Muslim & Christian extremism

« Right-wing nationalists eagerly point to the frequency of terrorism in Israel and Iraq as evidence that Muslims are basically insane. This is important, because if you accept that premise then you can also accept the idea that Muslims are incapable of civil discourse, including negotiation. If you follow the chain of reasoning up to its real (not just logical, but real) conclusions, you find that people who believe this line also believe in shooting or bombing all Muslims “into the stone-age”.
There’s no meaningful difference between the morality or sanity of Muslim extremists and the morality or sanity of Christian extremists. There’s no difference in principle between the extremists in the Middle East and America’s militia movement, America’s white-supremacists and America’s abortion-clinic bombers. In fact, we may have just as many militant extremists in the U.S. as a proportion of the population as Muslim countries have in their countries.
The meaningful difference that does exist is not a moral or sane difference, but rather the fact that Muslim extremists have become ignited whereas America’s extremists have been placated. Of course, occasionally American extremists do become united, but so far the incidents have been infrequent enough that we can afford to ignore them. We can pretend that they don’t exist, and we can conveniently forget about, for example, the 168 people who died in Oklahoma City. After all, 168 isn’t a large number on a worldwide scale of violence, is it? But these things are obvious. Are they good arguments for bombing us “into the stone age”? Of course not. We have as much of a right to exist as anyone does. But none of this makes Islamic terrorists any better. So what’s the point?
The point is that the people in Muslim countries are people like us, so we probably can find common ground if we look for it. I’m not saying that we should appease terrorists; that would do more harm than good. What I am saying is that we should try to address the complaints they have that are valid. That will give us something to work with, and it will give us a chance to achieve peaceful relations.
That’s supposed to be what we want, right? Peace? »

–
Apollo

I quote :

“Little by little the minds of the people have been poisoned by propaganda and it is called nourishment. As a result the more noble traits of our culture are incrementally dying. Through the judicious use of lies and distortions the people are deceived into supporting the atrocities of war and conquest that are committed in their name.”
“Who but a fool or a madman would volunteer to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people for the sake of increasing the already obscene profits of defence contractors and oil companies? It is precisely because the agenda of those in power conflicts with the interest of the people that governments lie and distort.”
“The lack of historical perspective leaves one vulnerable to the lies and distortions that have always characterized our government. Of course, this historical context is not taught in our schools for reasons that should be obvious.”

from: Ignorance by Content and Omission
by Charles Sullivan; American photographer, social activist and free lance writer.

You’ve been the ‘Master Chief’, and we will never run out of butane, but we will wait for you return to finish the dish. Until then, we will keep stirring

All the best!

Bye Haitham!! Hate to take up space with personal stuff, but my email is out of order. Keep the fire going in your kitchen, your feast is MOST delicious.