Fear of What We Don't Know

"Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common.

Celebrate it every day."

My response to the anti-Muslim email has drawn out a response from someone else on the mailing list. Here is what this person, who I do not know, sent me:

It's pretty clever of you to send your response to people receiving "London". Now, how about being clever enough to figure out the only fear mongering in this email is coming from those depicted in the pictures. These pictures show an observation of what is happening in our allied country and throughout Europe. To ignore these pictures would be foolish. See, this is part of the problem, muslims are not assimilating to the cultures the move into. It's fine that they keep their religion (providing it is not aggressive to the religious culture they migrate to), the west and U.S. have been more than accomodating to their religious practice. But, if we allow them to move in and push out our culture as they are practicing in Europe, then that puts our values and way of life in jepordy. Just look at England, they are a few short years away from adopting Sharia Law in their laws as stated last year by England's Lord Judge. But you don't want us to observe and question the images we see in these pictures? Maybe your friend should have asked her persian friend if she was now an American or still iranian (assuming this incident occured in the U.S.). God speed. EMG

This was my response:

My first questions to you EMG are "Do you have any Muslim friends?" and "Have you ever spent time with a Muslim?" It is so much easier to be afraid of what we don't know and don't understand.

Visit Snopes (urban legends to read the full story on that email and the photos.) Yes, those are real photos and yes it is extremely disturbing to see anyone promote violent actions and hate as those individuals were doing in those photos. I used the word "individuals" intentionally. Do those individuals represent ALL Muslims? Do you have the audacity to say that these individuals are representative of all Muslims? How could you if you don't really know any Muslims personally? In the Snopes response it includes a statement that "Other Muslims maintained that the protesters were extremists not representative of mainstream British Muslims."

I don't really believe that England is going to adopt Sharia law. There was a controversial suggestion made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who happens to be a Christian, about adopting Sharia Law. There has been much public opinion against his statement. Even the Muslim Council of Britain insisted that most members of the community did not want Sharia and emphasized that it had not discussed the issue. Click here for the article I am referring to if you want to read it yourself.

Lastly I want to respond to your comment about asking the woman if she was American or still Iranian. The truth is that she could be both. You can't erase the woman's heritage, her genes, her culture from her completely. Should we ever ask anyone to reject the culture they were born into? Our country has an extremely long history of melding cultures. Does the diversity in our country sometimes pose challenges - certainly it does. Yet I believe we are also a better nation because of the diversity.

Promoting Prejudice and Fear

I received an email that really bothered me a great deal. I knew I couldn't just hit delete. I knew I had an obligation to respond. I actually cried as I responded. The promoting of prejudice and fear against a group of people is so wrong.

I will include the text from the email I received which was also accompanied by photos. Snopes (aka Urban legends) also listed this email on their web site. You can view it by clicking here. It was a real demonstration in London. Other Muslims spoke out against the signs and messages calling for violence and destruction that were paraded around. My response follows afterwards.

Email Message: Pictures from London ~ this is beyond scary...

This doesn’t help me be very charitable or forgiving. It is hard to turn the other cheek. Frankly I think our country has gone overboard in accommodating their requests? I think it is because we are already frightened of what they will do.

England today.......America next!! They are on the way!

Atlanta is reported to have 80,000 Muslims and they are building a 46,000 sq. ft. mosque in the city....the largest in America! The population of Muslims is growing by leaps and bounds in every major American city. Get ready for demonstrations to begin early next year.

Makes you wonder doesn't it...can you imagine having a Christian demonstration against Islam in downtown Baghdad ! View the pictures below and decide how you really feel about the future of the Western World. These pictures are of Muslims marching through the STREETS OF LONDON during their recent 'Religion of Peace Demonstration.'

Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Muslims?! All Christians need to know. You need to forward this one to everyone! These pictures tell it all! Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over!

These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers (as they might help Bush's war on terror), but were forwarded by a Canadian who thought All Christians ought to know!

My response:

Greetings,

I am disturbed at such a fear-mongering email such as this being forwarded to people.

I have spent time with Muslims. I call quite a few Muslims my friends. Some I consider very close friends. I have been to Morocco, a Muslim nation twice, and I have had the extreme pleasure of spending time with families there. The kindness and generosity they showed me, my friends and also my father was incredible.

I believe that any time we start to label people or group people into a "them" we create more misunderstanding, fear and distrust. When we group people into a faceless mob we forget that we are talking about individuals - children, women and men.

I for one know that I wouldn't want someone to label me in a negative light just because I am an American or because I am not a Christian or because I am a woman or because I am overweight and so forth.

All people have the ability to do good in this world. All people also have the ability to be unkind and even worse to be violent and intolerant. Muslims do not own the cornerstone of being violent and starting wars.

Ironically, a friend shared a story with me just last night. She happened to be traveling in Greece in 1979. It was during this same time frame when the American hostages were taken prisoner in Iran. My friend said that their travels were interrupted and they were treated poorly at the embassy and they were mystified at first as they did not not know what had happened. Afterwards, she, along with many Americans, developed very anti-Iranian views. Many years later while at work she and several other co-workers were folding brochures together. While chit-chatting about this and that my friend shared with her co-workers that she "hated Iranians." The room went completely silent. Finally one of her co-workers, who she really like and considered a friend, spoke up to say "I am Persian. My family and I all immigrated from Iran. I am full-blooded Iranian." My friend said that she started crying and felt so humiliated because she could see the hurt in her friends eyes. She apologized profusely. There was a coldness in the relationship for awhile after that and after some time has passed they did begin to mend the friendship.

Please stop and think before spreading such messages. What good does it do to promote fear and distrust of a group of people? I believe it promotes prejudice and racism.