Submitted by John Bastile (Viet Nam), Apr 8, 2008 at 21:58
To bibliobibuli (Malaysia),
You were not happy with the post and claimed that I mentioned muslims as "if all muslims were cut from the same cloth". Yet you continued by lamenting that this is"the problem that the west is having".
My my, aren't you harboring prejudices and steroetyping of your own?
Of course I agree with you that there is a wide diversity of thought and opinion.
Tell you what. Look at an analogy. Bring ourselves back to the early 1940s where the world was at war. I'm on the side of the Allied nations battling against Nazism of Germany and Facism of Italy. Germany has invaded over Poland, France, Eastern Europe. Jews were rounded up and strolled through the gas chamber. I could imagine you saying stuffs like - "Sure Hitler was a bad guy but you talked like as though all Nazis were cut from the same cloth. That is the problem of the West. They hate Nazism so much and assume that all Germans are Nazis."
Not all Germans are Nazis, I'm sure. At the count, only 3% of Germans were members of the political party, if you don't include the automatic membership of Nazi youth for children. But that membership is enough to have caused millions of death and a world war to scar last century's history. Thus, Nazism matters.
Now, Islam matters. It doesn't matter whether only 3% of muslims are bent of enforcing Sharia laws. They should be treated like the same 3% Germans who uphelp Nazism. The problem with Islam is that muslims become more educated. They no longer just regurgitate meaningless Arabic verses and follow their rituals. They begun to actually understand the verses. They begun to follow the verses. Muslims are humans - borned good. Islam is the invention of a 7th century deranged desert caravan robber. Quran does contain verses that are evil and promotes terrorism. You may claim that those verses are taken out of context. But should those verses be within the context to begin with?
Islam has no centralised authority. Thus, each country, community, and individuals live the words of Quran based on their own interpretations. Thus, no one can debate about Islam. The powerful "NOT ALL" clause is always used.
Yes, muslims have the tendency to decapitate people with a blunt machette but NOT ALL muslims are like that. Yes, muslims hate Jews but NOT ALL muslims are like that. Yes, muslims have regress mentality and are adverse to rational thinking and humane behavours but NOT ALL muslims are like that.
sure there are the fundamentalists, but there are many others who are liberal, many others who are on a journey of discovery to find true meaning in their lives through religion, others still who are moslem in name only (because they have to have the religion entered on their birth certs) but who are defacto atheists.
while yes, some chinese are leaving for greener pastures (education and better pay overseas being major factors) many more are happy to be here. and the recent elections look like bringing a sea-change with much more chinese representation in parliament
suggest you come and live here for a while (i've been here 23 years) and actually learn something about the country instead of nurturing your prejudices!
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