Some time last night someone wrote "Osama today, Islam tomorow (sic)," "Long live the West" and "Free Cyprus" on the Maine Muslim Community Center, after the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death. I'm not going to point out the obvious unintelligence of the graffitti "artist" (please, note that "tomorow" is misspelled), but they must have also failed to hear President Obama's amazing speech where he discussed and repeated that this is "not a war on Islam," or that in fact bin Laden had killed thousands of Muslims all over the world (including our own country).
Are we not beyond the time in WWII, where we found it necessary to imprison an entire group of Americans based on their ethnicity because of a terrorist attack. I'm referencing, of course, the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Have we not learned from our mistakes that this treatment of a minority is both unjust and ineffective?
Well, apparently some Americans are still stuck in an era, when women were expected to stay home and raise children and African Americans were expected to sit in the back of the bus. But, tell me, when has it ever been okay to let a minority of extremists define the majority?
I mean. . . let's face the facts: If we defined Christianity by the KKK (who's members believe it embodies Christian ideals) then we'd be a bunch of anti-Semite murderers with white-superiority complexes. And besides the Neo-Nazis and the Westboro Baptist Church, I don't think that applies to the majority of Christians. Granted I can't really speak for anyone but myself, but I most certainty hope I am not in the minority.
But the point of this post was not to argue Christianity vs. Islam, or which one is more misrepresented. This post is to talk about America, which is something I don't do too often. I'm usually pretty embarrassed by my country, whether it's from our inane coverage of celebrities' lives or our disgusting amount of wastefullness. I have friends all over the world and they often ask me, "What's up with America? Are they just in their own little world?" And usually my answer is "Yeah, we are."
But last night I was so proud of the way our President handled the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death. He could have been like "YEAH USA! USA!" but he didn't once rejoice this man's death. He took this moment in history to remember those lost and still suffering from the tragedy of September 11th, nearly a decade ago, and what it really means to be Americans and come together as a nation. It was one of the most amazing speeches I have ever seen in my lifetime.
And then for narrow-minded, bigotted idiots to go around to a mosque and vandalize it with such hateful words. . . I just. . . I felt ashamed. I felt ashamed to be associated with these people, because they probably think they're doing the "Christian" thing.
Islam is not the problem here. Hate is. Hatred toward a group of people. That's what fueled Osama bin Laden's campaign of terrorism, not religion. Any Muslim will tell you that he took a twisted view of Islam and used it to corrupt. The same way Christianity has been used time and time again over the centurites to instill fear and hate in people's hearts about people who are "unclean" or "un-Holy."
All religions say the same thing in the heart of their message: Treat others like you want to be treated. It's in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hindism, Taoism, and dozens of other religions.
I don't think I'd want someone to come to my church and write: KKK Today, Christianity Tomorrow!
Because the KKK understands Christianity no more than bin Laden understood Islam. And associating the two is arrogant as well as insulting.
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