"They" Hate Us Because We Bomb Them | Weapons of Mass Destraction

'Very concerned' might be a better description when reflecting current events. The violent reaction is nothing new. The Danish cartoons controversy in 2005 opened the eyes of many people in the West. I had always hoped that Samuel P. Huntington was wrong, but what we see is indeed a clash of civilizations: the Western civilization based on the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Islamic civilization. Freedom of expression and Sharia blasphemy laws are incompatible. Secular countries and caliphate-style countries are incompatible. And no one has a clue on how to deal with this in a globalized interconnected world.

Part of the Judeo-Christian tradition is being concerned about the welfare of every human being on planet Earth. People in the West don't divide people into an Ummah and the rest of people. We are human beings first and our concern encompasses all humans. This is why the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders and Greenpeace and Amnesty International and all the other hundreds of NGOs try to help people no matter where they live or whether they are polytheists or atheists or monotheists. You can see that we empathize with all people who are suffering from political injustices or as a result of natural disasters. Yes, there are greedy corporate exploiters who care about quarterly results and million dollar bonuses and they create a lot of damage in both the developed and less developed world. You will find these kind of people everywhere, not just in the West. Just take China and their geopolitical endeavors in Africa as an example. Or Saudi princes buying one Rolex after another instead of doing something about the poor people in their country.

But it is totally wrong blaming the West for all of the misery. A lot of it is home made. And the current mainstream Islam is part of the problem. It is the only religion that has serious conflicts with people from every other religion in the world. Every year more people become afraid of the Islam we see on television and read about in the newspaper. Secular Muslims in German become more and more afraid of the strict Islam funded by Saudi oil money. In fact, I am more and more convinced that Islam is the fastest shrinking religion in the world. For every new convert to Islam you will have 10 Muslims who secretly no longer support their religion because they are disgusted by the deeds of the 9/11 hijackers, the London bombers, the Beslan child killers, the Chechen terrorists, the Algerian terrorists, the Hamas terrorists, the Madrid terrorists, the Darfur killers, and many others.

And now, like in 2005, people get injured and killed because of a silly video. And the peaceful Muslims choose stay at home. The silent majority is too scared to openly say no to their violent brothers.

In 1992 a terrible hate crime shocked Germany and the world. Two Turkish immigrant families burned to death in their houses when neo-Nazis committed arson. Five more Turkish people were killed by neo-Nazis in 1993. In the aftermath several hundred thousand Germans organized demonstrations in all major cities against these heinous acts. My wife, my children and I were part of one demonstration, all holding one candle, like everyone else. It made news around the world.

If you want to save Islam from barbarism and if you want to change the perception of Islam in the West, something very big needs to happen, like a million Muslims demonstrating in numerous cities against violence committed in the name of Islam.

Posting statements like 'Islam is a religion of peace' in Internet forums won't help, because people find that harder and harder to believe. Now it's about walking the talk. The silent majority can't be silent anymore. Peaceful Muslims need to organize something very big to convince the rest of the world. All of this is entirely possible in the age of the Internet. The Egyptians who ended Mubarak's totalitarian regime are a good example. Saying no to violent Islam is a worthy cause as well. It can be done.



Edited by Matt Browne - 23 September 2012 at 10:40am

Assalamu alaika Matt Browne.

My Take: It's time for Islamophobic evangelicals to choose