WESTERN TOLERANCE and ISLAM
seen through my curious eyes
___________

WHAT DO I WANT?
PERCEPTION and EMPATHY
less formally, I want the walls to come tumbling down

I would like the walls to come down - the walls around so many Western minds and so many Muslim minds.

Mirror mirror on the wall ...

For myself, I want to see accurately, to think well, to speak truthfully - all of which one can only do if one has bothered to look closely. I would also like more and more others to do the same - not to see what they would like were there (all religions are the same, just don't offend and everything will be fine) but to see what is there for all to see, if one is open to seeing.

empathy definition: to be in another's skin

I also want the development of empathy. Empathy definition: to be in another's skin, on an emotional level.

If Westerners quickly go, "Oh how awful to offend someone's religion," they have not shown empathy. They have not experienced the demand of the other fully - the demand to be allowed not to have one's religion and thinking challenged. They have likely also not had full empathy with thmpathemselves, have not fully recognized how fear plays a part in the quick acquiescence.

As for the Middle East religions, many parts of Islam do their best to block the development of empathy - including for family members. There is instead so much instilling of shame - shame if one's child does what she or he wants if this is different from what is required by Islam, shame if one's daughter chooses to break from tradition regarding her relationships with men, shame even if one's wife or daughter or sister is raped.

empathy definition: to experience oneself fully, not just others

Empathy definition: to experience not just others but oneself fully. This is also not encouraged by Islam. Instead there are hundreds of rules. There is an accounting system evaluating everything, so one is taught to know where one stands with the deity, based on the supposed demands of the deity. One is not taught to experience oneself.

As for empathy with moderate Muslims, Muslims from different branches of the Muslim religion, let alone non-Muslims - all this is blocked rather than encouraged. Rather than teach empathy, the religion teaches laws, rules, requirements, obedience to authority - walls against empathy, freely feeling with others.

Empathy definition: to accurately experience oneself or another.

empathy definition: to ACCURATELY experience another or oneself

In the West, on the other hand, there is often an overdose of imagined empathy. Imagined empathy: one thinks one knows what is going on in the other, one lives with a fantasy about the other. It can be a warm cozy fuzzy fantasy of we're all alike - warm and cozy until one comes up against the reality.

what is empathy? experience the other, retain yourself,
but take in what you have learned - which may mean change

So this is what I will end with: the importance of empathy, the need for feeling empathy.

And also, I will retun to: what is empathy? Empathy is not imagining what is going on in the other. It comes from truly entering into what is going on in the other. Just like with critical thinking, where many people prefer jumping to conclusions or not even jumping, staying rock-hard with stale conclusions rather than doing any thinking, so it is with empathy.

What is empathy? Empathy definition: entering into another, seeing the world through the viewpoint of another. Truman Capote shocked the United States with In Cold Blood, his non-fiction account of the murder of a family killed for no reason other than that they happened to there. The shock came because he made the perspective of the killers alive - not from his imagining why they did what they did, but from his having interviewed them at length, so he was able to show the world through their eyes. Many readers - unlike the killers, who shows a total lack of empathy - did feel empathy, were able to enter the inner world of the killers, and often felt shock.

what is empathy as it relates to the West and Islam and its basic beliefs?

Back to this ending. What I've written is my thinking, the best I could do for now.

I will keep thinking,

All the evidence points conclusively that:

* Huge portions of the Muslim religion are not pro-peace, pro-human rights, pro-tolerance.

* The same religion that is calling for its rules to be accepted by the West is highly intolerant in the countries where it is dominant, where it threatens and does violence.

* It claims to be offended, like the princess crying about the pea under a hundred mattresses. In this case, many members of the religion do much more than offend. There are, by the way, many deeply offensive cartoons easily found on Muslim sites - Jews like rats, for example.

* However, as is well known, many Muslims go far beyond that. The cartoonist who drew the little Danish cartoon had a price put on his head. Recently Denmark foiled a murder plot against him. A Belgian woman, born Muslim but strongly against her religion of origin, had to leave Belgium as her life was threatened too often.

