Category: Writers Block
I'm not a fool, I was born on a war torn corner
Jeneen, Falasteen, full of steam where the bombs stormed on us
Tried to escape but they never fore warned us
We'd end up with the weight of the whole world on us
Whats the difference between peace and war
You can make war from peace, but not peace from war
Come on why you think they teach us for, what the speech is for
Cant nobody fuckin speak no more
Come on, im getting to the point I cant breathe no more
Because all I ever breathe is disease of war
Young soldiers die before there seeds are born
It go back and forth like somebody's keeping score
In the final they need somebody else
We all know they do mean help is close.
I want peace, I guess that makes me a dreamer
This is for the victims of the Middle East andLibia.
We are not asking you to love us, stop trying to judge us
Who made the decision to go ahead and say fuck us
What you seeing them hover
no matter how high them warplanes fly Gods above them.
What happened to Palestinian rights, Lebanese freedom
A war aimed at civilian life
buildings get shot down, Children go fight
millions watch but they keep on killing despite
i'm watching daughters cry, over fathers that die
Hit the power plants, no power, no water supply
Forget the lies, this is when the truth comes in
They hit airports and ports and no food comes in
My head is spinning as the worlds revolving
right now we teaching our kids
if there is problems only war can solve it
truth or dare, tell the truth I dare
this is the truth to you i sware
there is people out there, too broke to give us their 2 cents
I speak for them, if you relate I speak for you too then
They say peace, but we don't have a clue when
How we let them drop bombs on the UN
Tears trickled down my face, This is a war on my race
So don't expect me to fall in my place
thinking that kids, they can be replaced
its a disgrace, over four million civilians displaced
trying to hold back the cries, one hand on his mouth,
his pops died at eleven, he the man of no house
aint no planning it out, this what lameness is about,
and you be damned if you let them kick his family out
I have seen it, in my dream and
they call us names when they acting like extremists
they left us in pieces, thats not what peace is
thats not the teachings of Muhammad, Moses, Jesus
come on.
Do we deserve this, is it worth it
Why the fuck they got us feeling like we worthless
They do it on purpose, and its working
Heyy, I am not trying to say it to be perfect
We had a history of violence
What happened to our history,
All the good we have done, you all base your opinions on us,
based on what 2 percent of
our religion thinks
or the race thinks
we lost a million civilians in Iraq
thats more people than any terrorist strike ever took,
you lost more american soldiers
than you did innocent lives on September 11
how does that equal out
and so for all of you
money, political game, fame.
What happened to be civilized people
we are a civilization, aren't we?
For all the people that lost their lives in
Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon
anywhere else across the world, this is for you
Best thus far, Keep up the good work.
faraaz, that pushed me to the brink of almost crying. just picturing that...oh my god. it's sometimes hard to grasp just how hard this stuff is, so thank you for this.
What about the rights of Asyrian Christians? There's no country called Asyria. Kosovo used to be full of Serbs. What about their rights to be part of Serbia. What about the rights of Sikhs in the Pakistani Punjab? Where have all their temples gone? Why does Pakistan even exist anyway? It was all once India, but Muslims didn't want to be equal to the Hindus, the Christians or the Sikhs - they wanted to be superior. Islamist suppremecy.
If the Palestinians want Israel back, Muslims should first give all lands they have ever taken back to their original inhabitants. Americans who think Palestinian land is being illegally occupied should leave America so it can be returned to the natives.
Awwww, Faraz...
Yeah, I agree with Dannie.
Damn, that was heart felt.
And I'm not trying to open up a debate oh (I am) but didn't the Christians do the same thing.
