I’ve been observing comments and reactions from both sides on the danish cartoons conflict on my blog and others, without getting too involved with them, trying to see where they go, and I’m very sorry to say that they’ve been moving without direction further up a blocked alley.
The whole conversation keeps turning into a big Islam vs. West, clash of civilizations style discussion, in which the westerners bash Islam and Muslim countries, and Muslims bash the West.
All of a sudden the talk is about the state of women rights in Saudi Arabia, Israel and its existence, laicity in French schools, …etc.
This obviously shows that there are many lingering issues on both sides that are just waiting to burst open and be debated, and that this caricature subject simply brought a chance for each side to let go.
But the way it’s being done now, it’ll only deepen the row between us all, increase the misunderstanding and grow whatever hatred some hold.
It’s clear this is not the way we should approach it. What we should do is drop our preconceptions of each other, come in with a clean slate, with a spirit of open-mindedness and understanding, and then talk unbiasedly and respectfully about all these issues, trying to come to a better understanding of each other.
Everything has been distorted in this world; from laws, to religion, to concepts, to philosophies; and the only way for us is to go back to the basics, and build upon them.
It’s hard to engage in a dialogue now, I don’t know if you live in north america or not but muslims here are being put on the defensive constantly, sometimes cornered, steorotyped, with tons of prejudice hanging over their head.
From radio talks to Documentaries, to daily shows, everyone is bashing islam (most of the time indirectly) and most recently depicting moderate muslims as violent people (which is a new dangerous trend). I don’t blame them and i gave up explaining, arguying, it’s energy consuming and sometimes the outcome of the discussion are known in advance, especially when news chaneel keep repeating every 30min images of violence, destruction in the name if islam !
Bottom line these are tough times for both civilizations, even the dialogue advocates are turning themselves to hardliners.
I just let it go for now, Time will heal and put things back in order.
I live in the west, I am an American Muslim convert…and this issue makes me so upset. It is clearly a racist move on the part of the Danish, and it is just another slap and push from the west in supporting the Danish, or not supporting us. It doesn’t matter if it was the french, germans, israelis or even scottish for that matter, the fact that so many countries and people are abusing and disrespecting Islam’s culture and relegion is a disugusting attempt at conquesting their own insecurity in their ignorance of what muslims are, and what we beleive. I am so sad, I feel attacked personally and cannot imagine if I lived in the East. I feel that muslims, the east, and islam..is unfortunately slandered and abused repeatdely and will continue to get worse. We need not to glorify or use jihad as a reason, but show a blind eye, and never give anyone who desecrates islam any of our breath and energy. This is all I can hope for, Insha’allah Napo..time will heal.
Napo, johanna,
Couldn
yeah, all danish people are a bunch of racists right?
the truth of the matter is this fiasco was just the straw that broke the camels back. we can focus on the straw or we can focus on why the back is really broken.
The spread of freedom thus far:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6337/2188/1600/world_02_11-215.gif
Some background material behind the notorious plagiarized hoax, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/protzion/DelaCruzProtocolsMain.htm
http://emperors-clothes.com/antisem/protocols-1.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mzionprotocol.html
The comment in the last link is particularly to the point regarding the Protocols: “So there you have it. The Protocols are a hoax, and anyone with half a brain knows it. They persist not because they’re true, but because they’re useful.”