Honestly...

GRAAAH!

And here's yet another reason to hate the Toronto Sun. As if the Sunshine Girl feature isn't quite bad enough (and it undoubtedly is.)

Today, the issue of the Islamic Centre being built near Ground Zero was brought up. The conversation started when someone suggested that this was insensitive. I fully expected this to be affirmed by the other two, but one of the others retorted that it isn't insensitive because not all Muslims are violent, to which the first person responded that all Muslims ARE in fact violent because the Qur'an has a passage that says something to the effect of "go forth and kill the infidels." Here we go...

Completely stepping over the fact that I was quite possibly being baited, I told them that this was not an act comitted by Muslims, it was an act comitted by a group of violent extremists that by no means represent the whole of the Muslim community. I told them that if we were going to assign the blame for 9/11 to any group who share characteristics with the offending group of terrorists involved and ban them from ground zero, then I'm pretty sure we can't have men, the able-bodied, young people, humans, anyone with a skin tone darker than tan, etc. etc. etc. Besides this, I'm pretty sure there's no group on earth that you could look at and not find a skeleton somewhere in their many closets. Every group has some kind of shame somewhere in their history if you look hard enough, and Muslims are no exception.

I went on to tell them (in probably the most shit-disturbing move since "boob-gate 2010" [again, fodder for another post]) that if we're going to target religion, then we need to look at all of them and not just the ones who have obvious and well-publicized manifestations of their violent undertones. I told them that we should probably take another look at the Bible if we're so sure that the Muslims are the only violent ones. And then the shitgate broke.

Two people who have - up until now - vehemently denied their association with Christianity ("it's so stupid!") dove in to let me know that Christian violence is just history and not something supported by the Bible. You know when you know someone's wrong but you don't have the memorized quotes to prove it to them (or perhaps just don't have the nerve?)

For the sake of getting this off my chest (because as soon as I realized that there was no convincing a group of three people who didn't want to listen I stopped talking all together), here's some passages to look at:

2 Peter 2:7-8. 19:7-8 -- the "right" and "just" Lot hands over his two virgin daughters to be raped and brutalized rather than giving them two male angels.

Exodus 21:15, 17 We should execute children who hit or curse their parents

Exodus 22:18 'Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.'

Exodus 22:19 'Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death'

And now... for my PERSONAL favorite:

"He who sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed." Exodus 22:20

But... doesn't that sound an awful lot like "Kill the infidels"? In fact, isn't that the exact same sentiment? Isn't it worse when coupled with 31:14 "Those who break the Sabbath are to be executed"? The worst part is, I could keep going with this list. Just go read Exodus.

What I'm getting at is that I think it's really too bad that there's so much Islamaphobia floating around right now in the newspapers, the news and apparently in casual conversation. Instead of Othering these people and using their culture as a foil to make our own look better, wouldn't it be more productive to use this as an opportunity to self-reflect? If we're going to point fingers and assign blame and call one group 'bad' (and I absolutely do not deny here that there aren't some actions that Muslim extremists have taken that are entirely bad) then should we maybe not take a long, hard look at ourselves and use the violent actions of others as a mirror to examine our own? We're not perfect, you know. We have violent scriptures, bombs, weapons. We commit violent acts and racism and sexism. We have hatred for other groups. We certainly don't live in a perfect society, and to use the acts of a small sect of another group to make the entirety of our often bleak culture look better is irresponsible and dangerous.

Pardon the sarcastic and bitter post. Sometimes it's all just a bit much, you know?