultaneously condemning Islam for its bloody history is as disingenuous as it is dishonest.

Islam is a criminal enterprise, using lies about hell and Paradise to manipulate its masses. Substitute “Christianity” for “Islam”, and that statement would be every bit as true. Christianity has always been about manipulating people with fear-mongering about “Hell” and “eternal damnation.” How that differs from Islam simply defies rational understanding.

Islam is terrorism. Uh, no, though some acts of terrorism have been committed by Muslims…and the same is true for Christianity. I could rattle off a laundry list of Christians who’ve killed in the name of their flavor of God, but that doesn’t mean that one can accurately state “Christianity is terrorism.” There’s NOTHING in the Bible or the Koran sanctioning terrorism. Then again, haters like Bell seem to have convinced themselves that hyper-religious murderers with white skin by definition aren’t terrorists, while those with brown skin are undeniably and irrefutably terrorists.

Move along, people; no hypocrisy here….

Islam and human rights cannot coexist. No double standard here, eh? Unless you take into consideration those Right-wing Dominionist Christians who would replace our constitution and the rule of law with the Bible…not exactly a recipe for respecting human rights, is it?

Islam and Liberty cannot coexist. Islam and America cannot coexist. Bell conveniently ignores the fact that most Muslims are peace-loving individuals who merely want to be left alone to live their beliefs- which, by the way, have nothing to do with destroying America and subjugating Americans under the jackboot of Sharia (which most of the haters couldn’t define under pain of death). Most Christians can be described in the same manner. This is not about doctrine- whether it be Islam or Christianity- it’s about narrow-minded zealots who’ve managed to twist their Holy Book into something unrecognizable, but that’s been used frequently to justify murder and repression.

We must end Sharia in our time. And if we are to evolve and to survive, as a species on this planet, we must wipe out Islam entirely. This language wouldn’t have been out of place during the Crusades. If Bell thinks that Christianity justifies the wholesale extinction of a religion (and with it its believers), he should look back into history about 70 years. What he’s demanding isn’t all that far removed from what Adolf Hitler and the Nazis tried to do to Jews. While I’m loathe to trot out the Nazi analogy, history is what it is…and Bell would be well advised to consider what he’s advocating.

The civilized world, which is superior to Islam in every way…. Besides being disturbingly ethnocentric, Bell’s assertion displays an appalling lack of historical and cultural context. I’m not certain that “civilized” is a word that can be used to describe a country that acquiesced to going to war against Iraq based on lies, propaganda, and misinformation. “Civilized” peoples don’t kill more than 100,000 noncombatants in an immoral war with no purpose or rationale. How Bell can seriously describe the Christian world as “superior to Islam in every way” is something I find impossible to understand.

If you are Muslim, seek help for this mental illness. Outside of being one of the most disturbingly ignorant and self-righteous things I’ve read anywhere, this statement exposes Bell as being in serious need of a good, long look in the mirror. It’s one thing to hate or disagree with a religion. Bell has every right to his opinion. He errs in assuming that he has the inalienable right to judge and denigrate those religious beliefs and customs that don’t dovetail with his own personal flavor of enlightenment.

Project much??

If you are a person of conscience, know that Islam has one enemy which has the power to destroy it completely and that is TRUTH. Unfortunately, Bell wouldn’t recognize the truth if it showed up with a pair of kneepads and a tube of AstroGlide. What Bell does have a firm grasp on are concepts like hatred, intolerance, self-righteousness, fear, and surpassing ignorance.

I would ask Bell if he’s ever lived or traveled in the Islamic world. I have, and I’m here to tell you that most Muslims want the same thing most Christians want: peace, security, and family. Yes, there are those who hate us and would do anything in their power to destroy us, but those zealots are a small and impotent minority. There are also Christian zealots- like Eric Allen Bell, f’rinstance- who hate Islam and would do anything in their power to destroy it…but they also constitute a small and generally impotent minority.

Most hatred is based on fear, one way or another. Yeah. I wrapped myself in anger, with a dash of hate, and at the bottom of it all was an icy center of pure terror.

  • Laurell K. Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures

Besides being a poorly written, virtually run-on paragraph, Bell has accomplished little save for exposing his ignorance and intolerance of those possessing the temerity to think, live, and believe differently. People like Eric Allen Bell would have been right at home during the Crusades.

So much for evolution….

Islam is no more responsible for 9/11 than Christianity was for Scott Roeder murdering Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of his Wichita church. If you want to blame 9/11 (or Tiller’s murder) on anything, it should be ignorance, fear, hatred, and intolerance…all things Eric Allen Bell appears very conversant with.

I pity Eric Allen Bell. It’s bad enough that he’s a miserable excuse for a human being…and it can’t be easy carrying around all that rage and anger. What a sad and pathetic way to navigate through life. Instead of celebrating our shared humanity, Bell is fixated on hating those who think and believe differently. And it’s not merely hate; Bell harbors the desire to destroy Islam, which can’t be done without destroying Muslims. What Bell’s really advocating is genocide, the wholesale destruction of an entire group of people simply for the flavor of imaginary friend they happen to believe in.

How sad, sick, and pathetic do you have to be in order to harbor such hatred, ignorance, and intolerance…and to believe yourself to be a Christian? If I may be allowed to paraphrase Gandhi, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians”…though Bell is a Christian only in his own imagination.

WE DESERVE BETTER. And humanity in general deserves better than Eric Allen Bell’s inhumanity.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on September 13, 2012 6:21 AM.

Santayana had no idea just how right he was was the previous entry in this blog.

Pessimist? Optimist? I just wanted my coffee.... is the next entry in this blog.

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