Bigotry, Mistrust, Deception and Hate-Speech
--- Early Signs of Terrorists
(those who harm innocent people)
Dear Friends:
Our heartfelt sympathy and prayers go out to
the victims of the September 11th terrorist attack. We share,
as much as bystanders can, the pain of loss and hardship which
now face the family members of murdered civilians and rescue
workers.... the loss of livelihood of individuals and business
owners in the vicinity of Manhattan and D.C... and for all
people everywhere having to help make sense of this tragedy
to the innocents in their lives. I"m sure I'm like most
of you in having friends or family near at least one of the
attacks --- I was fortunate enough not to lose anyone, however.
May God enrich all your lives with the strength
to carry on; with new wisdom to pass on to others facing trials
in the future; with compassion and reason enough to refrain
from becoming persecuters yourselves when facing those whose
appearance or symbols seem similar to the villains of "ground
0"; and just the right amount of courage to be one of
those who can demonstrate God's love with the warmth of your
embracing arms; the consolation of your carresing hands; and,
the leadership displayed by your upheld head and valliant,
purposeful stride --- May God bless you all.
I know for the most part I would be preaching
to the converted if I called for love of neighbour and humane
action since that is already what we've seen. As a Canadian,
I am highly impressed by the complete lack of looting and
the pervasive spirit of sharing and giving. Especially in
the light of the recent bombing of a Mosque in my neighbouring
province of Quebec --- probably a deluded and wicked means
towards justice for some self-righteous thug. Unfortunately,
too, I have heard rumours of much smaller but none-the-less
mean-spirited assaults and battery against persons perceived
as being similar to the supposed attackers in the USA. For
that reason, I feel the need to expose one of the likely causes
of this disturbing trend --- this completely inappropriate
and uncalled-for abuse and character assassinations.
The culprit is a few bad apples in positions
(even if self-appointed) of responsibility for leading in
attutide and speech - if not action as well. Some very few
"personalities" set in place as either sources of
religious leadership or sources of quality information. And,
unlike these few unscrupulous souls, I will not make these
statements without a few factual examples taken in context.
FrontLine (PBS) presentation on bin Laden:
I'm going to use this as example one representing the media
because, to be fair, PBS has done some of the most balanced,
best presented and thought-out shows on terrorism, bin Laden,
the Muslim world in general and more specifically, now,
the issues surrounding the events of September 11th. And
yet there have consistently been some glaring errors of
ommission and commission even in this latest piece.
In their treatment of the events of September 11th, with
the focus on Muslim issues and bin Laden himself --- including
exerpts from two interviews with him --- the PBS report
gave an incredible amount of insightful information about
who the man is and what his beliefs are and so handilly
represented legitimate Muslim grievances with the USA that
many Muslims have lauded their work - Muslims here of first
and second generations, imigrants, new and old, as well
as a few internationally who were able to see the show.
Now, that said, they still erred in a few ways which should
have been fundamental to a good documentary on any subject
---- especially one which is so timely and rife with dangers.
In fact, right at the outset the narrator can be heard
to actually refer to Muslims at prayer as praying to "their
god". Would he have referred to Jews in a Synagogue,
or Christians in a Church, as praying to "their god"?
No! Obviously he would have described it simply as prayer
to God. This may seem a small thing but it is an assumption
and assumptions which go unchallenged change everyone's
perception about a matter ---- in this case, to some degree,
the documentary sets a tone portraying Muslims as historically
irrelevant to the other two major monotheistic, Abrahamic,
Middle Eastern, prophetic religions of Judaism and Christianity.
At best, not useful; at worst, deceitful and bigotted.
Next, bin Laden's opinions --- albeit shared by many ---
or interpretations of Islamic belief were presented without
comment. There didn't even follow someone, anyone, representing
the vast majority of Muslims, whether Shi'a, Sunni or even
Sufi, who clearly hold that the Qurannic injunction against
warring 1) outside of battlefields; 2) against anyone but
soldiers - especially women and children; and, 3) other
than for self-defense, is disgraceful, cowardly and certainly
un-Godly behaviour. This was clearly a case of passing off
the minority, Fundamentalist view as though it were the
majority opinion. This would be like claiming to make a
documentary about Christianity and only presenting the view
of some of the 1-2% of US Christians (at best) who consider
themselves "Fundamentalist" or drawing from the
5-10% of Fundamentalist Orthodox Christians --- I couldn't
imagine that being done for any reason and I doubt they'd
ever do it either. Again, at best, useless; at worst, unethical
and malicious bias.
The perfect oportunity was missed to enlighten Westerners
as to the disgust shared by most of Islam towards bin Laden
and his ilk. Shameful and unprofessional!
The 700 Club with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell:
Second, and even worse, because there is absolutely
nothing redeeming about this act, is the September 13, 2001
episode of the "700 Club" --- a supposed "news",
informational and inspirational programme for Christians in
the USA. You'd think they'd take this time to lead people
to a more unified, reasonable, responsible and compassionate
attitue but instead we were treated to verbal assaults, hyperbole
and divisive comment.
This example is so blantant that I'll simply
include a partial transcript of what is probably a proud moment
for these distasteful menl. No comment is needed since their
fear-mongering and hate is exposed in plain English:
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT
from: Thursday, September 13, 2001 edition of the "700
Club":
Jerry Falwell: And I agree totally with you
that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225
years. And since 1812, this is the first time that
we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results.
And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of
Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning.
And with biological warfare available to these monsters
- the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats - what we
saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule
if, in fact - if, in fact - God continues to lift the
curtain and allow the enemies of America to
give us probably what we deserve.
Pat Robertson: Jerry, that's my feeling.
I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror.
We haven't even begun to see what
they can do to the major population.
Jerry Falwell: The
ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.
Pat Robertson: Well, yes.
Jerry Falwell: And, I know that I'll hear
from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully
with the help of the federal court system, throwing God
out of the public square, out of the schools. The
abortionists have got to bear some burden for this
because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy
40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I
really believe that the pagans,
and the abortionists, and
the feminists, and the
gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to
make that an alternative lifestyle, the
ACLU, People For the American
Way - all of them who have tried to secularize
America - I point the finger in their face and
say "you helped this happen."
Pat Robertson: Well, I totally concur, and
the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest
levels of our government. And so we're responsible
as a free society for what the top people do. And,
the top people, of course, is the court system.
Jerry Falwell: Pat, did you notice yesterday
the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American
Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats
and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they
went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer
and sang "God Bless America" and said "let
the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the
nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and
spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all
the time - calling upon God.
Pat Robertson: Amen
[just one comment: The People for the American
Way, for one, have told me that all their correspondence includes
an injunction to members and prospective members for "tolerance,
free speech, protection for minorities, equal opportunity,
and freedom for all religious faiths without government intrusion"
--- in other words, the ideal "American Way" and the ideal
"Canadian Way", in fact, it's the ideal "Way" in my opinion...
Apparently it's not Robertson's or Falwell's "Way" - Is it
yours?]
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