Over and over I go: what is going on here? How can people from such a religion object to the Danish cartoon? It makes no sense at all.

****

I think of another story, The Emperor's New Clothes. The emperor, always so fussy about his clothes, finally found clothes that suited him. Or at any rate, the person making them claimed that the clothes were so fine that only fine people could see them. So the emperor strutted around naked, boasting of their quality, and the entire court followed suit with admiring comments.

It is only one small child that dared to say, "The emperor has no clothes on!" Well, it's time to take a good look at the Muslim religion, as it is being practiced, and see that the turban of the prophet has been turned into - and has often been - a bomb.

One thing can still be debated - if this is the Muslim religion as it is meant to be. If it is, this is no more acceptable - to those who care about human rights - than any political ideology against many fundamental human rights (like the right to life!). If this is not the way Islam is meant to be, those who are for jihad, the killing of non-Muslims, etc - there should be no more tolerance by Muslims for this kind of Islam than there is among caring Westerners for the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazis.

The West also needs to do more research. Over and over Muslim moderates claim Muslims who would do violence are a small fringe minority. Research in English suggests something quite different: widespread fundamentalist beliefs, rising among the young, and especially young males, with over 25% supporting the use of Muslim violence. That is not some small lunatic fringe.

Then, for Muslims, those who hold that the Muslim religion is a religion of peace need to, provided they are in a safe enough place, loudly, vociferously, unceasingly protest against those who make Islam into anything other than a religion of peace.

The choice is theirs.

My choice is: to see as clearly as I can what is happening, and to speak about this.

Welcome to the ongoing exploration.

Elsa
March 31, 2008
copyright Elsa Schieder, 2008, 2011, all rights reserved

posted by Vince Lombardo, July 4, 2009:

There is no empathy for outsiders in the Koran.

The Koran does not contain the Golden Rule in any form. It is also absent from Islam's secondary writings as well. The Islamic counterpart to the Golden Rule is a doctrine called al-Walaa wal-Baraa which is roughly translated as "association with Muslims and staying clear of infidels".

Some of the Koranic verses that support it are: "Mohammed is Allah's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another." (Sura 48.29)

For the full comment on Islam and the Golden Rule in Religion, click here.

Elsa's reply, July 5, 2009:

You start with "empathy derives from the Golden Rule." As far as I've been able to make out, the Golden Rule derives from empathy - which in turn encourages the development of more empathy.

Example. We have a "social worker" cat, Persia ...

For the full comment on the roots of empathy, and empathy in animals, click here.

Vince's reply, July 5, 2009:

Your interesting observation about the nurturing instinct of your pets (nature versus nurture) is well-known ...

Mohammed appears to have been against many things ... He is quoted in the Hadiths as demanding the killing of all dogs .... He was a man particularly without empathy. His child-wife said, "His eye wept for no one." Chilling.

[Note that] every world religion, save Islam, expresses the Golden Rule....

For the full comment on Muslim beliefs versus Golden Rule religions, click here.

Elsa's reply, July 7, 2009:

What got you started on this road of interest in Islam? And what has the road been like?

Vince's reply, July 8, 2009:

What got me started in my interest in Islam was 9-11. I was glued to the TV all day. At first, I thought, “Oh, this is a small group of fanatics.” Then, I became gradually aware ...

For the full comment on his interest in Islam, click here.

posted by Vince Lombardo, July 27, 2009:

I have a further comment to make regarding the Golden Rule and Islam. I am well aware that, despite the evidence, some Muslims claim that the Golden Rule does exist in Islam. Here is a full examination of the pertinent texts ...

For the full comment on the lack of the Golden Rule in Islam, click here.

Click here to go from empathy definition back to
more on my quest for a Middle East solution.

Click here to go from empathy definition back to
some facts about the Muslim religion.

Click here to go to an overview of all the pieces
exploring Islam and the West .

Empathy Definition: feel as if you were the other.
Middle East Religion: jihad is our god-given right.
What is empathy? Be the other.
Importance of empathy in Middle East solution?

MORE ...