I just think imperialism is a natural part of life.
sure is amelai. it happens all the time but it gives no one the right to hate a whole race or religion regardless of which, just for the mistakes their relatives have made. But, of course, humanity is always looking for another pointless reason to harbor hatred towards another human. Its just a matter of picking their poison. Its also a phase of the world in my opinion. First the native americans, then the enslaving of africans, then the Jews, and now the muslims/middle eastern people. There are also the things noone tells u. Such as the first slaves being given to us by tribes who turned on each other selling one another out or giving us their prisoners of war. during the Haulicaust, which was a terrible event indeed, the jews were murdered because of their belieffs. But, it wasn't just them, noone payed attention to the disabled, blacks, and other numbers of people Hitler killed. My point being, is that there is always 2 sides to a story. And likely, neither 1 is the truth but opposite sides of a bias opinion. Thing is, people have no right to criticize islam. Especially americans. We've done more dammage to this world than any amount of relieff money, press conferences, and government lies can cover up or down play. To hate someone simply because of their belieffs or the color of their skin, shape of their eyes, or because their great great grandfather was a nazi, for example, i feel is a disgrace to humanity and our ability to reason. If most reasoned correctly or successfully, they would see that such hatred is frivolous. They would benefit much more from acceptance of differences than they do by dismissing, denying, or hating them.
Very well written, Faraaz. These others do have points: so many peoples have turned on each other and hurt and killed each other due to religion, race, appearance, any aspect of culture. But I think that you are writing about your own people, Faraaz, so in this case, you're writing about this specific modern issue. The principle of what you're saying could apply to many conflicts throughout history, but I recognize your heart in your work on this. Awesome writing.
"Thing is, people have no right to criticize Islam." Last I heard in U S folks had First Amendment right to free speech, provided they weren't slandering or libeling another human being, or engaged in foolishness like yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater.
I personally believe many people in the U S dislike Islam & Arab Muslims in particular NOT because of their beliefs, but because of supremely bad behavior. Now I've known my share of non Arab practitioners of the faith, especially east Indians, who were actually decent people.
But the practitioners from Arab majority countries?! Where I live they think it their divine freedom to make fun of others as 'white trash, niggers, robots (Asians)', to character assassinate evangelical Christians, Hindus, Republican voters, yet if they even perceive the same is being done to THEM, you don't have the freedom to do that. It is a huge double standard dealing with these snakes in the grass, and that is why I don't do it any more. There is also a gross sense of entitlement. Why for instance when I ask the native borns about the best place for swimming lessons, they almost always recommend the Y or a local pool in Revere, which has a fee for the lessons, yet when Mr Squid asks north African 'friends', they always manage to find the free stuff? I looked up 'free swimming lessons' online, and all I could find were pools in bad neighborhoods, open access public pools a distance from me, but no indication of any swimming lessons, even a WADING POOL. How do you learn to swim in a wading pool? One lady wondered why we paid for preschool, when it's FREEEEEEE at the local public school. They're too dense to even know the ol' expression "You get what you pay for." It's free all right, but working nights what am I going to do with a program that only lasts 2 1/2 hours? Am I going to sleep for one hour then pick her up? Not to mention my daughter is outgoing and loves the company of other kids and wishes she could spend more than the 4 hours she spends in private preschool.
And the honor killings, generally of teenage female children...do you know, say, El Salvadoran dads who kill their own daughters for becoming "too Americanized"? I don't but there is an Iraqi turd being tried in my former home town for mowing his own daughter down with his American made jeep. There was a "mother" in one of the Palestinian territories who slashed her own daughter's wrists for being raped by her brother. The sisters were pleased her mother killed her 'for the family honor'. And folks of this mindset are who the Israelis are supposed to make peace with? I personally wish the Iraqi ass hole pork filled baloney and pink underwear with all the other inmates of Joel Arpaio's jail as well as a lifetime of misery inflicted by other prison inmates. The death penalty is too good for these death happy people. I think that is what is meant by the expression "You can't legislate morality." You can set up all the anti discrimination legislation in the book, but you can't legislate peoples' likes and dislikes. And I'm inclined to agree with Senior's opinion. Why is it some folks just can't cohabitate with those of other religions, but must always have something of their own?! There are Muslim majority countries with 90+% Muslim, and if they're so well run why are so many of them seeking to emigrate to Christendom?
