Sleepycatz

Little Bit of Hate

I was listening to the BBC coverage of the foiled terrorist plot today at work, and I was struck by one American women’s reaction. The woman (whose name unfortunately I didn’t note) kept pushing her point that the problem was Muslims and their drive towards the “islamicization of the world”. I immediately began sensing that there is a rising tide of bigotry and hatred in America. A quick poking around some of the more right-wing websites revealed my observation to be more accurate then I first thought (note: I will not, for my own reasons, provide direct links):

There has never been anything in the history of the human race as vile as Islam. Nazism was not as vile as Islam. Islam is the most vile, and degenerate social construction ever devised by the human race. It is as close to Satanic evil, as it is possible to be. . . Islam is the manifestation of hatred of G-d, so it first seeks to destroy the human soul, G-d’s most noble creation. - LGF

Granted, the more time goes on and the more I see, the more I am convinced that “islamic fascism” is redundant, as I think the number of truly moderate muslims can usually be counted on one’s fingers (assuming muslims haven’t already chopped them off for some perceived offense). - HotAir

There are more, but I was feeling a bit ill.

Additionally, in a recent Gallop poll 51% believe that Muslims living in the America are not loyal. 41% believe Muslims should undergo greater security scrutiny, and 39% believe that Muslims should be required to carry special papers.

The demonisation of large groups in America is nothing new. Americans prefer their narratives simple and clean: blackhat/whitehat, redman/whiteman, terrorists/christians, us/them. Americans want be able to easily identify the enemy by accent, skin color, or facial characteristics. We love consistency, but enjoy the occasional plot twist (the clean cut double agent, the the bribed loyal assistant, etc). The world view, however, always tries to remain black and white. Of course, this simple dichotomy leaves us with about as much understanding and depth as your average Bruce Willis movie.

The real problem - outside of the immorality of it all - is that this view creates a condition of constant war with an endgame of genocide. For if an entire inhuman group is out to destroy you what other choices do you have? This overly simplified attitude means that we can never engage, in any meaningful way, the larger Islamic world. For how can you seriously conduct diplomacy with a group you have decided is sub-human? You can’t.

Terrorists, in today’s world, use religious extremism to fuel their ranks. Any religious extremism is dangerous and cannot be easily defeated. This is because, like bigotry, it cannot be reasoned with. For the believer it is an issue of faith. Extremist faith cannot be discerned by security screenings, sir names, or nose shape. All major religions have extremist adherents, but extremism is always a minority point of view - regardless of how loud they are, how much media coverage they get, or how much violence they perpetrate. If Americans continue down the path of the simple growing narrative of Islamic=bad then we will drive more moderate religious elements into the extreme. If you have any doubt look at how other religious groups call attention to their ‘persecution’ to bring forth new members - in some cases those groups are not even being bombed. This narrative has only on ending, a simple one, which requires us to start building camps and digging graves now.

This entry was posted by steve on Friday, August 11th, 2006 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Religion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.