I've been rethinking your last post on this. The attacks on Muslim Kosovars and Bosnians occurred in the context of a civil war in which all sides attacked and committed atrocities against the others. Indeed, Serbs and Croats, both Christians ethnic groups, have "ethnically cleansed" one another in the past. The same applies to the Lebanese situation as well. I think neither of these is an example of religous MOTIVATED atrocities but were ethnic conflict related.
But riots which kill hundreds of Christians in Nigeria or thousands in Indonesia ARE religously motivated I believe. There's no civil war going on between two ethnic or national groups there. And the unprovoked murder or imprisoning of Christian missionaries and aid workers by Muslims, both individuals and governments, which has happened within the past couple years in Yemen, the Philippines, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel, Indonesia, Algeria, and likely other places that skip my mind now. (Note that off the top of my head, I'm able to recall numerous examples.) Why do these violent bloodthirsty attacks occur so much?
I have some other questions. Why does Islam impose the death penalty on Muslims who leave the faith? Do you think it should? Why is it illegal to even attempt to convert a Muslim in all Muslim countries? Do you think it should be? Why when Muslim ethnic groups are engaged in a national conflict - like with Israel or over Kashmir - why is terrorism targeting women and children among the acceptable to Muslims? I'm not talking here about targeting military and government targets and hitting civilians incidentally. This can't be avoided in any conflict. But I'm talking about deliberately targeting grocery stores, discos, restaurants, hotels - which happens all the time.
Why do I regularly read translations of messages by people preaching in mosques calling for the deaths of Jews or other groups? Here in Houston just a month or so before 9/11 (which is why I recall it), middle and high school age students from a Muslim religous school located on Hillcroft held a protest over a visit of Salman Rushdie to the city. The protest was organized and chaperoned by the school's faculty/administration. I recall they were chanting "death to Rushdie". I don't know of any other religous group which teaches their children to chant death threats. Why do they do this? I'll tell you that this stuff needs to stop!
I suspect Muslims want to hold their heads up and be considered members of civilized humanity. But I wonder if its gonna be possible until examples of savagery stop appearing in the paper every few weeks or so. Frankly Muslims are the only immigrant group to America I worry about in terms of their being a long-term continuing problem for the nation. |
