Stereotyping, oversimplification, and over-generalization are
dangerous things. When people fall into these traps, the best-case scenario is
that they are simply ignorant and wrong. The worst-case scenario involves much
worse: hate, alienation, and even killing. The mistakes of stereotyping,
oversimplification, and over-generalization have the potential to turn humans
into monsters, and to blind them to reality. In America and other Western
countries, one prevalent, pernicious mistake today is Islamophobia—the fear of
Muslims. To fall into the trap of Islamophobia is to be similar to the likely
reason for the phobia—radical Islamic terrorist groups.
It may seem ridiculous to say that the American public and
the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS are similar. It is ridiculous. But I believe that it is nonetheless true. Islamophobia
involves the stereotyping, oversimplification, and over-generalization of
Muslims and even non-Muslim Arabs. It leads people to fear and hate all
Muslims. While Americans have good reason to fear and hate the perpetrators of
such calamities as the 9/11 attacks, they often make the mistake of transferring
that fear and hate to a more widespread group—all 1 billion-plus Muslims in the
world—who had nothing to do with those attacks.
This is the exact same mistake the leaders of extremist
terrorists groups make. These people fear and hate America and Western civilization.
They have good reason to—Western nations have waged numerous wars in the Middle
East for not-so-good reasons. But they make the mistake of transferring that
fear and hate to a more widespread group—all 300 million-plus American citizens—who
had very little or nothing to do with the wars and attacks their nation carried
out.
When Americans judge and discriminate against Muslims, they
are falling into the same trap Osama bin Laden fell into—stereotyping,
oversimplifying, and overgeneralizing based on their justified fear, anger, and
sometimes hate. We must fight to keep from falling victim to Islamophobia. To
fight requires becoming informed about the reasons many Islamic radicals hate
America, and to realize that those are indeed radicals and do not remotely
represent the over 1 billion people who ascribe to more orthodox versions of
Islam. When we let our fear blind us, we are doing the same thing as the people
who caused our fear.
I have a problem with your last paragraph. Radical Muslims are orthodox Muslims. The radical/orthodox Muslims we see butchering people on the news today are practicing Islam the same way Muhammed and his original following practiced it at its beginning. That being said, your attempt to draw moral equivalence between the hatred Americans have for the evil that is radical/orthodox Islam and the hatred radical/orthodox Muslims have for one of history's most powerful, most free, and most Christian nations is unbelievable. We are not just like them. Western Culture, a superior culture, will never be compatible with Islam that is practiced in the way the Koran commands it be practiced. Orthodox/radical Muslims hate us for more reasons than our recent wars. They hate us for our freedoms. And though many of the 1 billion Muslims in the world may be peaceful, you may be surprised to see how many of them are sympathetic to the cause of radical groups like al-Qaeda and support the imposition of Sharia law in their home countries and the countries to which they have emigrated.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. It really made me think harder about what I've said. First, we may be working with different definitions of orthodoxy. I was using orthodox to mean the views held by a majority of Muslims. Second, I was not intending to "draw moral equivalence." In any case, the comparison I was making was between terrorist groups' hatred of ordinary Americans and Americans' hatred of ordinary Muslims, not the hatred of terrorist groups for the American government and the hatred of Americans for the terrorist groups. Your point is still valid, though, and it made me think harder about that idea. According to the world's moral relativism, Americans are certainly morally superior to extremist groups, and Americans who ascribe to that moral standard have good reason to maintain moral superiority. If, however, Christians in America wish to take Jesus' words seriously when he said in Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell," then the case for moral superiority is bankrupt. If Jesus meant what he said in the Sermon on the Mount, and I'm inclined to believe that he did, then there is actually moral equivalence between terrorist groups who hate and kill Americans and Americans who judge, fear, and hate ordinary Muslims simply for being Muslim. So by the world's standards, there is no moral equivalence, but by Biblical standards, both groups are sinful, end of story. Third, as for my thoughts on American freedom and Christianity, I would refer you to my other blog posts. America is the land of the free if you're a white male, but it certainly looks less free from minority or women's perspectives, and even less so from a Middle Eastern Muslim's perspective. Fourth, radical Muslims certainly do hate us for more than our recent wars. They also hate us for our wars ever since the end of World War II and our determination to get their oil from them as cheaply as possible. And they hate our culture because it is the culture they associate with those wars. Fifth, I do not think many Islamic immigrants to Western countries would advocate Sharia law. Why would they move from a country with Sharia law to one without if Sharia law is what they want? Finally, it is quite presumptuous and bigoted to call Western culture "superior." Just because it's your culture doesn't make it superior.
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