Judgement Day

     I have considered trying to remove every source of news from my life because of all of the ignorance I read. More articles of terrorism are published and more people respond about how evil Islam is. If Islam is evil, then what religion isn't? 

     Occasionally, I will read comments stating that people will convert to Islam and discover how wicked it is and try to leave. They yell at fellow readers to READ THE KORAN!! If they are so concerned with the violent content, how come nobody focuses on the violent content in the Holy Bible? How come nobody understands that Islam is just a mirror of Christianity, but it is in a completely different language? That is what it looks like to me. In fact, I wonder if anyone knows that if they have been studying the Bible that they have also been studying Judaism this whole entire time. 

     I remember when I was writing my paper for the finals for my Religions of the World class. The final was a series of questions about world religion and I had to choose five. I thought it would have been fun to answer them all, but I chose five. I had to write about five religions that each had there differences. I chose the indigenous Maori faith, an evangelistic faith called the Unification Church, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. 

     For Islam, I chose a question that told me to summarize a story that teaches a value. As I searched, I tried to find something unique. This was challenging because many of the stories in the Koran are the same as the ones I learned in the Bible. Ultimately, both Christianity and Islam teach morals to the followers. I have even come to understand that according to Islam, you must give to those in need if you can. Doesn't Christianity teach the same thing? Help those in need? 

     There is something that I believe that people need to think about. I made a comment once about how horrific Hinduism seemed. My brother asked me why I thought that way. My thought was that the gods were frightening and the stories were violent. I wondered what it was like being a child practicing Hinduism. My brother commented that it is no different from a child raised on Christianity. 

     Come to think about it, his observation was accurate. A couple of stories came to mind. One was about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 

     Another story I can remember was about a baby that two women were fighting over. They both said that they were the mother of the baby and the issue was brought to King Solomon. In order to resolve the issue, the king threatened to cut the baby in half so both of the women could have him. One woman became overly defensive while the other did not. This was how he found which one was the mother; the one that was silent. Personally, this taught me how to know when someone is telling a lie. They get overly defensive and belligerent. Now, you know my secret. 

      There are many more stories from the Bible to choose from that are too frightening for the ears of children. We teach these anyway. I think it is no different from any other faith. In the ancient Vedas of Hinduism, there are gods with many heads and arms who murder and kidnap others. There is even a story of ancient nuclear warfare. 

     I have never studied the Koran and to be quite honest, I never read the Bible in its entirety. If I did find any violent stories in the Koran, I would not be surprised. If anyone asked me why, I would remind them of the violent stories that his or her holy book contained. 

     It isn't faith that teaches people to be violent. It is the people who teaches hatred and violence to others. Every piece of holy literature that I have encountered teaches that each person has a day of judgement. People are trying to carry out the judgement before anyone can reach his or her day of judgement. 

     People who call themselves Christians act out in violence. They protest that abortion is immoral. Then they turn around and murder doctors when all gynecologists know how to do the procedure. They burn and bomb the health clinics making it impossible for women to get health care. They burn crosses. They bomb the churches of others; this is regardless of the faith, mind you. 

     According to Leviticus, homosexuals must be put to death.They murder homosexuals as though it is their business to judge them. It really isn't our place to judge. Homosexuals have been murdered in an inhumane manner in America and the Middle East. 

     If Islam is so violent, what about the things "Christians" have done? There was Manifest Destiny that encouraged emigrants to expand to the west and butcher indigenous tribes in the process. What about all of the people Christians have murdered and terrorized? People used Christianity to persuade others to follow.

     Why don't we talk about slavery? The abolitionists used faith as a rhetorical device to abolish slavery. There isn't anything in the Bible about having slaves. Slavery is forbidden in Islamic faith. Who is the savage now?

     The question right now is if you would kill in the name of faith. I think it would be a question for any religion, but I know this question is targeting Muslims. My concern is that the objective of the terrorists is to revive the idea of Nazis. People say the real problem is that Muslims will kill infidels only and will not protect infidels. The real problem is that militants and terrorists will kill no matter what faith someone is. 

     ISIS was praised when they invaded a town. The people who praised them ended up being murdered by ISIS. They do not care. Shia and Sunni are killing each other, but they are both Muslims. Christian and Muslim alike are being murdered. Male and female. Adult and child. They do not care. 

     Regardless if terrorist acts are happening or not, people are vandalizing churches and stores owned by Muslims. This has been the case for every faith and every race. The churches of black people have been set ablaze. Mormon temples have been set ablaze. Fire, fight fire with fire. Why can't people grow up?

     A Mediterranean restaurant has been vandalized in Boise. This is my favorite place to get a gyro. Some racist piece of crap is conveying hatred toward someone who never did anything.

     After the terrorist attacks in France, Muslims face the same issue. It is so childish. most of the people who carried out the violent act were shot, like they should have been. France did something that nobody has ever done before. They found them and took them out. This obviously doesn't matter because the world is in a anti-Muslim rage and vice versa. This happened before, but it was with Jews.

     Even in America, there was anti-Semitism. I am shocked to see the propaganda that even existed in the United States. Why should I be? It sicked me to see that children were being taught to be hateful. Why do we do this? 

     Jews were segregated like the African Americans. People attacked their churches just as people attack Mosques today. Jews were treated like they were inferior up until we finally stepped in to stop the holocaust. At some point we realized that this behavior was wrong and for some reason we are doing the same thing to Muslims. 

     Muslims have been in this country for a long time. They have been in other countries for a time. Sadly, and not surprisingly, there is an anti-Islamic movement in Germany. What is it that festers that arises again? Are we failing at teaching others why it is wrong to treat people like this? We are teaching students how wrong it is to target people who practice a faith we do not agree with. 

     One thing I noticed is that people treat events as though it is a myth and a conspiracy. In Germany, there are people who say the holocaust never happened. How do you hide six million murdered Jews? People treat 9/11 as though it was a myth. 

     After the shootings in France, people are vandalizing more Muslim establishments. Stores and mosques are being bombed and covered in pork. In Sweden, people covered a vandalized mosque with messages of love. I don't know if it is going to be enough. 

     I think that you cannot fight childish behavior with childish behavior. It was irresponsible for the newspaper in France to publish disrespectful drawings of one faith. Did we not learn our lesson about antisemitism? It was even more childish to go and shoot a bunch of people over a drawing. The newspaper was childish in being defiant and publishing more disrespectful drawings. Grow up. This needs to stop.