Articles on Terrorism. Core Question: How to Stop Terrorism. The Path: see Middle East Religions, Islam Basic Beliefs, Middle East Facts THROUGH ACTIONS. |
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explorations on ANIMAL RIGHTS, AN INNER VOICE, GAMBLING IMPULSE, STUPID OPINIONS, RELIGIOUS RAGE, GOOD THINKING, and more - MENU - MY JOURNEY **** MY JOURNEY Steps & Stages The Exploration Western Blocks - The Muslim Religion - The Role of Still More An Ongoing Barrier The Hope What Do I Want? - Overview - **** THE Mirror, Mirror, Political **** More Explorations Stupid Opinion #1 Walls in the Mind, How To Think - The Ingredients Breaking
the Spell **** Urgently Needed Is Islam a Religion **** More Thinking The Pope Speaks The Rottweiler Pope, A Dangerous **** The Hope Give Peace **** About Elsa Asks This
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Articles on Terrorism and Western Tolerance. |
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Articles on Terrorism. Core Question: How to Stop Terrorism. |
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WESTERN TOLERANCE and ISLAM Muslims, a Danish Cartoon ... and Me Over the past few years, I've found myself, over and over, thinking and writing about some of what I've noticed happening re the Muslim religion. I hadn't paid much attention to the Muslim religion - and even recently, that isn't what caught my attention. It had to do, not with a religious text, or religious beliefs - vital though those are. It had to do with ACTION. Actions were happening that didn't make sense to me. The action that triggered me to write: the massive response to a small Danish cartoon. The cartoon showed the Muslim prophet with his turban turned into a bomb - and Muslim rage was detonated worldwide. **** Right from the start, something burst open within me as Muslims raged and protested, demanded that all Danish products be taken off shelves, burned an embassy. And most of the Western response was very sympathetic. No, no, no, one mustn't offend someone's religion. Intolerable. I sat down and wrote. Out came: The Rage of the "Righteous" Something in me could not keep silent. What was happening just did not make sense. Muslims: millions of Muslim women - 75 million, worldwide, I have read - with their genitals mutilated, many of these women as a consequence dripping urine all their lives. Muslims: suicide bombers and Muslim death squads murdering thousands and thousands of Muslims in the name of the Muslim religion. Muslims: repressing non-Muslims in country after country - so that in Egypt, which prides itself on its supposed religious tolerance , the number of Christians has dropped dramatically - from 40% to 10%, or so I've heard - over the past half century. Muslims: finally moved to outrage by something truly outrageous, a tiny cartoon in a small publication in a tiny country. Muslim moderates, like other Muslims, claiming to be deeply offended by the cartoon. And non-Muslim Westerners, by and large, being very sympathetic to the poor offended Muslims. All I can say is, get your priorities straight. It was Jesus who said, long ago when a woman was about to be stoned to death for adultery: Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone. I think it was Confucius who said, Clean the garbage from your doorstep before worrying about the mote of dust on the window ledge of your neighbor. So why this focus on the mote of dust? And why this Western nicety-niceness? It was Hamlet who said, "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark." But I found nothing wrong with Denmark - except the outrage over the cartoon, and the West widely acquiescent or perhaps blinded by fear. SO WHY THE OUTRAGE? I came to my first answers in: The Rage of the "Righteous" **** But it wasn't that simple. So many barriers. First, I had to see what was happening, to see at least a little of it, instead of accept what I was hearing - what a huge offense, no wonder Muslims were offended, etc. I had to be moved to write. And then, there were several other huge barriers: First, how do I put things where people can find my ideas? I had no idea how to do that. So part of my journey was finding my way in an unknown world, the world of the web. That was intimidating and difficult. The second barrier, fear. That barrier came when I thought of succeeding, being heard. Islam, religion of peace. I heard that intoned over and over. Islam - massive violence, jihad, threats and murder. A colleague agreed with my views on the Danish cartoon, but did not think it was safe to make them public, not even in my classes. My partner too did not know if it was worth it, to speak out. I thought of Nazi Germany, where people could whisper at home - unless of course they were denounced even for that, for example by their children. Yet I wanted to speak. Something is profoundly wrong if there's the threat of violence against those who speak out. I think of Galileo and Copernicus, of Solzhenitsyn speaking out on Soviet repression. A powerful history of the need for speech - and for the need for the courage to speak out. The journey. One step. Then another. Then still another. Most recently I've pulled all my steps together - like someone who's slowly moved from one place to another, and then takes a look around and finds out: I can't believe how far I've come. **** More on the exploration, the many steps taken. This exploration has continued to more and more articles on terrorism, on Western tolerance, on Middle East religions, as well as on the benefits of critical thinking for everyone. (Note: I more often say Middle East religions than Middle East religion, as there are various variants of Islam, which in fact often see other variants as different, wrong, evil. However, all the branches do go back to the same source, so some people may want to see all the branches of Islam as one Middle east religion. But to go back to more central points ...) For those who see a sharp divide between the widespread Muslim response to the Danish cartoon and suicide terrorism, Muslim violence and so on, I suggest: think again, or rather, look some more. For all the actions are fueled by the powerful Middle East religions where many parts are not for freedom of thought but for obedience to authority and adherence to the words of the imam - and where masses of people live, on a deep psychological level, blinded by fear, according to accounts of those who have struggled to leave the grip of that kind of Islam. I suggest: break the obedience to authority, break living blinded by fear, and one has broken many Muslim basic beliefs of those within the kind of Islam widely called fundamentalist in the West. CLICK HERE FOR ... CLICK HERE FOR ... signed, Elsa copyright Elsa Schieder, 2008, 2011, all rights reserved
Click here to go to the first of the articles on terrorism, Click here to go to an overview of all the pieces.
Articles on Terrorism, Articles on Terrorism, Articles on Terrorism
Articles on Terrorism. Core Question: How to Stop Terrorism.
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