I really appreciate it when people try to critique their own communities in the hopes that they can help improve those communities. I think that's just about the hardest and one of the more loving...
I really appreciate it when people try to critique their own communities in the hopes that they can help improve those communities. I think that's just about the hardest and one of the more loving things a thoughtful person can do. I read Irshad Manji's book-form of her essays (god this is going to show some of my age) shortly after the revised edition was published. At that point we were three or four years into the Iraq war, there was no real end in sight, and I was just starting to grapple with the idea of a group of nations who contained significant populations of people who uncritically wished to do me harm. But at the same time, I wasn't willing to write them off as something other than people, suffering and trying to improve their lives.
I still don't know exactly where I fall on these types of questions. I think we have to adopt a sort of reformist stance when it comes to a lot of the ideas that are popular in Islam. Fortunately, I think a lot of American Muslims are willing to engage in that sort of necessary dialogue (at least, most stories I hear and most Muslims I know are). It is simply true that Muslims in parts of the world are taught to use their religion to hate people who live in the West, and they often include Western Muslims in that list of people they hate.
I think we keep missing meaningful opportunities to talk about sensible approaches to addressing the ever-present threat of modern terrorism. It is easier to radicalize. It is easier to do damage in a way that gets massive coverage easier too. And also importantly, it doesn't directly harm many people outside of the media scare. I don't see that huge a distinction between school shootings in the US and Islamist violence in Europe in terms of their root causes and how media coverage often works to create greater incentive for copycats to follow suit.
I really appreciate it when people try to critique their own communities in the hopes that they can help improve those communities. I think that's just about the hardest and one of the more loving things a thoughtful person can do. I read Irshad Manji's book-form of her essays (god this is going to show some of my age) shortly after the revised edition was published. At that point we were three or four years into the Iraq war, there was no real end in sight, and I was just starting to grapple with the idea of a group of nations who contained significant populations of people who uncritically wished to do me harm. But at the same time, I wasn't willing to write them off as something other than people, suffering and trying to improve their lives.
I still don't know exactly where I fall on these types of questions. I think we have to adopt a sort of reformist stance when it comes to a lot of the ideas that are popular in Islam. Fortunately, I think a lot of American Muslims are willing to engage in that sort of necessary dialogue (at least, most stories I hear and most Muslims I know are). It is simply true that Muslims in parts of the world are taught to use their religion to hate people who live in the West, and they often include Western Muslims in that list of people they hate.
I think we keep missing meaningful opportunities to talk about sensible approaches to addressing the ever-present threat of modern terrorism. It is easier to radicalize. It is easier to do damage in a way that gets massive coverage easier too. And also importantly, it doesn't directly harm many people outside of the media scare. I don't see that huge a distinction between school shootings in the US and Islamist violence in Europe in terms of their root causes and how media coverage often works to create greater incentive for copycats to follow suit.