Which stands for More about Muslims. I'm a little gunshy at the moment, so I don't want to be really obvious about using the word.
This is the result of receiving an intense response (more like a diatribe) to my earlier post. I was seriously glad that this person didn't know my actual name or address, once I read what he wrote. He didn't threaten me, exactly -- but he did mention the idea that things might be different if as many people died here from violence as have died in Iraq, and the laundry list of countries he said we'd invaded. He rambled on about how Americans view the world as nice, and it isn't, tough, live with it. He ended his note by saying Peace, but somehow I doubt he meant it. At least, to me.
I asked two people I trust what to make of his response. One said that this was why she never argued with fundamentalist Christians, because so far as they were concerned, either she wasn't a good enough Christian, or she didn't truly understand what the bible said. The other said that this was a young, zealous Muslim, and sometimes they go over the line just to see if they can push you around in an argument. I didn't like learning that. I appreciated the honesty, but knowing that this was even possible made me feel like a sap for being a moderate.
A little gunshy.
6 comments:
ANd that's why it's said not to discuss politics or religion. People are very passionate about the two, and can go so far as to hurt, threaten, and degrade someone else or their beliefs.
I was raised in a Christian home .. was forced to go to church twice a week for 16 years and my only escape was finding a job that MADE me work Sundays. lol
I made the mistake of entering into a conversation which later turned into a huge debate with a friend of a friend. It didn't end well and I sat there wondering if my 16 years of nothing but bible studying was worth the way I felt by being defeated by someone that had only studied the bible for a couple years.
I think that the bottom line is, you get from religion what you are looking for. I'm not particularly religious, but I respect those who are -- like my wife, who gets a great deal of comfort from it. I think if you're looking for a chance to one-up people, the bible is a great place to find trivia -- but in my mind, thats not what religion is about. If they made you feel defeated, then they're not being religious, but combative -- which is how I felt about this guy.
I would like to say that at least he meant it (ie, really believed in his religion) but I am not sure that he did (ie, was it just an intellectual toy), and if he did, did he believe it enough to come slit my throat if thats what he thought it called for. He might find it quite humorous that I think that a real possibility, but I don't -- and I did.
I still would like to understand more about Muslims -- I'm kind of amazed at how real many of them sound, how honest and caring, how much they strive for perfection according to the religious path they've chosen -- but I think that I'll be doing less commenting on their blogs. Or I'll create another electronic persona, separate from this one, for the purpose.
Hi Bill,
It is unfortunate that you had a bad experience, but know that most Muslims are not like that. I hope in order to counteract that bad experience you have some very good experiences in the future.
Somehow I deleted your comment because it had went into my spam (this happens periodically, which is why I go through my spam, but I still lost it).
To access my feed, go to the end of my sidebar under the search box, and there is a Meta box. Click on RSS Entries, and you can subscribe there; it will subscribe you to the posts. RSS Comments will subscribe you to the comments for the post.
Thanks for stopping by again, and taking an interest in my blog. It is very nice to meet others who appreciate poetry.
I will be checking back regularly.
Blessings to you and peace.
Its not so much that I think most Muslims aren't like that; I think that most PEOPLE aren't like that. But its hard to tell the well-meaners from the hostiles when they're shouting at you.
Thanks for the information about the poetry. I am not a huge poetry fan, but I liked much of what I read on your site.
I should have noticed the RSS info. I got used to simply looking on the URL for the RSS symbol!
In defense of that commenter, I think he is actually quite harmless and if you two met would be able to get along rather easily.
I grew up in predominantly white college town and on more than one occasion people that I later became friends with would tell me that the first time they saw me, they thought I was scary or that I would beat them up or something without even speaking to me. I suppose this is a byproduct of the vestiges of racism which permeate our society and their lack of interaction with black people because I'm pretty non-violent.
Maybe. I'm a pretty non-confrontational sort of person.
If they thought you were scary because you're black, and they didn't know very many black people, yeah, I agree with you. I think we tend to assume the worst about people and styles we don't know because we're so often hit with images of people we don't know doing some pretty awful things.
Course, there's always the classic 'but he seemed like such a nice person' who ends up being the mass murderer.
Its safer not to take chances, as a rule. I think thats sad, but I don't have the fortitude to do anything about it -- except what I'm doing. And yes, I did think about stopping, just because of that one response. Does that make me chicken? Could be. The older I get, the less adventurous I get -- and I wasn't all that very much adventurous to begin with.
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