Demonization

When you demonize something it takes on a life of its own. The demonization feeds on itself until the original purpose is obscured and all that is left is the false image created by the skewed view of the person, or persons originally seen through the foggy glass of demonization. In World War II the Japanese were the target of this technique. I hate to be the one to tell you but there just isn’t any nice way to kill people. And most people simply can’t do it. A study has shown that a very large percentage of soldiers in the Civil War fired their rifles up into the air because they simply could not kill another American. So how do you fix this? Well, first of all it helps if the other guys don’t look like you. Take Japanese for example. They were portrayed as animalistic. Their eyes were a little more squinty, their teeth a little larger, and their accent a little more childish. Forget that Japanese women are among the most beautiful in the world. Forget that their religion is among the most cultured mankind has ever seen. They were painted as unfeeling monkeys.  This mindset was so profound that Japanese Americans were incarcerated in camps simply because of their ancestry. It didn’t matter that their families came here in the 1800’s and helped build railroads spanning the continent. They were JAPS! 

So it is now with Arabs. For years the followers of Islam were viewed as simply a religion from “over there,” and most, if not all Americans didn’t know, and did not want to know anything about them, or their customs. When I first got into real estate I would routinely greet people from the Middle East with the words, “Allah is great, in that He gives us opportunity to prosper.” Osama Bin Laden came along and changed all that. And now we have ISIS. These fanatics pervert the Qu’ran to their own ends, which folks, all boils down to money, and the result is the demonization of all Arabs. They are a little darker, a little more crude, a little more fanatic, and every time a head comes off they are all killers of mankind. Never mind that one of the core briefs of Islam is that if you kill anyone without cause you are guilty of the murder of everyone. Never mind that it is tradition that when they leave the Mosque they must have coins in their pockets to give to beggars on the steps, even if it’s only a nickel, because they believe Allah hears he poor man’s prayer before the rich man. They are demonized and the insane ramblings of a few malcontents become the standard by which all Arabs are judged. 

Now, I may be wrong here, but hear me out. Mohammed could fight. That boy could make war in a New York minute, but I have read his history, and it’s full of war, yet I can find nowhere that he killed a child. The Taliban shot a fourteen year old girl in the face for teaching other little girls to read and completely ignored  Mohammed’s own daughter, who helped preserve his words in the Qu’ran! All “holy” books get misused. You think ISIS is crazy? Try dropping by the Westboro Baptist Church some Sunday morning. You think they wouldn’t burn people at the stake if they thought they could get away with it? They wave their Bibles and spout hate and completely ignore the fact that nowhere in that book is an instance of Jesus ever disrupting a funeral. The most disruption He ever did was waking up the deceased and sending him on his way. 

President Obama pulled off something last night that positively amazed me. The Saudis participated in an attack on Syria to strike a blow at ISIS! Now they didn’t lead the charge, they’re not up to our abilities, but they were THERE! They drew a line in the sand and said, “ENOUGH!” Quite a few other Arab states came to the party also. They are tired of that kind of nonsense. The tourist sites of the Persian Gulf are some of the finest in the world, and there’s no reason the Middle East can’t all be like that, except for a few illiterate perverts who won’t work and pursue their own twisted desires. 

No group is totally evil. Religion is man’s effort to raise himself above the apes, and live in harmony with nature. God reveals Himself to man in many different ways, and God is always good! Why would an all knowing God create man if His intent was to torture him? Think about that. Why would He make flowers, sunny days, and beautiful women, and then turn around and tell someone to cut a reporter’s head off because he is a westerner? I have a difference of opinion with Islam. I believe Jesus was exactly what He said he was, but Jesus never advocated war with any religion or sect. He even got along with the freaking Romans! He advocated paying taxes to the occupiers of his own country. Saint Paul did the same. God is bigger than a book, any book. Theology is just man’s effort to explain the unexplainable. 

When this current craziness is over, and the world turns it’s attention to other things, the Arabs will still be there, praying on their silly little rugs, all facing Mecca. The oil will still flow, and hopefully the Middle East will return to a land of lavish hotels, vast beaches, and quaint people who welcome tourists with open arms. Kinda like them Japanese fellers, huh?