Well said, Julie. Very well said. Democracy is by its nature a bit messy, hence the toning-down and reining-in of democracy in the US. People theoretically love "freedom"—as long as it's theirs or that of like-minded people—and "democracy," as long as it doesn't create "messy situations" where those "others" among us pop up front and center. People more practically want to just go through their lives unthreatened and surviving with some kind of diversion and a cap on pain or risk. The conflict between theory and practice is that gray area where minimal gray matter is used, where politicians master the art of appearing to solve the problem by waving the magic wand of rhetoric.
Meanwhile the earth is undergoing monumental changes. The Quran, with its many passages warning people to take care of the earth and not to "corrupt the earth," goes unheeded by those who claim to believe in it. The Quran's most frequently used phrase (well, one of them) is "will you not use your minds?" Wahhabism, which in various forms passes for "mainstream" Islam, requires adherents to obey their strictures without thinking. Among those are such things as stoning to death—NOT a punishment for anything in the Quran...not even mentioned—and beheadings—also NOT Quranic but on the contrary there's a strict command "do not be excessive in killing" which in our world means beheading (in days before guns, I suppose it would be more of a necessary evil in wartime, wars being a matter of defense...and I'll spare you more but the violations are many. The only way they "honor" the Quran is by putting it on the highest shelf, or having competitions for melodic readings. The meanings? The know-nothings win.
Dear John,
When you say "Islam is behind this," you treat Islam as an individual, like, say, corporations. Halliburton killed him. Hang Halliburton from the highest tree. Etcetera. It doesn't take 500 years to effect change in the Muslim world. It doesn't take invading Iraq for example...unless one believes freedom can be imposed by force without even the slightest preparation. I'm SURE you don't think that! The Egyptian revolution of 2011 was started by "young liberals" who were mostly Muslim not just in name but in practice. They invented a symbol highly popular in that revolution combining the cross and the crescent in one unit. Christians guarded Muslims in Tahrir square when they prayed and Muslims guarded Christians in various situations. When Mubarak was first ousted there was peace in the streets and people cleaned the streets and patrolled them for each other to protect against ex-govt thugs. They loathed the idea of the brotherhood taking over, but cooperated with the latter thinking it was vital to achieving democracy. When you equate, under one umbrella called "Islam", those young Muslims with ISIS et al, you are doing a great disservice to the efforts of a great many Muslims to achieve mutual cooperation and peace between people. Is there NO way to be both safe and just????? I think there's no true safety in injustice.
Btw, when Osama bin laden declared prior to 9/11 in a televised interview that he would spare no women or children or families, he was making an open declaration of enmity against Islam, an open rejection of Islam. In the name of Islam. He committed prohibited acts and it is the Muslim world that has suffered most overall. By far. Look at Egypt now. We've got "our man" who is doing nothing but stealing the resources of the country, the money of his people from banks and also exacts half of any money wired to people from outside, not to mention kidnapping, torturing, raping, murdering, and simply detaining and slowly killing those very liberals who started the revolution, along with countless others such as many doctors, medical students, anyone with or trying to get an education (they were behind it!), young women and men, as well as anyone who speaks out against him or his regime or dares to protest. Many many have disappeared. The atrocities are unimaginable. He has no regard for human life (I refer to Sisi). Or property. Life inside Egypt is now hell. Is he Muslim? Hardly. But that name is used and abused by all sorts of people. Or maybe we could arrest all the employees of Halliburton? The US governors should be ashamed of themselves. The most effective foil against terror recruitment is widespread knowledge that this is not Islam. But by making it "onward Christian soldiers" vs the "evil East"... It feeds into the propaganda of the ignorant.
In any case, so many excellent comments on this thread. And your response to Janice, John, suits me fine. I just had to say a little bit more...
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