Friday, January 29, 2016

Of course Muslims are people



One of modern liberalism's strengths is setting up a false premise and then assaulting all who bother to question the false premise.  So we have the fact that Muslims condemn ISIS.  OK.  ISIS kills Muslims.  It wouldn't surprise me.  We have Muslims who have, over the years, and to varying degrees, condemned the 9/11 attacks.  OK, that doesn't surprise me either.  Though in the early days, I remember distinctly how much difficulty the media had finding Muslims who would just condemn the attacks without tacking 'the Crusades!' or something similar onto the statement.

And, of course, we have Muslims who hate seeing puppies killed, cats tortured, babies crying, towns destroyed by storms, and bad reality TV.  All proving that Muslims are, in the end, people.  Just like us.  I have yet to meet a self proclaimed Conservative who would say otherwise.  That's not the problem.

Here is the problem.  When Terry Jones, pastor, threatened to burn a Quran back in the day, all hell broke loose.  Everyone condemned him.  Polls showed that the majority of Americans didn't support him.  And yet, his actions brought about weeks of news shows, anchors and talking heads lamenting how the whole incident just goes to show you America always was and still is a bunch of racists in a racist nation.  And no matter what Americans do for the good, America as racist Islamaphobic nation is the ongoing narrative.

That's my problem.  You'd think in light of 9/11, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, Boston, Philadelphia,  Chattanooga, that Americans - being the Islamaphobic racists that we are - would be wandering up and down the street, blowing up mosques and butchering any Arabs and Muslims we can find.  And yet, on the whole, out of 300 million racists, we've shown some pretty awesome restraint.  Or so you'd think. But all it takes is a little graffiti, or a broken window, or a Muslim who merely says she fears anti-Muslim sentiment could be growing, and it's RACIST NATION! 

On the other hand, let one host on an Iraqi television show do the humane thing and cry over the plight of Christians, and it's as if all 1.6 billion Muslims and the entire history of Islam have just been redeemed. And if you so much as suggest that, while it's nice and all, it doesn't really mean anything in the bigger picture, or it's a common human reaction but there are other factors to consider, or wonder why America never seems to receive the same considerations based on humane Americans, then it's RACIST NATION!

See how that works?  The fact that the fellow cried is nice.  It's good.  It's normal.  I wouldn't be shocked if most Muslims, when presented with the horrors of Christians slaughtered by ISIS, would do the same thing.  Most people I know would likely say that to some degree or another. But in the end, it doesn't matter to the larger issues and questions of the day.

Or at least let me put it this way: It shouldn't matter any more than the majority of Americans condemning Terry Jones or standing with Muslims in trying times never seems to matter.  At least then we can be consistent.  If consistency and truth are, in fact, what modern liberalism wants.

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