First thank you for reaching out to me during these sad and tragic times, it is nice to know you have trust in me as a friend. These recent events are upsetting everyone in the world and the question of will we ever have peace has come up multiple times. You are asking many good questions, each of which has a long discussion to be had, but I will try my best to answer each to the best of my abilities. My husband gave me his input too.
I don't judge Christians based on the actions of a group of people such as the Crusaders, the Spanish Inquisition, or the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK are by the way living in the U.S. with every right to live their lives according to their beliefs as long as they aren't proven to hurt anyone. I know its not the same but it does bear keeping in mind. So, if a group is misguided and extremist in their beliefs and carry the banner of Islam does that mean we also act in the extremes and reply with military force on a country of people that had little if anything to do the people involved in the horrendous act?
Two extreme wrongs don't make a just right. No, you judge based on the people you know and see on the street. The reason we are even having this discussion is because the image you have of me and the one being portrayed are contradictory. Also, I would like to thank you for not accepting the notion that I am a terrorist in disguise hiding behind kind and gentle demeanor and a nice smile. I very much dislike that propaganda made against all Muslims.
I also want to say that I am not overjoyed as well at the example most Muslims are making for the religion but still I think we can safely assume they are not driving around with their windows down screaming "die infidels, die!"
Now we come to Muslims and the world. Again I think this can be broken down to terrorist acts and the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. If you will allow me I would like to leave the latter for last. For now let's discuss terrorism and why it's happening.
I think it's very important to make the clarification that terrorism is done by organizations not by individuals. A counterpoint can be made that about the bombing in Boston but I can't imagine anyone just waking up in the morning and saying I want to kill Americans let me just look up how to build a deadly destructive device on the Internet. In my opinion, he was being taught wither directly or by propaganda videos that an organization put up online. This brings me to my main point, organizations are run by certain individuals. Individuals with a purpose and a goal. These people find ways to recruit people to their cause and finance their organization to achieve its goal
They can't do it alone or they would have. So they search for people around the world who are willing to join them or send them money. And they do whatever they deem necessary to achieve that goal. Here we arrive at the psychology of recruitment. Step 1 make your opponent out be the villain. Isn't it weird that every terrorist cell blames the "west" for everything evil in the world? the west. Them. Not us. The ones that are well to do while we are here in misery. Because of them. A non descript term that generalize any who oppose the organization.
It can be the U.S. today and Europe tomorrow. The point is they have to direct the anger and frustration of a people and they know just where to point it for their own benefit. We as a human race love to blame others for our own setbacks. It's natural we all do it and the leaders of the organization know it so they provide the villain for these people to be angry at. Making out the opponent to be the most vile scum of earth also makes it easier to carry out atrocities on them. It's ok to murder them they are not even human, don't let your natural humanity get in the way. This tactic is used by everyone. My husband remembers as a child he was in Macy's and ran to those 50 cent sticker vendors. But when he looked up he saw a huge sticker that was in the image of Sadam Hussain only he was all red with horns, a tail, and of course a trident. Sadam was Satan too. As a child the devil was the ultimate boogeyman man, the worst creation ever, and for someone to be equated to the devil was a shock to me. He didn't understand the war at the time because he was so young but that he understood perfectly.
He must be a horrible human being. This is what is being taught to the kids of America, what do you think is being taught over there? So the tactics aren't new we just are now on the receiving end of it. We always have to ask why. Why are they doing such and such? What's the point? Did you know that the reason why ISIS broke off from alquaeda is because Zarkawi wanted to fan the flames of fire between Shiaas and Sunnis to further his goals and Alquaeda said that isn't going to work with our strategy so the two separated and became separate organizations? It's all about main objectives and strategies. This is also the answer to why a state will harbor these people and organizations. Because it fits in with their objectives and strategies. If Pakistan really believed in what Osama was preaching they should have just made it into the government policy
They are a country with nuclear power nobody is going to start military action against them. North Korea is a great case in point, we haven't attacked them because of the serious ramifications it has on the rest of the world. So if they don't believe in his cause why were they keeping him literally down the block from the military capital? Because he was bringing in money and resources to their country. The money that is being funneled in to him is partly going to the country as well. So they formed mutual arrangements and therefore would not give him up but also never really bought into his ideas either.
I know you are an author yourself, my husband is trying to write his own story actually. In doing so, he's trying to write up an antagonist for the story. In his research for what makes a great antagonist a lot of the same points being made kept coming up. Purpose was one of them. Nobody likes to read about a villain who is evil just for the sake of it. It's not realistic. The reader doesn't believe it makes sense. It's true. So why are we ok in believing it in real life? Is it because it's easier ? Or is it because we are worried about what we might find out. That we may be wrong or even worse, at fault?
Finally the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In my younger years I would have said this is a political issue between two states that just so happen to be of different religions. I am not so naive anymore. The parties that had a political conflict originally are no longer here. People have been born and raised in Israel that you can't tell them to leave anymore and the children of the former Palestinians are without country or nation. There is no political resolution where both sides are even remotely happy that I can forsee working out but thankfully I am neither a person who can aid in that specific endeavor or a political science person who can come up with a resolution that befits the current situation. What I can tell you though is that what is happening in the middle east is a humanitarian horror unlike any I have known during my lifetime.
