Posted by (+15490) 7 years ago
I probably shouldn't say this, but that has never stopped me before... It seems like the vogue thing to do, in light of Mr. Trumps statement about not allowing Muslims into the country, is to go stand in front of a Mosque and denounce the Tumps idea and show your support for Muslims. This is Hollywood's and republicans up for reelection current preoccupation. Facebook is all about changing your profile picture to show some form of solidarity.
I believe that Donald Trump is outrageously wrong for profiling people based on their form of religious identity. And yet, I feel a certain level of cognitive dissonance about all of this. In our rush to be supportive of these individuals, we ARE giving tacit acknowledgement/approval of their particular strain of Invisible Cosmological Existence Syndrome (ICES).
While I support their coming to America and their participation in the liberty that we all enjoy, I think their Muslim-ness is just as man-made and bat-poop crazy and any christian belief. I respect everyones right to practice their religious beliefs. As I have come to understand more about Islam and what terms like Jihad, Caliph, etc. originally meant, I have honestly recently developed some empathy for Muslims as very mis-understood people. Most Americans are so caught up in their inbred insular christian views and what the media has told them about Islam and its intents, that they really have no clue and lack appropriate appreciation. I'd like to believe that I understand how threatened Muslims feel as the America war machine has shown up in their back yards and tried to instill and inflicted our strain of ICES upon them. It's the Battle of the Bighorn all over again but on a much larger stage. We really need to stop attempting to impress and control the world with our military colonialism.
It is fundamental to understand that Islam has always been about the struggle to preserver (Jihad) in the belief. Left to themselves, Islam has historical been peaceful and its adherents have contributed the Golden Age of History. Most of the time conflict, as in the crusades, has been about muslims defending itself from the onslaught of christianity. The christian objective in the crusades was ALWAYS about occupation of a landscape, colonialism, and control. Islam simply defended itself. The implications and strategies of this in our own time are critical to understanding the conflict.
I have no problem with the exploration or exercise of spirituality. I identify rather strongly with the Unitarian Universalist and their seven principles. http://www.uua.org/belief...principles
That said, we should recognize we are walking a fine line. I believe that we are better off if we were to focus the progress of humanity using reason and reasonableness rather than promoting another man-made legalistic religious point of view. A good start would be to completely get the hell out of the middle east. In the long term, we will be better off if we do.
[Edited by Richard Bonine, Jr. (12/13/2015 11:28:35 AM)]
I believe that Donald Trump is outrageously wrong for profiling people based on their form of religious identity. And yet, I feel a certain level of cognitive dissonance about all of this. In our rush to be supportive of these individuals, we ARE giving tacit acknowledgement/approval of their particular strain of Invisible Cosmological Existence Syndrome (ICES).
While I support their coming to America and their participation in the liberty that we all enjoy, I think their Muslim-ness is just as man-made and bat-poop crazy and any christian belief. I respect everyones right to practice their religious beliefs. As I have come to understand more about Islam and what terms like Jihad, Caliph, etc. originally meant, I have honestly recently developed some empathy for Muslims as very mis-understood people. Most Americans are so caught up in their inbred insular christian views and what the media has told them about Islam and its intents, that they really have no clue and lack appropriate appreciation. I'd like to believe that I understand how threatened Muslims feel as the America war machine has shown up in their back yards and tried to instill and inflicted our strain of ICES upon them. It's the Battle of the Bighorn all over again but on a much larger stage. We really need to stop attempting to impress and control the world with our military colonialism.
It is fundamental to understand that Islam has always been about the struggle to preserver (Jihad) in the belief. Left to themselves, Islam has historical been peaceful and its adherents have contributed the Golden Age of History. Most of the time conflict, as in the crusades, has been about muslims defending itself from the onslaught of christianity. The christian objective in the crusades was ALWAYS about occupation of a landscape, colonialism, and control. Islam simply defended itself. The implications and strategies of this in our own time are critical to understanding the conflict.
I have no problem with the exploration or exercise of spirituality. I identify rather strongly with the Unitarian Universalist and their seven principles. http://www.uua.org/belief...principles
That said, we should recognize we are walking a fine line. I believe that we are better off if we were to focus the progress of humanity using reason and reasonableness rather than promoting another man-made legalistic religious point of view. A good start would be to completely get the hell out of the middle east. In the long term, we will be better off if we do.
[Edited by Richard Bonine, Jr. (12/13/2015 11:28:35 AM)]