Aw, I nearly cried when I read this.
Agree with Kayla, and all the picking on muslims can stop. People that are christians run around here and kill each other, blow up abortion clinics killing many people, and let's add burning bibles...
And people who doesn't know any better think that's the life of a Christian, so their point in picking on muslims is?
i'm not talking about the extremist idiots who deserve everything that happens to them, they bring down the value and the respect of my religion and i hate them with a passion. all this killing and violence that they claim to do in the name of allah is not write. the qura'n promotes peace and non violence. yes we have had our share of violence so has everyone else. i don't sugar coat that. kayla is write it was first the blacks, then the jews now its the muslims, its a vicious cycle. i'm just putting to you how i feel when people say all muslims are terrorists, and when they try and rile me up by saying things about my profet "peace be upon him" yes i may give my views on things, but one thing i can allways garentee you people is this. you will never ever here me ever say something negative about the bible or the tora. i have respect for these books. i may not like some of the people but i have the upmost respect for the faiths. so why is it cool to allways go at mine, i'll tell you why because its an easy target. sorry to rant but someone has to put the other side across.
You don't need to apologize, Faraaz. Both sides should be put across.
Charasmatic enigma, I'm sorry but it's the loudest most vocal minority of ANY group that makes the entire group look bad. My mother in law would lay down her own life before she hurt another human being, says her five prayers PLUS during the day, reads her "mot du Bon Dieu", but it's easy to get cynical when the last time you entered that country, it was two days following suicide bombings in the capital that killed busloads of five and six year olds. The minsdet of the perpetrators was those kids were of American and French influence anyway, so their lives didn't matter. It's easy to get cynical when the imam of the local mosque talks of Jesus killing the Jews in the next life, or when a Pakistani woman disfigured by acid burning needs to take an overseas flight for medical treatment. Until more of the genuinely spiritual of the Muslims speak against those who have made a mockery of faith, Islam will always be a target, an image of acid disfigured women, churches destroyed (as was one in Mr Squid's native Tiaret, just an abandonned building 40 years after the fact), people enslaved based on race (as in Mauritania). I don't know if you kept up with the weekend news, but it wasn't members of Church of the Nazarene attacking Baptists, but Sunni Muslims attacking and killing Sufi pilgrims in Pakistan, and Afghans rioting in the streets over an idiot "Christian" pastor burning Qu'rans in Florida. Until moderates take back their faith and shun extremist elements, this is the image others will see.
Lol yes Kayla, I only ment that many nations war with each other and that any number of peoples rights can be infringed it was kind of a response to seniors post. So to speak.
You guys made some pretty good points. And as far as burning bibles, and blowing up abortion clinics goes, I can't even try to guess how often I hear about stuff like that.
In my opinion, people that lack the ability to see and recognize individualism, and spend their time forming opinions based on generalizations, are ignorant. I'm defending the muslim faith in this instance due to it being the topic of discussion. If it were turned on Christians, jews, hendus, or buddhits, I'd defend them just as fervently. People need to find better reasons to motivate such passion. Learn to turn it in to something worthwhile and altering instead of pointless hatred. That, is the only thing I'm trying to convey. And ok maybe I said they don't have the right, but it was a figure of speech. An abstract comparison. Just meaning, how is it ok for america to to drop bombs on iraqy children but its all hell cuz our towers were knocked down. Not to mention the 6 billion dollars we gave alqaida in the span of 3 years 1989-1992. I only meant that american's shouldn't criticize so heavily because it makes them hypocritical seeing as our government has done just as many terrible things as the islamic extremists. I've read the Qura'n along with many other holy books and, it states, that islam is to be portrayed with and taught with kindness and understanding. Every religion has people that go against the teachings of the religion and give it a bad name. It's just a matter of the coverage media wise and the people willing to demonstrate otherwise that affects people's outlooks on such matters.
