I am shocked…honestly shocked at some of the posts that I am seeing on my FB feed today (and I have seen many of these) saying things like France and the U.S. should round up every Muslim and put them into concentration camps until they are proved innocent….or posts that say they will not pray for or have any compassion for France until they wake up and recognize that the “Muslim parasites” need to be “annihilated.”…. And I’ve lost count how many I’ve read blaming this entire attack on Obama or somehow linking this attack to the size of Obama’s testicles. The outright hatred for other human beings who happen to be different is exactly what causes terrorists to kill….and that same mindset here is beyond disturbing. When we see radicals hijacking Christianity before terrorist attacks we don’t round up and condemn all Christians. Common sense tells us that the KKK, white supremacists, Timothy McVeigh, abortion clinic bombers, the Sikh Temple massacre, burning of black churches, and countless others done in the name of Christianity do NOT represent the religion. The tragedy in Paris makes my heart break for humanity. But many of the posts I’m reading today are not making me feel any better for us.
In the wake of the tragic events in Paris, I suppose it was inevitable that the knuckle-draggers and haters among us would feel justified in letting their freak flags fly proudly in the stiff breeze of anger and sorrow. There are always those who prefer to react and find a convenient scapegoat than take the time and expend the energy to soberly reflect on why something like Paris may have occurred. It’s easier to find someone to blame and direct one’s considerable righteous outrage and anger at them than to look for constructive ways to react. That the vast majority of peace-loving Muslims had nothing to do- in ANY shape, manner, or form- with the terrorist attacks is apropos of nothing. ANY good, God-fearing patriotic Conservative White Christian American KNOWS in their heart of hearts that all Muslims (particularly Syrian refugees) are terrorists and that they wish for nothing more than to destroy America’s freedoms and force us to live under Sharia law.
That those terrified of all things Islamic- particularly Sharia- in most cases don’t know the first thing about that which they so fear is beside the point to them. Those who live in ignorance tend to react in anger. Those who travel the path of hatred prefer to tar all Muslims with the same brush, even though the vast majority have condemned terrorism in general and the attacks in Paris in particular in no uncertain terms. 9/11 proved to these folks beyond a shadow of a doubt that Muslims are terrorists, pure and simple. To them, the phrase, “Everything I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11” is a mantra succinctly describing a mindset that puts all Muslims in the same box. Of course, they’d NEVER tolerate the same being done to Christians, even when presented with the Oklahoma City or Atlanta Olympic bombings. Christians by definition can’t be terrorists; White folks carrying out acts of mass murders are people with anger management issues, but to call them terrorists is overly simplistic.
As any good, God-fearing White Conservative Christian patriot will happily inform anyone within earshot, ignorance and hypocrisy in the service of God and Country is no crime…because that’s what Fox News Channel and the Right-wing propaganda machine has told them. Why would a patriot think critically when all they need do is hate those they’re told to?
Muslims are condemning Islamophobia by tweeting support for Paris with “I am a Muslim” https://t.co/ZIZ0N3YuBe pic.twitter.com/S0bXvKZx0F
— BuzzFeed India (@BuzzFeedIndia) November 14, 2015Terrorist attacks on soft targets like what took place in Paris are designed to inflame the hatreds of those who already predisposed and conditioned to hate and distrust Muslims, thus provoking them to harass, abuse, and even attack those whose only crime is looking and worshipping differently. Anger is understandable. Feeling helpless is understandable. Giving in to hatred, ignorance, and Islamophobia is not.
Neither is blaming events in Paris on factors that have absolutely no relation to anything concerning terrorism: homosexuality, Liberalism, the Common Core curriculum, death metal, being a Packers fan, or any number of things apropos of nothing except an overactive imagination and an overdeveloped fear center.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
There are two ways humanity can react to terrorism. We can redouble our resolve to not let terrorists destroy what we hold dear…or we can give in to fear and hatred and lash out against those who in truth have nothing at all to do with terrorism and, in fact, condemn it in the strongest possible terms.
The nature of terrorism is that it’s impossible to know the what, where, when, and how of the next attack…and so it’s easy to live in fear of becoming the next victim. The random nature of events such as what happened in Paris means that no matter what one might do, no matter how well one prepares for every conceivable eventuality, there’s still no way of being completely safe and secure.
Come to think of it, there’s no way to achieve absolute safety and security in ANY aspect of life. None of us are getting out of here alive, so how is trafficking in hatred and exclusion productive? If you choose to live in fear, that’s on you- and frankly, that’s part of what terrorists are hoping to achieve with large, splashy, spectacular attacks. If they can convince people to be fearful, to live life in constant dread and fear for their safety and wellbeing, they’ve won. When you make the decision to hate someone and blame them based on their appearance and/or religion, they’ve won. When you demand that our government exclude those who don’t look, think, act, or believe as you do, they’ve won…and you become part of the problem.
I’m certainly not about to advocate that only by taking a laissez-faire, Pollyanna attitude will terrorism be defeated. The truth is there’s precious little we as individuals can do to defeat terrorism on a global level. What we CAN do is to live our lives in a manner that makes it clear we refuse to be intimidated and frightened into marginalizing those who are different. We can recognize and accept that being Muslim doesn’t ipso facto translate to being a terrorist, any more than being a Christian does.
Granted, there’s little doubt but that Facebook and Twitter are where low-information and high-reaction types are wont to go in order to vent their considerable bile. That’s their right in a free society, and while we can’t stop or control the idiots and lunatics for spreading their hateful ignorance, we can control how and/or if we react to it. For my money, I choose to ignore most of the noise; many of those with an axe to grind are the sort of people whose opinions I place no value on. They can vent their spleens until they’re pronounced dead; there’s no need for me to respond to or even acknowledge ignorance and hate speech from those who fear what they can’t be bothered to understand. Worst case, I block them, which I prefer not to do, but some folks are human in name only and deserve to occupy no part of my consciousness.
When ignorance, fear, and reaction are the coin of the realm, we all lose.
