Too Wide A Brush

Not all terrorists are Muslim

I feel for those who lost people in France this month. At this moment, there is nothing we can do to make that situation better, but we can move forward with cautious awareness and avoid irrational backlash. It is understandable that people want justice, but since the Paris attacks, there has been an extreme outcry of rage against "Muslims" including a sentiment of "kill 'em all", burning of mosques, and political wall building tantamount to sanctioned racism.

I have many friends who are Muslim and I can guarantee you they are not terrorists. They are your neighbor, your grocer, your co-worker. People seem to not understand that there are several factions of Islam, just like there are several factions of Christianity and Judaism. Lumping all Muslims into one bucket and labeling them all terrorists is as ludicrous as assuming all Christians share the same values as those nut bags from the Westboro Baptist church. By that logic, you need to consider every Christian to be a homophobic, racist bigot white supremacist. It is irrational thinking in the extreme.

Someone said to me the other day that we feel like we are on the verge of a 3rd world war. I would argue that we are already in it - some people are just late to the party. This war pits logical, compassionate humans worldwide against the specific brand of evil that drives the ISIS engine. This is not a war of countries against countries and it is not about land appropriation. It is a war of ideals and the fight to ensure all earthlings have the right to think freely and express their beliefs without fear of persecution. ISIS is the enemy of all rational thinking humans.

This is not a war against Muslims and those who keep promoting that idea need to stop and educate themselves. As with Christianity or Judaism, there are many interpretations of religious "law". Sunni interpret Sharia differently than Shia and differently again then Sufi and Salafi. This is similar to the radical differences between strict baptists and protestants. Same Bible, different interpretations. ... and then there is Westboro...

Lately there seems to be a disturbing linkage between "Muslim" and "Terrorist" which is miss-leading. Are we forgetting Timothy McVeigh? Paul Jennings Hill? John Salvi? The "Army of God" is just as insane as ISIS, but on the Christian side of the coin. Not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorist are Muslim.

Having said all that, there is still a very bad segment of world population that are ISIS and supporters and they MUST be stopped. For the sake of all other humans on this planet, ISIS must be stopped. I only hope we can effectively target that evil segment of the population without unjustly harming our own neighbors because we painted with too wide a brush.

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