I'm an agnostic leaning toward atheism, but my mind is open enough to respect all other faiths even if I don't necessarily agree with them or follow them. That being said, I want to raise a few points.
First, people criticize Islam here in North America a great deal because, while it definitely exists here, Christianity is what I would call the "dominant" religion, and Christianity, as both a faith and a formative basis for our laws and morality, has this really big problem with other groups claiming they're as good as, or better than, those following the path. I am not attacking Christians as a group here, but I am outlining a point about the religion that bears scrutiny; so far as I am aware, Christianity was the earliest religion which said, in a nutshell, "if you don't believe in Jesus, you're going to be punished for all eternity". The Jews beforehand weren't so vocal, and both the Hindu and Buddhist groups, not to mention many others, were much more relaxed than this. Thus, I think some of the intolerance of the Muslims is as a result of the fact that as a group, they don't feel it necessary to bow to a greater power - Christian supremacy, I mean - and thus speak out against the regime simply by existing in the way they choose to exist.
Next, I will agree that a few very bad apples can spoil a bunch, but it's sad to see it happen with one group and not with another. I go back to dominant religions again to illustrate this point. Christians have, over the years, done all sorts of things that a person might find objectionable...just go investigate some of the attrocities perpetuated by the Catholic church against scientists several hundred years ago, to name only one section of it. And yet, Christians are everywhere in North America - and indeed the world - both as a result of the way the religion is forcibly spread and as a result of mankind's genuine need to seek answers where darkness reigns. We, as a culture here in North America, have made our peace with Christianity, but we have not done so with Islam because it is not nearly as popular and we have not yet acquired its sweet, occasionally bitter taste. Let me reiterate something I think I said earlier: I'm not hating on any religion here, not at all...they're all wonderful faiths in the right hands and, while I might not partake of them, I respect those who do and who follow the teachings appropriately - which is to say, in the spirit that I'm sure they were meant.
Lastly, I just want to say that I think any discrimination - against faith, creed, skin colour, disability - is ridiculous. This world is hard enough already without any of us aggravating, creating or otherwise hanging desperately onto reasons to ostracize one human from another. If your belief in the divine is different from that of your neighbour, be at peace with your differences and learn a little in the bargain. If your skin colour is different from that of your neighbour, delight in the fact that thw rold is full of wonders anddifferences to explore and enjoy. We, as a race, will never run out of things to learn, but to decide another's fate as less than neutral simply because your own upbringing or personal beliefs has taught you so...to me, at least, is a disgrace to the nature of being humane. So long as the actions of another human being will not harm anyone, let him go his own way in peace. This goes for the Christian who is loud in his faith, it goes for the Muslim who weeps for the losses in the Middle East and sometimes thinks of some form of bittersweet justice...it goes for anyone. Defend yourself and those around you from harm if harm is a true threat - and by this I don't necessarily mean spiritual harm or the manufactured outrage present in so many platforms nowadays - but if you and yours are not being threatened, let well enough alone.
I know that the last little bit probably doesn't apply particularly to anyone here (which is to say that I'm not accusing any of you of doing anything bad), but I think it needs to be said. Stop counting drops of blood and start loving life again. It's as simple as that.
