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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Suma who wrote (90781)	12/6/2004 4:18:30 PM
From: redfish	Respond to of 108807

I lived among muslims when I worked in D.C. For some reason there are quite a few of them there, working for embassies and such I imagine. They were very standoffish and obviously had no interest in being my friends, but they certainly weren't a threat to me. It seemed they mostly wanted to be left alone. My prejudices run along more familiar lines, like groups of young black males. I doubt the women were against the terrorists as much as we are, but they will in all probability live out their lives without assaulting me or anyone else, so I live and let live. I think we are hardwired to categorize people into "us" and "them." There's no harm in it so long as it doesn't lead you to treat people unjustly.

To: Suma who wrote (90781)	12/6/2004 4:27:42 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Suma, thanks for your earlier post to me. The feeling you express about Muslims is quite prevalent these days. Some immediately will label it as racism or prejudice. One sound justification for such anger is the perception that Muslims by and large have not been outspoken enough in condemning terrorist acts committed by their brethren. It aggravates the anger when these same silent Muslims ARE outspoken about being singled out for extra scrutiny in airport checks. Curiously, the same liberals who might accuse you of racism for having anger toward Muslims will also talk about how hated Americans are in the world. But they never call the American-haters racist or prejudiced. Instead, they tell us that if we would only understand WHY these foreigners hate Americans, we would see that is really our own fault and that the foreigners are justified in their hatred. Another double-standard?

To: Suma who wrote (90781)	12/6/2004 5:14:43 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Why were you angry at them? Did they do something to you?

To: Suma who wrote (90781)	12/6/2004 9:01:37 PM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

It sounds like a normal reaction to me. I had the same feeling when I was waiting in a line that circled around and snaked in several different directions and took two hours for me to get to the desk, and I missed my flight. All this time a woman wearing a burka orbited this entire mess. Her behavior was perfectly normal, but did I remember what happened one month before at the World Trade Center. Hell yes, I did! Sorry Grainne. I'm not excusing my reactions, just describing them.

To: Suma who wrote (90781)	12/7/2004 1:47:31 AM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

Well, let's see. Feelings are the immediate, gut level, unedited, spontaneous part of us, and sometimes instinctive fear is a part of that early reaction. I think a lot of us are terrified because the world seems like is crashing around us right now, and in our society at least, everyone is blaming the Muslims. Of course in Muslim countries, or communities, the Americans are to blame, so certainly there is prejudice going on everywhere. Did you still feel the same way once you were able to remove yourself from the situation and think more rationally? You sound like a basically liberal, open-minded person, and it seems like your reaction may have scared you a little. I was watching cable news while I got dressed this morning, and someone--I think a famous general but I'm not sure because I wasn't paying full attention--said that he thought the reason there had been no recent attacks in America is that the American Muslim community really was not helping the terrorists much (unlike the European Muslims). I had not thought of it that way, and it was a little bit reassuring to me. When I see Muslim women I have not had time to be angry or afraid of them because my first, overwhelming feeling is that I am so sorry for them, all covered up and stuck in such a subservient role in a male-dominated religion. The little girls at the bus stop are particularly striking to me, because they have the happy energy of children everywhere, but I know they will lose that, and it seems so wasteful.