I truly think that all of humanity will be gathered in front of God and asked what have you done for the people of Palestine. Is it the only region where these kind of things are happening? Absolutely not. Is it the most well known and documented ? Without a doubt. Although I don't pretend to be an activist who searches out for people I can go out and help, I would find it hard for someone not to know about the constant fighting and killing going on in Palestine and Israel.
It may seem like I'm only viewing from the point of view of an American Muslim, but I can not justify in any way shape or form the actions of Israel. It's not to say the loss of any life is ok. It's not, any innocent life lost is a tragedy. But the sheer scale of "retaliation" is monstrously unequivocal.
Every 3-5 years it feels like Israel finds a reason to lay siege on a people fenced in with no where to run. Even the most recent of events was spurred on because three Israeli young men were found dead. Later on we find out that a gag order was placed on the investigation and they knew it wasn't a Palestinian all along. This is conspiracy theories of a flaming lunatic, this is all documented and available to you online with an easy search if you would like to double check my information. I was in utter shock that a country can so easily decide when to unleash the latest military technologies on humans fighting back with sticks and stones. What of the Rockets you ask that are continously being fired at Israel? If you can do me a favor and look up the casualties that Israel had suffered from these terror acts you will find that of the thousands of rockets launched, none landed on Israeli soil. No civilian casualties whatsoever.
The thousands of Palestinian lives lost are for what reason? What horrible act did they do to deserve this? And if your asking why do these "terrorists" still waste their ammunition it's because they say it's their last form of rebellion. They shoot a rocket knowing that it won't do anything except raise a few alarms and the officials stir the people of Israel into a panic so the fear and angst against the Palestinian people can continue. Have you seen the videos of Israelis on lawn chairs looking onto Palestine at night that cheer everytime a missile is launched into the occupied lands? Have you seen the editorial written in an Israeli paper asking about the justification of genocide in a war against the Palestinians? Have you seen the video of the little girl pleading to the world to have the attacks stopped only to be cut short by a missile slamming into the building behind her and sending her and the person filming her into a terrified escape for their lives?
Then the final trump card that people love to wave around when all else fails, how do I explain the barbaric suicide bombings that murders so many and the belief that the murderer himself is going to heaven of all places and to his 72 virgins (why do people get angry at the virgins part? Are they going to be asking for street corner hookers in heaven? And I don't see anybody imagining life a celibacy to equate to heaven). First off, I am 100% unequivocally against suicide bombings. I don't believe in it. I don't believe it is justified. I have asked around for the reasoning and found extrapolation where people claim proof. It does not belong in Islam. Dying for your religion and martyrdom is celebrated by all religions and nations. When a soldier dies for America he is celebrated for his cause. But in my mind suicide bombings is not martyrdom, it's an escape.
That is for God to judge and not myself. But I pose to you this question, a man living in a nation with no name, caged and imprisoned, the American dream now a long forgotten fantasy, have just lost a son/daughter/sibling/wife to a bombing, lost your house to a bulldozer that decided your land now belongs to the ever expanding nation that is oppressing you, and harrassed by soldiers at every checkpoint on your way to your holy mosque which ypu are only allowed to go to when they decide, a man who by no stretch of the imagination is of sound body or mind is asked to strap on this device and to take revenge on the people who did this to you, to leave this decrepit miserable life that you are living in and to join your family in happiness and bliss of heaven, whatever family members left behind to be completely financial taken care of sound there is no fear of any loose ends left behind. What would you choose? Will you take the high road at this point or will you be "barbaric" and let the pain go away?
In my eyes the only barbarians now are the people outside this conflict. People watching from the outside in of sound body and mind who see what is happening and stay quiet. The neighboring Muslim countries only wave a finger and make empty statements of disapproval. The international community can just tsk tsk tsk their way to a clear conscious. And the U.N. can only do so little when they know the U.S. will veto even the notion that Israel can have any blame at all. America has forfeited any right to the claim of being the international moral standard, policing the world from its high horse. There is no more facade of diplomacy towards the Palestinians coming from America anymore. It's ally is above reproach of any kind, it can kill and murder with no fear explanation. As an excersice send a letter to your local government official. Don't ask for Palestine to have its own state, no just ask what do they think of the thousands of Palestinian children that have died in this conflict. You will get the same response I got I guarantee it. Because it's the same response everyone I know got. "It is sad what is happening in the middle east but I fully back an Israeli government that is defending itself." Fully back a country that is defending itself. Digest that statement if you were a Palestinian reading that response. An American Palestinian reading that response. How much value do think your life is worth to this government now? An American Palestinian boy was kidnapped days after the killings of the Jewish boys. He was beaten up and burned tossed back. I'm sure you didn't hear about it. It wouldn't look good in the American publics eye if they caught wind of it, or then again these days I'm not even sure anymore. I'm angry. I'm pissed. I'm depressed at humanity and what it has come to. But most of all I'm terrified. In scared to death that when God asks me what I did for those kids I will have nothing to say. I would have been an accessory to murder. No, if only I would be so lucky, in fact I would be an accessory to genocide. And I may have nothing to say for it
For the record I don't hate jews. I have many Jewish friends (sorry don't have an exact number) and I can at least tell the difference between jews, the religion, and zionists killing innocents half way across the world
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