The Mindless Voice of Islam

Like many of you, I have spent the last few weeks watching the events unfold in Egypt. The people rallied to a cause and got to the point where they were able to cause a man who had wielded power for over 30 years to step down. And as many predicted (including that “nut job” Glenn Beck), the spirit of revolution has continued to expand throughout the Middle East. We have watched as protests erupted in Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Kuwait, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Tunisia. As I watched all of these events unfold over the last couple of weeks, I found myself thinking about some of the discussions that have taken place here at SUFA. Because I believe that what the events of the last few weeks have shown is the fallacy behind some of the more prevalent sentiments espoused during those discussions. So I will put forth what I think these protests mean to us.

There are several of us here at Stand Up For America that have had the opportunity to spend time in predominantly muslim countries in the past. Be it with the military or in some other capacity, I can think of at least 4 or 5 who fall into that category. The one thing that I think we all have in common is a respect for the individuality of the people in those countries, the humanity of those people. Because we have come to know them, be friends with them, laugh with them and love them, we don’t see the 1.4 Billion people who practice Islam as any more the same than the 300 million who call themselves American. Unfortunately, that is not a sentiment shared by all.

But I believe it should be.

The claim by many is that Islam itself should be feared. It stems from a belief that anyone who follows that particular religion must believe the worst parts of it. We have seen similar sentiment in the past. How many of us now cringe when we see depictions in old movies where ignorant whites in America believed that blacks were lacking in intelligence, incapable of learning, or savages closer to beasts than humans? Over time the vast majority of us learned otherwise. Once forced to live alongside those who were different, most came to respect them and their individuality in the same way as other groups that were more familiar. Despite the claims from the progressive talking heads, the vast majority of Americans no longer see blacks as any different than the rest of us.

A similar fate can also be seen when we discuss the American political spectrum. We segregate the vast majority of the population into “left” and “right”. And for a great many people in America today they are driven to believe that those two groups are mindless masses who simply irrationally believe some dogma espoused by the elite. Yet when we rub elbows with folks from “the other side” we find that they are just like us, with the same conflicts and differences of opinion and varied beliefs. Yet we somehow think they are the exception. Matt, Buck, Todd, Ray, and Charlie are not the exception, they are a good representation of the majority on the left. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty on each side that are ideologically set in their ways and closed off to rational thought. But they are not the majority. When I talk about my displeasure with the left, the liberals, the progressives, the right, the conservatives, the religious right, etc, I am talking about the ideological leaders in those camps, who fall into that small minority but wield great power and influence. That majority of people have the ability to think, reason, and see the other sides.

Yet while all this may be obvious to everyone, there still remains that one group that is so mysterious and so separate from us that too many still see them as a solid block without individuality. There are too many who still fear what they don’t understand. There are those that simply refuse to acknowledge that those who practice Islam are as individual and unique as any other group on earth.

So I wonder how it is that those people who still believe that of Islam view what is happening right now in all those countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Are you finally able to begin to see that there are masses of people in every one of those countries who disagree with the actions of oppressive governments or stringent theocracies?

For years I have listened with a sad heart as too many told me that if Islam were not inherently evil, they why don’t the “good” muslims stand up for what they believe? Can you see now that they do? Can you see now just how dangerous it is for them to do so? In Iran the government police are killing protestors yet tens of thousands risk that and take to the streets. In Libya there have already been hundreds of casualties yet people still come out to have their voice heard. Without the same protections afforded to civil disobedience in the United States, hundreds of thousands of muslims have taken to the streets in nearly a dozen predominantly muslim countries.

I understand the issues that people may have with Islam. I understand that in many places in the world right now there are Islamic leaders who use the religion to oppress women and rally people against the western cultures. I understand that there are terrorist leaders who use the religion to inspire hatred and acts of pure evil against innocent people. But that is not the fault of the religion and it is not the fault of the vast majority of practicing muslims who want nothing to do with those actions. And before you go further with your line of thought, remember that there was a time when the christian religion was a catalyst for great acts of terror and significant oppression. It wasn’t the fault of the religion, it was the fault of those who used it for power. This is no different.

For many years you have watched and waited claiming that all muslims were the same. That the religion was a religion that spawned mindless action. For many years you have asked for some proof that muslims were not all the same, bent on the destruction of others and subservient to the religious words of hateful leaders. For all this time you asked for some evidence that Islam was more than a single mindless, hateful voice.

Are you listening now?