Sunday, December 13, 2015

So there was a shooting in California recently...

I'm not post any links to the San Bernardino shootings. Violence is inherently evil. Even more so in the name of religion. What happened was a senseless act, perpetrated by a radicalised lone wolf, imo. I'm not really going to say what I think about it,  mainly because I've posted it before. But what I find just as disturbing has been sine of the responses. First of all is the blame all the Muslims response. The shooters were inspired by ISIL. People who would blame all the Muslims need to understand that the majority of ISIL's victims are Muslim themselves. There are those who would ban Muslim immigration and the refugees coming in from Syria. I've seen one post on Facebook try to pull a law out of context to make it seem that Islam is illegal, never minding that the 1st amendment to the constitution specifically guarantees freedom of religion. I may not agree with the faith that you practice, but I will defend your right to practice it.  I've seen enough anti-muslim posts on Facebook. I've permanently filtered a couple of people. Maybe I should start unfriending people, and reporting posts as hate speech. ...

I'm not trying to justify the shootings. But blaming all of Islam fit the actions of ISIL is like judging all of Christianity for the actions of the KKK or Westboro Baptist Church.

I guess it boils down to being the price of freedom. You have the right to free speech. It also means that people with different opinions can express them. You have the right to practice the faith of your choice. It also means that your neighbors can worship according to their conscience as well. I'm free. You're free. Our neighbors are free. We don't have to be the same. We just have to get along....

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