Racism and Utter Ignorance

[mde2001]

Hey look, it is me again with another rant about serious issues topic. I'm sure you guys are beginning to work out what sort of person I am now.

This installment of things mde2001 is getting really annoyed about focus' around racism specifically towards Islam.

What happened in Paris recently was an awful tragedy and unacceptable in every way possible. I understand hating the people who took part in the attacks. I understand that these people were Muslims. However, what I cannot tolerate is people grouping all Muslims into one group who are defined by these terrorists.

People who do this are in my opinion completely stupid and ignorant. Society seems to judge some groups by the worst members of a community while other groups worst members are referred to as unusual cases. Muslims fall firmly into the first category. For some reason as a society we seem to have decided that all members of a certain religion have the exact same beliefs and have the same attitude towards terrorism. This is completely untrue. The western world does not judge all Christians for the actions of groups like the KKK or the Westboro Baptist Church so why should it be acceptable to judge all Muslims on the actions of ISIS/ISIL? The answer to that question for me is clearly that we shouldn't.

What set me off on this rant was talking to someone who I considered a friend and him telling me how everyone who believed in Allah being the only god deserved to be killed. It took me a good 15 minutes to explain to him that Allah was not a symbol of terrorism but a God in the same way the Christian God is a God. Even then he continued to support his idea of bombing/ nuking all of the Muslim countries in the Middle East in hopes of it wiping out ISIS. He then realised this was unacceptable (partially because of me yelling at him) so changed his mind into the masterful plan of get all of the good Muslims out of the Middle East and not tell ISIS then blow it up. He didn't seem to realise this was impossible.

When I told him that his first plan (of nuking all of the Middle East) was pretty much genocide he denied this. Then I asked him the question of what would make us any better than ISIS if we were killing people based on religion. This was a question that he could not answer so proceeded to start crying and accusing me of being a dickhead about. However he eventually came up with two reasons why we would still be better. Firstly, they don't matter as much of us and secondly, they started it.

This was the point where I nearly wanted to slap him. The first point is a sad fact of society. Many people seem to believe that a Western life (or even just a Jewish or Christian life) is worth more than a different life. It saddens me greatly but many people seem to believe this. We see it in news reporting and in people's attitudes.

The second point is so complex that I didn't even bother responding to it. No-one knows who started it really. It depends how far we go back. What actions are considered aggression and which ones aren't. There isn't a definitive answer to this question really but it annoyed me that immediately it was all their fault.

That's another thing- the developing us vs them mentality. I understand an us vs ISIS mentality but a western culture against Muslim culture is dangerous. Not only is it discriminatory and wrong it also is just going to radicalize many young, reasonable Muslim men and women. If we develop a mentality where we don't like Muslims as a whole group then how can we expect them to live happily in society. If they are lower beings because of their religion then we can't expect an equal society nor say that everyone is equal.

Now with that rant off my chest I return to exam study. I'd be interested to see whether people here agree with me on these things or not...

[wytch_doctr]

This sounds exactly like Stalinist Russia. Stalin put out propaganda (equivalent to today's media) that discriminated against everyone who, not opposed, but did not merely agree with any part of his rule. He and another higher ranked member of the government (forgot the name) promoted the idea of a mass genocide of the people. This mentality was "if we can't find the traitors one by one, we take everyone out. Then there would be no chance of any opposition." This then developed into people 'selling out' or rather, turning in their bosses, co-workers or even friends to the secret police, where the accused were put in solitary confinement and executed without trial. This even escalated to Stalin himself arresting his children and his relatives.

Sorry about going off on a tangent, but this just reminded me of Stalin, especially how people have thought about wiping out the majority just to get rid of a minority.

[Deleted User]

I saw this earlier in the day on Facebook. I don't like just leaving a picture or 'meme' response to a genuine topic such as this, but I'm going to sleep right now and will give my genuine thoughts some time tomorrow.

[Darvan Korematsu]

Well, whatever the case be, you'll always have your nutcases in every group. Whether it be these ISIS guys, who claim Islamic followings, or maybe an old radical Christian deal of blowing up abortion clinics. Every group's gonna possess their degree of crazy. Regarding the reason why Muslims are generally viewed in a negative light in the Western world is beyond me, except it may be for their traditional ideals that clash with modern, liberal values of the Western world.

To be honest, this is why I stay out of debates like these, because I'll end up sounding as prejudiced as the people who prompted me into the conversation.

[Tomas Elliot]

Hey it could be worse. You could have a political party that based their previous exploits in elections on the population's fear of "immigrants", and that are now going around saying "we told you so", as if the events of Paris proved that "immigrants" are evil. That's pretty much what is going on in Italy as I type this.

[Darvan Korematsu]

Ooh man, I forgot a huge one. Our fear for the unknown and generally things being different is also a contributor toward our racist tendencies, as an act to try and force away these "weird" and "different" forces. For instance, in America, there are some huge stereotypes regarding immigrants of Latino descent, although Americans tend to push this toward Mexicans for reasons even I can't quite understand. I guess it's just a convenience factor because most of the immigrants coming from that direction have to come to the States from Mexico. Therefore I guess people assume them all to be Mexicans.

[Honchy]

New Mde-san is hardcore, it's time to sit down and rant.

Edit: great, I wrote a long, emotional post and I accidentally refreshed the page.

For 5 times my dad went to Afghanistan for 6 months each, and it worries me because of these recent news, Mr. Mde.

Edited November 18, 2015 by HonchcrowMackDaddy2

[Personthing]

Guh, ignorant hatred pisses me off. It's what ISIS wants. If the western world rejects and discriminates against Muslims because of extremist asshats, it raises the risk of more of them feeling rejected by the world, and that increases their chance of ending up in a group like ISIS. They are a tiny minority who are out of control because they use brutal tactics and exploit fear.