Muslim World Image

[Gesslar]

I have worked and do work with many many Muslims and find that they are pretty decent people. I don't think Islam (like Christianity) is best represented by extremists. I think that it's the extremists we see most prominently because, well, that's the point isn't it?

Beheading people, suicidal bombings, oppression- none of these concepts are actually part of the faith of Islam. They are, however, tools used by extremists which are excused (internally) (internally to the groups and individuals themselves) as being committed in the name of the religion. So, it's okay. To them.

If you have interest in this topic, I have recently heard of an episode of a podcast called "Islam for Dummies". It's about an hour long and I've been listening to it and find it interesting. It's a group of guys asking a Muslim some of the questions that one thinks of when they think about Islam. Interesting show.

http://www.thephileasclub.com/2009/0...m-for-dummies/

Do you ever get tired of thinking in stereotypes and inaccuracies? I know I do, and my knowledge of Islam certainly is vague… but here’s an idea: how about sitting down with a Muslim and asking him all sorts of candid questions? Simple enough, right? But maybe you don’t have a Muslim right next door to ask him yourself. Well, fear not! The Phileas Club is here to help.

Also, I just wanted to re-iterate that we see what our media wants us to see. You can imagine a Muslim's view of the West if they thought it was all like Alabama, or all Christian priests like rape little boys, or every woman is a hooker. These are about as categorically true as what we take to be "true" about Muslim nations. How many murders, prisoners do we have in North America for violent crimes? The cops can't keep up with internet pedophilia, almost everything they see in the media (and quite frankly everything -I- see in the media) coming from the West is one big downward spiral into hell. Why -wouldn't- they feel their faith is better? A lot of the things highlighted as atrocities are as anomalous to their faith as a faith as the brief list above of Western transgressions unto itself are anomalous of -our- faiths. Both sides need to stop feeling superior, and as a result, no, I don't think their public image is going to improve much because neither side is interested in debasing itself because each is just so justifiably better than the other.

A little objectivity wouldn't hurt.