IMO, Americans don't distrust Islam & Muslims because of anything even remotely related to Christianity. Many Christians haven't been in church in years. They dislike it because of the multiple examples of bad behavior they see associated with it. Why, if it's so wonderful, have we seen bloodshed between Muslims & Christians in Nigeria; civilian deaths in Algeria, a 99% Muslim majority nation, over a 10 year period, it being a Muslim majority nation atrocities were perpetrated Muslim on Muslim; riots in places as diverse as Thailand and France; stoning of "adulteresses", as who knows how falsely accused some of these women may be in Saudia Arabia & use of adultery accusations as a way to avoid divorce in Iran; the total destruction of Afghanistan from within, bombing of girls' schools in Pakistan? Someone want to tell me, if Christians are so out to get the Muslims, about former practitioners of the faith, like Iman Ali Hirsi and Wafa Sultan, who now have books like INFIDEL & A GOD WHO HATES, coming out and telling what they lived? And I don't get why Muslim women are looked at as angels while men as neanderthal. My experience with Muslim women from Muslim majority countries is you give them opportunities in the west they whine & cry about why they want to go home. Parliaments in some of these nations pass measures on their behalf, like upping the minimum age of marriage & relaxing dress restrictions, and they're rioting in the streets. Here a Palestinian "father" stabbed his daughter to death while the "mother" sat on her. My facebook friend Muslim women in Alabama treated like shit until her Jewish husband died then they were knocking themselves out to get acquainted with her. Now I have also met Muslims, generally from Asia, who were perfectly decent men & women, but these and other examples of bad behavior you generally don't see with non Muslims, at least not in this century. Also, someone want to tell me when an abortion clinic was last destroyed, because I listened to former Planned Parenthood Director Abby Johnson on Mike Huckabee's show, and there's a side to abortion you don't hear about. This woman totally changed her position on the issue after witnessing an ultrasound guided procedure & seeing the fetus back away from the probe and now has a restraining order issued against her by her former employer. Also would someone like to explain how all the protests in the Muslim world are in favor of a group that probably comprises 15% of the world's Muslim population...those in the Middle East? I actually admire George Clooney for speaking out against the racial genocide in the Sudan when everyone else was focused on Iraq. Now I don't want to see Islam eradicated, but I personally believe when we don't see so many examples of little girls having their God given sexual anatomy mutilated; acid scarred women; and destroyed churches the rest of the world will be more willing to give Muslims the benefit of the doubt, but until then it is going to be a target of the world's wrath.
To the original poster why not start either here or on safe haven what the prophets actually had to teach? While I doubt supremely bad behavior was their message, unfortunately that's what it has evolved into. I think their actual messages would be a neat topic.
To respond directly to the previous poster:
Why aren't we still holding Christianity responsible for the retardation of science, the Crusades (which when you get down to it make what's happening now look awfully pitiful by comparison, I think), much of the strife that's torn Ireland apart, the unending controversies over which books to ban from public schools and why, not to mention a whole host of other things? In my eyes, the reason is simple: because the religion has enough well-meaning proponents to mostly efface its bad side and its bad deeds (every faith has these things, so again, I'm not Christian-hating here). With Islam, we have much the same thing, but people are less willing to look past the attrocities committed in the name of Allah, and I'm fairly convinced it's for the same reasons. If you look hard enough, you can find fault in the execution of pretty much any system of belief, particularly in the modern day, so I personally find the listing of specifically horrible acts a rather specious way to claim that Islam and Christianity are different. Islam's just going through something of a bad patch, so to speak, and is being badly represented by a rather violent and potentially dangerous minority.
I'd like to make one other argument while I'm here. I think you have to be really careful when you try and juxtapose your morality atop that of someone else as a means of justifying why one religion's bad behaviour is more understandable than that of another. For instance, many non-Muslim North Americans think the way Muslim women are treated ranges from confusing to downright despicable. That's fine...think it if you want, but remember that you can't pull moral ascendency due to an opinion. That self-same Muslim couple you condemn may very well think of your overindulgence and materialism as overtly blasphemous, and may be perfectly content to be the way they are, unwilling to harm anyone but also unwilling to change simply because their lifestyle is disapproved of. It's a problem faced everywhere, and bears some thought when we're talking about this sort of thing, I imagine; when you live in a place where your own religion is not necessarily the norm, you're going to get the hard end of the bargain every time.
