No Islamophobia for me.

I said recently that I was going to stop reading the letters to the editor on my local paper’s website. This time I really mean it. On top of the usual complaining about road work, property taxes and traffic, I have noticed a real hatred towards Muslims. I have commented occasionally that we should not hold all Muslims accountable for the actions of a few. In response I have been called virtually every name in the book but have had little in the way of rational discourse.

I honestly think that hatred towards Muslims will alienate them further. Having churches organize Koran burnings is not the message of love and acceptance that Jesus talked about in the Gospels. Denying them places to assemble and to worship is only giving them reason to hate us.

Not all Muslims are bad. As I mentioned earlier, there are 1.5 billion of them. The vast majority I am certain are not bent on global domination or all our deaths. I have Muslim neighbours and they haven’t killed me or my family once. I have seen them celebrate family weddings and births. The only crazy thing was that yell they do to celebrate. Otherwise it is a normal family get together.

I have heard the argument that Muslims should have stopped the acts of terrorists by other Muslims. I agree with this on the caveat that they actually knew about the acts. Should the neighbours of some of the recent mass shootings over the years be held responsible because they didn’t stop the shootings before they happened? It is a rhetorical question. The answer is no, because in all likelihood they didn’t know about it.

I think that you look at the contemporary persecution of Muslims and you can find many instances in the past of persecution of other groups. Catholics, Jews, Chinese, Irish, Germans, Homosexuals, the list goes on and on. It was wrong back then and it is wrong today.

I also think the threat posed is overstated as well. I am certain that the risk of dying in a car accident far exceeds the threat of dying in a terrorist attack. If we are so concerned about loss of life, there is a raft of preventable deaths in the third world that we should be concerned about.

People mention that this is World War III. OK, let us say it is. Who are you putting your money on? Who has the vast superiority in conventional and nuclear weapons? It isn’t even close. It is the West. Does anybody outside of the certifiably insane foresee a D-Day invasion of Muslim soldiers on the shores of North America or Europe anytime soon?

Yes I know. This reads as the manifesto as a bleeding heart socialist. Perhaps. I just can’t rationally understand the paranoia of some folks. The threat of Muslims is just not as great as some believe.