A friend of mine on MicePace posted a blog about how an acquaintance of hers e-mailed her a link to a group protesting an Islamic Holiday stamp from the United States Post Office, asking her to "join the fight".
To be entirely fair, this particular friend of mine is quite liberal BUT tends to consider the degrees of her level of tolerance. About the only problem she has is a problem common to so many of us: Righteous indignation and possibly jumping the gun when we see something we feel is wrong.
Further, the site protesting the Islamic Holiday stamp isn't protesting Islam, they're protesting because Christmas is supposed to be Baby Jesus' birthday and Islam is, in their eyes, defiling that!
Perhaps that's the only aspect of this my friend is billing as stupid, perhaps not. Nevertheless, being me, I'm forced to read so much more into it from the get-go.
One of the first things which happens when America's uber-liberal begin to defend Islam is they tend to fall back on the old "many of my friends are black" argument. People always cite their friends or acquaintances as perfect examples of Islamic thinking because (and I DO paraphrase, but accurately, as far as the sentiment goes) "MY friends behave themselves and seem to want to fit in, so that must be an accurate depiction of the Islamic world at large!"
Maybe, maybe not. I DO know that every single time I hear anyone defending Islamic thinking by declaring Islam a religion of peace, NO ONE, not ONE single person EVER answers me when I ask "Okay, so what about the hudna?" Instead they grimace as though I am clearly intolerant and unenlightened, and the discussion ends thusly.
Me, silly as I am, I'm thinking it's a damned valid question. Hell, when discussing Islam no one even seems to want to discuss Sharia law.
America is the perfect place for nonsense like this, because people in general are so immersed in the idea of tolerance they cannot fathom the notion someone else might not see things their way.
In the end I sent the following response to my friend:
I'm going to post something here; perhaps you'll post it, perhaps not. It risks sounding intolerant and offensive, but that doesn't change the truth of it. Further, I apologize for answering a blog with what amounts to a blog of its own.
I, too, have Muslim friends and acquaintances; however, I have noted slight differences in the way they act with me versus the way they act with one another.
"Oh, that's just culture," you could say -- and probably not be wrong. We associate with "our own kind" more closely, differently than we do "others", and it's just human nature, completely understandable in a realistic, logical sense.
After all, as an experienced world traveler I know full well there are certain cultural subtleties which I, as a foreigner in a given situation, cannot fathom; similarly, I have immigrant friends frequently ask me for explanations of certain things which are distinctly American in nature.
The word "Ramadan" gives one man a pious sentiment with its very utterance; it makes me think "sham-a-lam-a-ding-dong". It's no one's fault, merely a cultural difference. To me that's funny; to the pious man it's offensive in a deep and abiding way.
That's where things begin to get tricky.
You see, people aren't generally very moral. There are LOTS of great ideas out there to put Society at large back on track, some of them semi-official in nature, others as timeworn and heartfelt as the Golden Rule. But you don't see these ideas being enacted. Why is that? Is it because it's too hard? I doubt it.
No, I suspect it's because people, as a whole, are generally shitty, much as we'd love to believe otherwise. Most would espouse an inherent good nature for Humanity and consider themselves all the better, all the more enlightened for even having said such a thing out loud. Me, because I grimace and say "Um, don't think so...", well, I'm clearly sociopathic.
The thing about FREEDOM that most people fail to realize is that FREEDOM actually comes right out of the package with built-in limitations.
What's that? LIMITS on the very concept of FREEDOM? That doesn't make any sense!
Yes, it does.
You see, your freedom in ANY form, in ANY guise or practice, extends precisely to the edges of someone else's contradicting freedom and not one whit farther unless -- here, pay attention, this is the important part -- unless you PUSH it farther.
I have freedom of speech according to my Constitution; but there's a long, long list of things I'm forbidden to say. Think about that. People conceive of Freedom in absolutes but there is no such thing as absolute freedom.
And while you're at it, stop and think about the way our nation seems to be bending over backwards to avoid any possibility of even mildly offending the nation of Islam (their words, not mine; they refer to themselves as a nation, not a religion).
We are literally stomping on the rights of our own people specifically in order to avoid offending another people because right now it's so very PC to do so.
Harvard itself closed a co-ed gym -- remember when a co-ed gym was considered a great step FORWARD in the name of equality? -- to men during prime hours because Muslim women asked to be allowed to exercise without males present. There is nothing in Q'uranic or Shariah law forbidding males and females to be together during exercise, but they asked for it and got it because America is so very afraid and so very wound up in its own politically correct atmosphere.
And while you're at THAT, think about the man we just elected President. Raised in Islam (okay, nothing wrong with that), raised for a portion of his life in one of the most RADICAL of Islamic countries (hmm... but we're tolerant here, we're all about tolerance) and "officially" LEFT HIS CHURCH because he felt it was inappropriate during an election and he had some disagreement with his pastor -- BUT prayed with the man one final time before his election; and he was able to do this precisely because it's JUST THAT EASY for a man to walk away from his religious beliefs and practice his political career COMPLETELY DEVOID of any preconceived notions or ideas based on his rearing.
Because that's how people work, right? Right? Able to turn our beliefs on and off, like a toggle.
I don't give a damn about that stamp AS A STAMP; but it is, I promise, the brief sniffle before full-blown flu, the kind of flu that just might kill you down the line. Whether we choose to see it or not (and I say this as a thinking MAN, not based on any religious beliefs) Islam is gaining a powerful foothold in our land; when it's strong enough, it will become strongly political. And when it becomes strong enough politically, you WILL see many of your freedoms evaporate; up and vanished like a fart in the wind.
And you invoked Jesus, not Muhammed; ergo, you're a heretic. Ergo, if enough religious freedom is exercised, one day you just might find yourself under a whip in the name of religious freedom. Problem will be that your freedom will extend not very far at all. Sure, you're free, but HOW free? You'll have freedomed your way out of freedom.
Ironic, no?
"Oh, Michael; you're going too far this time."
Yes. Because I just KEEP being wrong, don't I? Hmm...
Something to think about.
I understand fully your stance on tolerance; honest to God, if more people were tolerant AND moral, I'd back it a zillion percent. But they're not, and much as I wish to fight for and believe in Freedom, if it comes down to a me-or-him situation, what will your vote be?
That's a serious question which merits some consideration.
Whether it's Islam or Christianity or Judaism, Snake-worshippers, Druids, Satanists, Hindus or the Church of Bob and the Scientologists, in the end so-called religious freedom will prove our greatest freedom and our most fallible undoing, and there is no way in the world to justifiably or even logically correct such a thing.
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