Also, I haven't said this before, but the writing which inspired this discussion isn't bad at all. It's...rap-sounding, a little, which is likely the intent. I like the creative way you've linked some of the lines together. Nice message, and nice job.
thank you for your kind words sir, it was meant as a wrap baced poem.
also all i've seen from certain posts on here are how muslims are so wrong, are so morrally currupt, so bad. ware in the blue hell is that write? not all muslims want to kill all the christians, not all muslims want to kill all the jewish people? but the second we step out of line and don't conform to your way of thinking, we must be put down, we must be told your faith is bad your people are evil and a disgrace to society.
every faith has its bad points ok? mine has a history of violence just like any other, but why people feel the need to allways highlight islams ffaults makes me sick. what about the crusades as mister woolf said above. oh but wait thats the christians they do no wrong. lets all forgive and forget, the sectarian violence in ireland aa never mind its christians, we can let them off, they have well meaning people there.
just because we think differently to you, and want to live our life in a different way does not make us evil. i'm a muslim brittish asian young man. i do things just like you, i listen to western music, i am dating an american girl, but because i choose to worship allah, and do things in his name i'm a bad human being? because i don't agree with western politics in some cases makes me an extremist?
as for you mister tenticle let me put this point of view to you, you have braught up some horific things that people have done in "the name of islam" are the threatening of people in ireland because they are either catholic or protestant write? is it ok in india for hindus to burn muslims alive on trains? is it write to commit murder at all? no so why in the fuck is it allways a muslims fault when a tiny majority of idiots decide to be extreme. we are not evil, and we don't all want to blow up the west, or oppress our women.
i live my life the way i want to live my life. i was born a muslim and i'll die a muslim, and if you want to respect that fine, if not i could give less of a damn if i tried. i'm sick and tired of always having to defend my faith and what i believe in.
my poem wasn't trying to be about how islam is so much better than christians or jews, i was just tryng to point out how i feel emotionally when my people die for no good reason, weather it be palestine, iraq, afghanistan, or even great britain. i would feel thesame way if it wereany other country. violence is violence, death is death, murder is murder. we are all human beings, i just wanted to put a muslim slant on things, not to preach or to say my religion is better than yours.
sorry about my emotional out burst.
As I said in my second response I would be open to what the prophets DO have to teach, since apparently it isn't being lived, and not just in the Arab world, but Russia, Spain, England. The Crusades happened hundreds of years ago, terrorism in the name of Islam is very recent and has people very uptight. Care to share what Islam DOES have to teach, either here or on safe haven?
As to holding modern Christians, or modern Muslims, or Budhists, did in prior centuries we cannot rightly do that. And Budhists burned Samarai in Japan in the 1500s.
Why not, if you want to hold modern Christian groups responsible, hold them responsible for what they themselves are doing today in parts of America by trumping science with their own brand, as weak and flawed as if a bunch of astrologers insisted NASA use their charts for navigation, instead of real star charts that really track real locations of real objects in space.
You would do well to hold people accountable for their actions, which are often many, not the actions of prior centuries.
As to Squid, your comment / question about why we look at Muslim women the way we do, that is simple: lapidation, aka stoning, a prescribed behavior in the three monotheistic faiths for some injudicial and scant offenses. Stoning on average takes a half hour to die: go look it up on Youtube before anyone defends any holy book, watch the whole damn scene start to end no stopping no interruption: there is a very good reason we see stoning victims for what they are, and mobs of the executioners as barely human at all: it has nothing to do with what is written in a book anyplace, and everything to do with barbaric and uncivilized behaviors.
And in these regimes, they do tend to be male-oppressor-based structures, many of them new, and, like the Reconstructionist movements in America, they weren't in existence all that long ago. They are a response, in large part, to economic difficulties and social problems, opportunistic feeders moving in for the kill, without the courage of real predators.
In America they can't act out as far, because of the socially-established restraint. But I am confident you give some fundamentalist reconstructionists the exact same tools and environments, we would see them blowing things up and stoning people, just like the relatively new groups of extremists in the Middle East. Look at reconstructionism as it pertains to American funamentalists and you will find they downplay the damage done in the Dark Ages and deify the sorts of boorish, uncivilized behaviors like public physical what we call cruel punishments.
