robot-heart-politics:

twodestinations:

I’ve been trying very hard for the last ten years to not look at Muslims any differently or in any sort of negative light since the majority of them are innocent people. But the more I learn about 9/11 (I was seven when it happened and I just turned seventeen this past Labor Day), the more specials I watch (I swear I’ve seen them all), and the more I allow myself to feel, the more I fight the urge to hate. And anyone who can honestly say that their opinions on the Middle East and Muslims as a whole was significantly altered that day is a liar or the worst fucking American out there.

My World Affairs class is seriously depressing me every day before lunch.

I can honestly say my opinions on the Middle East and Muslims were not significantly altered by 9/11. I don’t have positive opinions of the people who actually committed the attacks or the organizations involved that actually helped them happen. But all Muslims? Every predominantly Muslim country (because not all are in the Middle East)? Um…no.

It would be sort of like if I went, “Oh, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael and Lori Fortier—a bunch of white people—blew up (or helped to blow up) a building and killed hundreds of people. Guess I can’t trust white people anymore!” Do you think that way about white people because of Timothy McVeigh? Or do you take the logical approach, look around at all the nice, non-mass-murdering white people, and go, “Well, obviously, we aren’t all that bad, so it must just be a problem with some individuals, not the entire group”? My guess is the latter. Because that’s the only conclusion that makes any fucking sense.

If the only thing you are going on when building your opinions of Muslims is 9/11 and specials on terrorism, then obviously, you’re going to have a pretty distorted vision of the more than one billion people in the world who identify as Muslim. You are basing your opinion on all Muslims on the actions of the few thousand who are terrorists and utterly ignoring the 1,000,000,0000+ other Muslims who aren’t fucking terrorists (to put that into perspective.) Why don’t you try actually seeking out information about Muslims that doesn‘t come from something specifically geared to talk about terrorism? Or getting to know some Muslims in your real life, so you can see that they aren’t all out to destroy America? Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t feel the way you do about them. 

So, no, my feelings on Muslims haven’t changed. I’m not a liar, and if I’m the worst American ever…well, can I just point you back to Timothy McVeigh? Because I’d really like to think that I’m not as bad as someone who has actually committed mass murder. I just happen to think that bigotry against over a billion people because of the actions of a few thousand is completely irrational and, you know, wrong.

A few more things: 1) No one over the age of 13 thinks the “everyone else is doing it” argument is compelling justification for anything. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong, and you should fucking know better, no matter how many people are doing it. 2) I really, really hate when someone insists their racism is justified because of some bad experience they’ve had with people of another race or group. It’s completely irrational and unconvincing, as I’ve already ranted about at length here. 3) Grow the hell up, and stop looking for reasons to make yourself feel better about holding bigoted opinions of other human beings. There is no justification for bigotry.

What robot said.

(Source: harbor-boulevard)