Muslim-owned stores, places of worship and schools have been attacked and vandalized in a ludicrous and misdirected display of vengeance. It is our duty to address this issue with sensitivity and enlightenment, for the criminals responsible for these acts are indeed lacking light.
Racism and prejudice are based on ignorance.
My struggle with race relations began when I was in preschool. One of my first friends was a very nice black child named Kenny. I can even remember my feelings when I first met him. My mother reminds me with laughs. I came home from school that day and I told my mother �I met a new friend today!�
�His name�s Kenny and he�s a brown boy!� My mother told me that he was called black, but I insisted many times that I knew he was brown for sure.
Recalling these vivid experiences, I found it amusing when a so-called sociologist expert explained to me that �all people are racist and prejudice to some extent and we are all striving for tolerance and support of diversity.� I was laughing so hard inside because a truth that was so simple and clear to me could not even penetrate the intellect of a so-called expert.
It may sound odd, but there are a number of times from my childhood that ring out as clear as day in my memory and my experience with Kenny was one of them. I was intrigued by him because he looked so different from most of my class. Indeed, my child-like mind only recognized the physical difference between us, and I expressed to my mother how excited I was to befriend this unique person.
My fascination with Kenny ended quickly when I was invited to his birthday party. All of his other friends were black. A few of the boys no doubt had racist parents, because I was ostracized and picked on. My father was there. I remember that he said he was proud of me for standing up for myself. When I had been picked on enough and shoved by one of the boys, I began crying and I punched him. Children are not born with racial slurs coming from their mouths. In fact, my initial reaction to Kenny was surely a result of my parent�s early suggestions that all races are made of the same stuff.
Nevertheless, this and other negative encounters caused me to take on prejudice. As time moved on, and I befriended Arabic, African, Asian, Indian and Hispanic people, my fears began to subside. Instead of associating my poor treatment with race, I slowly associated my negative experiences with only the individuals responsible. My experiences are too numerous to list, but by analyzing them, I have determined the basis of prejudice.
Prejudice is an irrational tendency based on rational fears. We are not born prejudiced. The mind of a child is a sponge, innocent and beautiful.
It is shaped by what it observes and experiences. When you�ve only known a small group of Arabic people and they�ve all treated you like dirt, as a child, you will generalize these people and prejudice is formed. There are adults in our country who have developed prejudice and have not grown out of it. How else can you describe the mind of an adult when it still operates as a child�s mind? This is ignorance.
When McVeigh was the terrorist at hand, we didn�t vandalize Christian churches and curse out white people. Why? Look at the census. Being in a predominantly white society, your chances of dealing with good and bad white people increase. Why does racism centralize in areas where there is a lack of diversity (i.e. Ghettos and rural America?) The lack of diverse experience and communication perpetuates the fears that cause prejudice.
When Stalin killed more than 50 million innocent people in the name of Atheism and Communism, did we ostracize Atheists? Likewise, when Napoleon�s Atheist army tore across the world in a pillaging and raping band of demons, did we blame lack of religion for such atrocity?
Islam is a beautiful and peaceful religion. A dear friend of mine is a Muslim from Sudan and his marriage is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed. This is the power of religion in good practice.
What you have seen is an isolated group of ignorant radicals committing a heinous act. They do not represent Islam, and you should not associate their behavior with Arabic or Muslim people.