What I'm Doing

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Five Questions Non-Muslims Would Like Answered

This interested me mostly due to the idea that some people have that "The [Liberal] Media" is simply anti-Christian, etc. Here is an article from the L.A. Times that somewhat takes the Muslim community to task for their silence regarding the violence and atrocities perpretrated in the name of Islam. One question I hadn't thought of before was:
(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?

If Israeli occupation is the reason for Muslim terror in Israel, why do no Christian Palestinians engage in terror? They are just as nationalistic and just as occupied as Muslim Palestinians.

I'm sure Christian Palestinians are none too happy about being occupied and all, but I have never heard of them practicing terrorism. Another good point from the article:
Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were Christian-based terror groups around the world.

In addition, Timothy McVeigh is one man. Eric Rudolph is one man. There have been a few nutters in recent days who have committed terrorism in the name of Christ, but there is nothing today comparable to the Muslim systematic terrorism.

This reminds me of a sad video I saw the other day of Palestinian children talking about wanting to be martyrs and killing Jews. A part of me hopes that is a sick joke and the subtitles are not actually what the kids are saying, but, chances are, the subtitles are accurate. As the auther of the page with that video so wisely says, "If this is the next generation over there the Palestinians and Israelis are going to have a pretty hard time living together for the foreseeable future."

There is one beef I have with the article: one cannot forget that, in the past, atrocities have, indeed, been systemized in Christianity. The Crusades were a low point in Western Ecclesiastical history, and an error that Christians today recognize as wrong. In that instance, Muslims and Jews weren't the only ones that suffered; the Western Christians also sacked the Christian city of Constantinople, and were quite indiscriminate in who they killed. The Inquisition was another low point, again inflicted by the Church on Muslims, Jews, and "dissident" Christians alike. I think that any discussion of the topic of systematic terrorism must honestly own up to the good and bad of both sides, and all issues should, as much as is possible, be understood in the light of society at the time. Regarding these issues, however, I think it is somewhat telling that Christianity as a whole has come far enough to recognize these things as wrong.

Ultimately, I think the main thrust of the article is this: it doesn't matter whether Islam is really an inherently oppressive, violent religion; the way things are right now certainly gives Westerners a legitimate impression that it is. Say whatever you want, it's what you do that matters.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good questions. Questions I do not know the answers to too! How are things? I think we (you, me, bert, brandy, pete) need to get together after finals. Right now i have way too much stuff to do in the classes along with work and what not.

I'll make you a deal. I visit your blog, you visit mine. So far, i think this has been working.

http://livejournal.com/users/gratch1739

Have a good one man.

CoffeeZombie said...

Well, you're not a Muslim, so you're not the one expected to answer the questions.

After finals sounds good. I'm looking forward to getting to see you guys again.

Anonymous said...

Sounds great to me. What's great is the fact that I could have like 3 job offers :). Only problem is one requires me to travel, one is in conyers, and the other i'm waiting to hear something back from. I got an e-mail from them last night and waiting on a response. ALMOST 2 MORE WEEKS!

Michael Gayler