A special Venn diagram to pass on to any Islamophobes you may know...
(ISIS is included within the red dot, if anyone wants to update it to add them feel free)
Adding an article that Marmar posted back in DU2, which I found when looking earlier for this diagram.
The Lies of Islamophobia: The Three Unfinished Wars of the West against the Rest
from TomDispatch:
The Lies of Islamophobia
The Three Unfinished Wars of the West against the Rest
By John Feffer
The Muslims were bloodthirsty and treacherous. They conducted a sneak attack against the French army and slaughtered every single soldier, 20,000 in all. More than 1,000 years ago, in the mountain passes of Spain, the Muslim horde cut down the finest soldiers in Charlemagne’s command, including his brave nephew Roland. Then, according to the famous poem that immortalized the tragedy, Charlemagne exacted his revenge by routing the entire Muslim army.
The Song of Roland, an eleventh century rendering in verse of an eighth century battle, is a staple of Western Civilization classes at colleges around the country. A “masterpiece of epic drama,” in the words of its renowned translator Dorothy Sayers, it provides a handy preface for students before they delve into readings on the Crusades that began in 1095. More ominously, the poem has schooled generations of Judeo-Christians to view Muslims as perfidious enemies who once threatened the very foundations of Western civilization.
The problem, however, is that the whole epic is built on a curious falsehood. The army that fell upon Roland and his Frankish soldiers was not Muslim at all. In the real battle of 778, the slayers of the Franks were Christian Basques furious at Charlemagne for pillaging their city of Pamplona. Not epic at all, the battle emerged from a parochial dispute in the complex wars of medieval Spain. Only later, as kings and popes and knights prepared to do battle in the First Crusade, did an anonymous bard repurpose the text to serve the needs of an emerging cross-against-crescent holy war.
....(snip)....
The Crusades Continue
With their irrational fear of spiders, arachnophobes are scared of both harmless daddy longlegs and poisonous brown recluse spiders. In extreme cases, an arachnophobe can break out in a sweat while merely looking at photos of spiders. It is, of course, reasonable to steer clear of black widows. What makes a legitimate fear into an irrational phobia, however, is the tendency to lump all of any group, spiders or humans, into one lethal category and then to exaggerate how threatening they are. Spider bites, after all, are responsible for at most a handful of deaths a year in the United States.
Islamophobia is, similarly, an irrational fear of Islam. Yes, certain Muslim fundamentalists have been responsible for terrorist attacks, certain fantasists about a “global caliphate” continue to plot attacks on perceived enemies, and certain groups like Afghanistan’s Taliban and Somalia’s al-Shabaab practice medieval versions of the religion. But Islamophobes confuse these small parts with the whole and then see terrorist jihad under every Islamic pillow. They break out in a sweat at the mere picture of an imam. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175317/tomgram%3A_john_feffer%2C_crusade_2.0 (the story follows a brief intro)
= new reply since forum marked as read
countries that kill gay people and treat women like possessions.
But of course some lady might get a cat-call from a construction worker in the US today, that's just as bad of course as an "honor killing" with no punishment for the murderers. And yes, US women will be raped today, and when they tell law enforcement they might not do much. But she won't be executed (but you know, we are the west, we don't know good or bad, so maybe she would be better off dead, right?) All cultural practices are equal.
Under the guise of protecting the innocent we kill and displace millions. Why bomb ISIS and not Saudi Arabia?
At least one person here believes we need to "tame the Muslims". Even if we assume our values are better than "Muslims" we have a long way to go taming our own selves before we start taming others.
Again I ask, Why bomb ISIS and not Saudi Arabia? It's about oil and corporate profits and not helping the innocents.
You've got the guts to tell it like it is and I LOVE IT! Thank you!
you'd have better luck than asking absurd questions trying to make a point. Just a suggestion.
Which reach to the core of the problem. Sorry I don't have any answers apart from to say that Indonesia has been doing a good job with reforming and educating the alienated.
Here's one of their recent initiatives...
Indonesia's Government reforming Islamic tertiary education to give students 'broader knowledge'
The chair of Indonesia's taskforce for reforming Islamic education says the government wants to improve the quality of religious teaching in the country.
Dr Jamhari Makruf, who is also the vice rector at the State Islamic University in Jakarta, says the nationwide effort to reform the education system is aimed at providing Muslim students with a "broader knowledge" of the world.
"We are forming our Islamic higher education in order to be part of the national development as a whole," he told Asia Pacific.
"I think it's true that Muslims also should engage in global context and global issues that we're dealing with right now, peace and conflicts, and also democracy and also specific values and also the advancement of technology.
"It used to be their (mobility) is limited only in religious institutions only, such as Islamic education, the Ministry of Religious Affairs or Islamic court, but by giving them a more broader knowledge, then they can be part of the economic development, part of the high-tech development or political development also."
Indonesia's push for Islamic education reform comes amid apparent growing support from militant factions of Indonesia's jihadi community for the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) in Iraq.
Sidney Jones, the director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), says that some Indonesian jihadists, as seen on many extremist websites, are raising money and pledging allegiance to the ISIS.
Dr Makruf acknowledges there are a "small number of Islamic institutions that are teaching radical items".
He says Australia has a role to play in Indonesia's education reform agenda, which encourages more moderate Islamic teachings.
"
Australia) should be part of that because we are good neighbours actually, we are neighbouring and what happens in Australia and what happens in Indonesia will influence each other, that's the basic premise.
"Islamic education actually caters more for girls rather than boys. So I think if Australia's concerned, to alleviate poverty and also to help girls to improve their quality of life, I think Islamic education is the best to invest in that.
"Part of the cause of radicalism in Islamist schools is because they've been neglected by many in the development. If you look at the budget for allocations for Islamist schools before 2003, it's very small."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-17/an-indonesia-govt-reforming-islamic-education/5529344
Islamic states (dark green), states where Islam is the official religion (light green), secular states (blue) and other (orange), among countries with Muslim majority.