Both groups are jockeying for control. The faith issues are totally swallowed up and confused, but their actual intents are clear and easy to see.
With adequate social controls in the Middle East, the extremists there would be leashed as they are somewhat leashed here, and Muslims would carry on their lives as the rest of us do.
Both extremist groups possess a simbiotic feed-off-each-other's-hatred relationship something akin to the Hate week of the book 1984. Knowing this, I am neither shocked nor appalled anymore at what either propose or do: nor does either have any more credibility with me than the average monkey that throws their waste around.
The original writing itself isn't bad, but in a sense it reminds me of the late Tupak Shakur, a rapper who might have made a fine actor had he not been gunned down, but he made money off a lot of black people in the U S, who weren't even aware that he never lived in any of the ghettos he wrapped about. Which brings me back to an original question: the majority of the world's Muslims are non-Arab. I myself once identified with Muslims, particularly the largely Indian community I left behind. It seems now all identification with Islam involves intense interest in a group that makes up only 15% of the total population, those in the middle East. My experience with those individuals is they don't care how they treat those with backgrounds other than theirs, particularly non-white, so I'm in the dark as to why so much effort...anti war protests and what have you...goes on in their behalf. My own husband is north African, and I can't count how many times someone from a country like Syria has said, "Oh, that is NOT pure Arab," yet here he is part of the anti war movement. Do I get a prize for racial purity? I about fell over laughing when I heard American actor Danny Glover was a big anti war activist, as I can't count how many times I've heard the word "nigger" out of Arab mouths, even got treated to a nice Anti Semitic joke in the middle of a pizzeria, so no, I'm not in support of Hindu on Muslim or any religious based bias, but at the same time it seems people want to see a lot of love and tolerance expended on a lot of people that aren't willing to show it to those different than themselves. How about something related to the experiences of Asian Muslims in Great Britain? Or the actual teachings of Islam? That could be interesting.
well considdering i am an asian muslim, who is of indian origin, i relate to these people. i am one of them, so i feel the same pain these peoplefeel. obviously you have had your bad experiences with muslims, and thats not write, however not all of us are bad you know. like i said i'm dating an american girl, i listen to hip hop music from the west, but becausei chose to defend the writes of palestinians and afghanys and iraqies, and arabs, i shouldn't because they to have done bad things? why is america defending isreal? don't they commit attrosities all over the world? what about in my wn home country, the hindus on the muslims, is that ok? because they are muslim? honestly is that what your saying to me? just because you have had a bad experience with an arab muslim, or a muslim from another race doesn't mean we are all bad. the qura'n teaches us to invite people in to our homes, be hospitible, treat other faiths with respect. oh but wait thats a positive and will go over your head write? because you seem to be content with bashing the religion. so hay its your world, your oppinion, i will defend my faith till the day i die.
The question has recently been raised as to why we are being asked to extend a hand toward a community which, to some extent, is not willing to do the same. The phrasing and tone of the question suggests that the problem is found most intensely in the Muslim community. I think the Catholics and the Protestants would have a hell of a lot to say on that account; how many hundreds of innocents - and indeed, not-so-innocents - die over there because they can't agree on one view of the same divinity? And yet, if this user is to be taken seriously, we should then refuse to help out all Christians in this charge because a rather loud minority makes a bad name for the rest? Sorry, the argument doesn't hold water.
I can definitely understand that some people are sick of trying to help when they see bad examples of the religion they're trying to do well by thrown in their faces. I really do understand that, and I suppose that since everyone's own experiences to some extent will shape how they react, there's no way of getting around this. At the same time, I believe it is the mark of a strong person to realize that not all patterns should be followed. Keep your eyes open, be ready for defense if you think that is necessary, but don't go painting everyone in a group black just because you've had some bad experiences with some of their numbers...not unless you want to do the same for every single group you interact with, in which case humanity's going to put you in a pretty bad way in no time at all.
*sigh* Bottom line? War bloody sucks. Very well written, Faraaz!