Am I now Supposed to Hate All Muslims?

I try to be a good citizen., I try to stay on top of what is going on in the world and what is important and what is trite. But what I have the most problem with is keeping up on what is the current topic of rage and hatred. Throughout my life and at different times it has been popular to hate, or at least to intensely dislike, various groups and organizations that were either a threat to the world, to society, or to the American way of life. The hard part has been in keeping up with the state of these groups, why I should hate them, and if I do, in fact, really hate them. The first step in determining who I should hate, and how much I should hate them, is the research into what any group of humans are all about. Popular today is the trend to hate all things Muslim, but I have a few problems with that.

For some reason, or many reasons, there are those who feel that being a Muslim, in and of itself, makes one a bad person. That, of course, is quite problematic because it is not clear to me how to quickly identify a person as Muslim. To my knowledge Muslims do not have a unique appearance . They do not dress in a specific way, nor do they immediately identify themselves by walking up, extending a hand and stating, “Hi, I am a Muslim”. The problem becomes then one of identification. Before I can hate, I must make sure the person is a member of the group that I am supposed to hate. But even if it were easy to identify a Muslim, the next question I have is why, why should I hate them? Should I hate all Muslims, some Muslims, or no Muslims.

I have been given a lot of reasons to hate Muslims, I have verified that some of those reasons are valid and certainly worth of my hate. But, those things seem to only be attributable to some Muslims, not all Muslims. For example, I do believe that some Muslims truly want to destroy the western world. But I also believe that not all Muslims want to destroy the western world, particularly since some Muslims live in, and make their living in the Western World. To destroy the world one lives in does seem counter productive to me. I guess the first step I must take, since I am supposed to hate Muslims, is to decide what a Muslim is. I have already figured out I can not readily identify a Muslim based on appearance alone, so I must look deeper. I must look at what a Muslim is that makes them something worthy of my hate. A good place to start would be to look at their religion.

I know that Muslims belong to the Islāmic faith. I also know that the Islāmic Faith is a faith that believes in a higher power and in fact, has the same roots as Judaism and Christianity in that all can trace their roots back to Abraham. So, being a Christian myself, the first identifier tells me I have something in common with Muslims. I guess I cannot hate them for the roots of their religion. I must admit, I have not read the Quran so I cannot comment on the contents of that tome to determine if it is, or is not, a guide to the radicalization of Muslims. But then, I have not read but a little of the Holy Bible, which I am told, was a guide to the radicalization of Catholics and other Christian groups that have a history that may not be as christian like as one would hope.

I am really not as obtuse as this would make me seem. The point is, I guess, that is wrong to blanket hate a group of people based solely on their religion, or their race, or their nationality. I must have something more concrete than that to cause me to completely distrust them. I am fully aware that some segments of the Muslim world are a true threat to our way of life. I am fully aware that a radicalized Muslim could be in the same mall as I am and while I am trying to not look at the display in the Victoria Secret store, he is trying to work up the courage to set off the bomb. The thing is, I cannot identify that person and I refuse to hide behind closed doors because that person might be out there. I also refuse to be afraid of my shadow because it may have converted to Islam when I was not looking. Life is too short to waste it fearing and hating that which I do not know or understand.

I do not know who is a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Catholic, or anything else, until I get to know them. I have known Muslims and I am still here to talk about it. That doesn’t mean the next Muslim I meet is not going to pull the pin, but then it also does not mean that the next Christian or Jew that I meet is not going to pull the pin. I guess what I am trying to say is that I cannot hate a person for being a Muslim any more than I can hate a person for wearing a green hat. I need to know the person and then maybe. If a person is a criminal, who happens to be a Muslim, I focus my rage on their criminality, not their faith. I choose to not be a member of any hate group, Organized hate of any kind is destructive and counter productive to humanity. I choose to not hate, won’t you join me?
Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

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