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Fighting terrorists...
or maybe
just creating them
Daughter of Bountiful Community UCC member
reflects
on the issue of growing violence in our society
By Chrissy Upton
Current mood: sad.
So today a very good friend gave me the link to a youtube.com video.
He always sends me random links. He's never really trying to tell me
anything. At least I don't think he is. Usually they are just funny,
or pointless, or both. Sometimes they are even boring- and I think why
on earth did you send me this?
Today I thought that too... but for a completely different reason. I
thought it because of complete incomprehension, confusion, and a little
disgust.
Let me tell you what it is and why I was so completely blown away.
The video itself was depressing enough. An extremist Muslim expressing
his disturbing opinions about the subway bombings in the U.K. This
guy would be comparable to that crazy church that stands outside of
fallen
soldiers funerals with signs that say things like "God hates fags".
He was a complete crazy. Plain and simple. He was talking about how
anyone who doesn't agree with Allah and Islam should be killed; and
that everyone
on the subway and in the twin towers deserved thier fate. This is really
depressing stuff. Completely unreasonalble words.
The video itself was frustrating enough. I hate that millions of people
are viewing this one guy. Getting one view on Islam and on the Muslim
people. 75% of the people I work with are Muslims. And they do not at
all display any of the traits of this man. They are some of the best,
most considerate people I have ever met. Besides that I'm involved in
an Interfaith women's group that was started by the Turkish Muslim women.
The group has everything from Agnostics, like me, to Mormons to Muslims
to United Church of Christ members. We cook. We laugh. We talk about
life, work, school, even our dogs.
THIS is what most Muslim people are like. They aren't all strapping explosives
to themselves or turning airplanes into weapons of mass destruction.
I was already frustrated by the fact that someone has a youtube account
that looks like it's dedicated to showing only Islam's crazy side when
I read the comments below the pictures and I just about lost it.
Comments like "islam=violence" "smoke all those b****es" completely
littered the page. Only a few comments showed educational opinions.
Most of the comments simply showed the same dedicated hatred that these
extremist
Muslims show. The comments wreaked of terrorism, and they were written
by American's like us.
I was nearly brought to tears, all I wanted to do was cry. Do these people
not realize that 9-11 happened because Al Qaeda decided that ALL Americans
held the same qualities as our less than perfect administration? Do we
really want to become part of the hate machine that is making our lives
so difficult?
When people say things like "kill them all" I think of my
friend Hafsa. She is a nurturer. She avoids conflict at all costs.
She will
stand up for a friend no matter what she is getting in the middle of.
She is a GOOD person. A really sincerely good person. I pray to whatever
is out there that my life is blessed with more people like her, or
at least her as long as possible.
It's time our media stop propagating this unfounded noise. The Islam
community is just as American as the Christian one. They are mothers,
fathers, brothers and sisters. They are the doctors who save us, crosswalk
attendants, our teachers. It's time to stop putting hate on our own bloody
doorstep.
For the rest of the night I'm just going to try and focus on positive
things. Like the fact that I've got enough brains to cherish the diversity
I've fallen into and the friends that I've found despite their races,
religions, sexual orientations, and even political views. I can't wait
until more people realize that our differences shouldn't separate us
like this. They are here to make us stronger as a human race.
Upton attends the University of Utah and works for Catholic Community
Services. She is the daughter of Judith E Clark-Upton.
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