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Remembering... One day later
Sep. 12th, 2010 06:03 pmI didn't really forget that yesterday was the anniversary of 9/11, but I've been especially tied up in knots due to That Time of The Month, thus I spent a good part of the day yesterday, curled up under my bed covers, napping and reading, with my plush Eeyore snuggled up beside me. I've been reviewing his canon, preparatory to jntro'ing the little Woobie at a certain Mansion, plus, I just needed some comfort reading.
This anniversary of 9/11 has been an especially troubling one: too many controversies, between the people protesting the Cordoba Initiatives' plan to build an Islamic cultural center in the vicinity of the site of the WTC towers. I'm generally neutral on the subject, but if I had to pick one or the other, I would be in favor of it. To bar this group, which is trying to build a bridge between Muslims and non-Muslims, from building is, to me, somewhat if an act of discrimination. People need to just get it through their heads that not all Muslims are terrorists, that the majority of them are good people who mean no harm to their neighbors, and who are just as appalled by the terrorists as we are, maybe even moreso, since these creeps have put a huge, glaring blot on the face of their faith community and their belief system.
Just as disgusting is the so-called "Christian" group in Florida who wanted yesterday declared "burn a Qu'ran day". Major League Do Not Want. One does *NOT* burn the sacred text of another religion. Would they want some non-Chrustian group burning copies of the Bible? I haven't done it yet, but I plan, in the next 24 hours, to film myself hugging my own copy of the Qu'ran and apologizing to it, and then post the vid online. Yes, I have a copy of the Qu'ran: I got it years ago at a library book sale, when I was taking a comparative religion class in high school; and trust me, as soon as I heard about the wonks who wanted to burn the Qu'ran, I dug my copy out and gave it a reassuring pat. I don't doubt I'll likely get some flack over it, but that's why YouTube allows you to moderate the comments. People are free to disagree with me on things, but if they're going to slam a gesture of good will, they need to learn some manners.
I think I'm feeling this more keenly this year than ever before, since I went head to head with an Islamophobic friend of my mother's on FaceBook. Granted, I kind if out my foot in it, when I got tired of her nearly constant negative posting about the Cordoba Initiative, and I posted a comment in which I disagreed with her. But this kind of thinking does not honor the memory of the 9/11 victims. If anything, it makes them victims all over again, since their deaths, rather than inspiring people to defend America against the thugs who attacked us, instead whips them up into the kind of foam at the mouth hate rhetoric that inspired the terrorists. It causes people to become no better than the monsters who harmed us. Is that any way to honor the victims? No. A thousand times, no. The victims of 9/11 would likely rather that we forgave our attackers, even as we defend ourselves, but I think they would be disgusted if they could hear the kind of hate speech being spewed, allegedly in their name. Even as I pray for the souls of the victims of 9/11, I pray also for a change of heart for those who let their anger get in the way of their ability to heal.
This anniversary of 9/11 has been an especially troubling one: too many controversies, between the people protesting the Cordoba Initiatives' plan to build an Islamic cultural center in the vicinity of the site of the WTC towers. I'm generally neutral on the subject, but if I had to pick one or the other, I would be in favor of it. To bar this group, which is trying to build a bridge between Muslims and non-Muslims, from building is, to me, somewhat if an act of discrimination. People need to just get it through their heads that not all Muslims are terrorists, that the majority of them are good people who mean no harm to their neighbors, and who are just as appalled by the terrorists as we are, maybe even moreso, since these creeps have put a huge, glaring blot on the face of their faith community and their belief system.
Just as disgusting is the so-called "Christian" group in Florida who wanted yesterday declared "burn a Qu'ran day". Major League Do Not Want. One does *NOT* burn the sacred text of another religion. Would they want some non-Chrustian group burning copies of the Bible? I haven't done it yet, but I plan, in the next 24 hours, to film myself hugging my own copy of the Qu'ran and apologizing to it, and then post the vid online. Yes, I have a copy of the Qu'ran: I got it years ago at a library book sale, when I was taking a comparative religion class in high school; and trust me, as soon as I heard about the wonks who wanted to burn the Qu'ran, I dug my copy out and gave it a reassuring pat. I don't doubt I'll likely get some flack over it, but that's why YouTube allows you to moderate the comments. People are free to disagree with me on things, but if they're going to slam a gesture of good will, they need to learn some manners.
I think I'm feeling this more keenly this year than ever before, since I went head to head with an Islamophobic friend of my mother's on FaceBook. Granted, I kind if out my foot in it, when I got tired of her nearly constant negative posting about the Cordoba Initiative, and I posted a comment in which I disagreed with her. But this kind of thinking does not honor the memory of the 9/11 victims. If anything, it makes them victims all over again, since their deaths, rather than inspiring people to defend America against the thugs who attacked us, instead whips them up into the kind of foam at the mouth hate rhetoric that inspired the terrorists. It causes people to become no better than the monsters who harmed us. Is that any way to honor the victims? No. A thousand times, no. The victims of 9/11 would likely rather that we forgave our attackers, even as we defend ourselves, but I think they would be disgusted if they could hear the kind of hate speech being spewed, allegedly in their name. Even as I pray for the souls of the victims of 9/11, I pray also for a change of heart for those who let their anger get in the way of their ability to heal.
