champion said:
Why is it so dangerous for a man to be anti-semetic, but quite ok for him to be anti-islamic?
Champion, I can answer this as a practical thing, but you should understand that my view is not this:
1. Anti-Semitism has resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews in a very obvious and (to everyone except a few kooks) undeniable way. Jews have no record of a destructive nature in our history. Therefore, anti-Semitism is bad.
2. Anti-Islamism has not resulted in genocide, and there is a history here of Muslims destroying things in this country. Therefore, many people will turn a blind eye to anti-Islamism.
Personally, I don't think it's ok to be anti-Semetic or anti-Islamic.
But at the moment, these practical reasons leave a lot of my countrymen able to ignore the one form of prejudice. They are hurt, they are confused, they are ignorant about Islam now and its history and teachings, and they are motivated by fear and anger, not compassion and curiousity.
If Islam had not been "hijacked", as it so obviously has, we would still have prejudice to work on, because there's still a lack of understanding. But there would be no personal anger behind that prejudice either. There would be some fear, as there is always fear of the "different."
I do what I can in my daily life to encourage people to take a serious and objective look at what Muhammad taught and the example of His life, because that does a lot to encourage people to overcome their prejudice. I believe I have a moral responsibility to do this where I can.
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing I can do to keep people from hijacking Islam for these obviously anti-Islamic things they are doing. I suspect only Muslims will be able to put a stop to it.
I realize that many Muslims live in conditions of oppression, often going back to the colonial era. There are two basic approaches one can take to "fighting" oppression. One is the way Ghandi and European Jews and Martin Luther King took -- non-violence.
Muslims seem to have taken the other path.
I'm not saying they would have been better off taking a non-violent path. I don't know anywhere near enough to say any such thing. I only observe that non-violence doesn't appear to have been the choice.
But again, as a practical matter, people who take the path of violence must understand that some of that violence will be turned back at them. They must be prepared to pay such a price, because it always is paid.
Jesus said it well when He said to Peter, "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword."
We all would do well to remember this. As individuals, and our govts also. As individuals, we can remind our gov'ts. But they may or may not pay attention to what we have to say. Gov'ts have their own agendas, even in democracies.