Friday, September 03, 2004

I'm Angry

I'm angry. I'm very angry. I'm so angry, that I don't know how to react.

Once again, terrorists have taken the lives of innocents. This time, hundreds of children. Suicide bombers seized a school in Russia, holding as many as 1200 hostages - most of them children and their parents. Their demands were unclear, and changed often. I have just read that Russian forces tried to take back the school and hundreds have been killed.

What the hell is wrong with these people? Are they just bent on killing as many people as they can? How do we deal with this? How do we deal with people who don't value anything? All they seem to want to do is exterminate everyone who doesn't belong to their.... what? I can't even define what it is they hate!

The only common denominator to this is that they are all Muslim. They fight under the auspices of protecting their religion. But their own religion abhores the taking of innocent lives. And they kill their own children by strapping bombs to them and using them as human weapons. How do we deal with people who don't even love their own children?

I find myself starting to react badly. I want to believe that these are totally irrational people hiding behind a religion that they don't believe in, but I'm finding that more and more difficult. They don't seem to have any real demands. Their only goal seems to be the complete extermination of non-muslims. And yet they also kill muslims.

I need to hear from Muslim leaders. I need to hear them stand up and decry these actions loudly. I need to hear them tell other Muslims that these are sins they are commiting. They will not be welcome into heaven as martyrs. They are killers, murderes and monsters. And that's how they will be dealt with.

Without these voices, I can see no other path but the one that leads to total mistrust of all muslims. It will come down to self-preservation. When no other path is left, it is in our nature to fight. I'm afraid the rest of the world will have no choice but to attack the muslim world in order to preserve our lives. I don't want this.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike, you need to distinguish between religion and its followers. By your reasoning, Christianity would be behind the high rate of drunk driving related deaths in America. Islam has nothing to do with this behavior. Sure, many of these people call themselves Muslim, but it isn't the religion that prompts them to do it, but bad cultural effects. Does Christianity encourage people to drink and drive in the US? No, but every day there are drunk people calling themselves Christian getting behind the wheel and running innocent children over. Those people, if they were following Christianity, would not do such things. teh same could be said of Islam and Muslims.

In answer to your need to hear from Muslim leaders, read this:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/09/04/international0600EDT0452.DTL

And its not just the leaders who are upset, we ordinary Muslims are very angry about what happened too.

Anonymous said...

You make a good point, but if non-Muslims were more knowledgeable about Islam, they would see how ludicrous it is to connect such actions as what happened in Russia with Islam in any way. Would anyone who had even a small inkling about Christianity have expected all Christians to stand up and condemn what Jim Jones did or else everyone would mistrust Christians? No-it's a double standard.

According to Islam, all children are born Muslim. They are not considered to be accountable for their choice of religion until they reach puberty. Therefore, any Muslim who understands and follows their religion would realize that those children in the Russian school were by definition of their religion Muslims. Killing non-Muslims would not be right either, but it is doubly insensible that they could do so with any justification from Islam because they were children.

Mike Churchward said...

Hi Jon.

Thanks for your post. I actually do agree with you. I am not prone to hate or war. More and more, I find myself in agreement with John Lennon's song "Imagine". My post was made to start conversation about this issue. I have to believe that Muslims in general don't support this either, but without hearing loud denouncements, I can only assume.

The one difference I have come across is my feelings toward murder vs. the Muslim's faith view of murder. My view is simple - murder is wrong! The Muslim faith seems to be able to justify it in specific cases. I read that a group of Muslim leaders will get together soon to decide whether acts like the ones in Russia can be considered as just. I'm sure they will decide that they can't, but I'm horrified that they have to discuss it.

I don't view this as Christian, or Jewish (or Punjabi, or Sikh) vs. Muslim. I'm not a practicing anything. But I do have morals that I live to - ones that I thought were shared by all of us.

Anonymous said...

I'm Angry because I just got in another fight with my brother and mom. This is the second fight today. I am just a teen in a messed up world. I try to enjoy myself as I am, but it seems like my brother and my mom wont let me do that. Everyday we find something to fight about. I want to go live with my dad but i dont know if he can afford to have me in his household. So I am trying to just fight it out here and I was just wondering if you had any tips on what I can do. Thank You,

Brock

Mike Churchward said...

Hey Brock -

I'm no expert on these matters, but keep trying to talk to those you care about. Its normal to argue, just try not to let it escalate to hate. Find a trusted relative or friend to talk to, and hang in there.