The Ground Zero mosque debate is getting old, I know.
When it started eating up sections of newspapers and consuming chunks of airtime on all the news networks, I rolled my eyes, thinking the debate would be over soon.
After living peacefully and happily in a 98 percent Muslim country this summer and having several Muslim friends in Auburn, Muslim-phobia seemed irrational.
Surely, I assumed, everyone knew terrorists are not representative of an entire culture or religion, just as Christian extremists like the Westboro Baptist church crazies don't represent the United States or the Christian church as a whole.
So, I'll admit, I didn't follow the debate much.
I understand the sensitivity of the issue, butI thought it was soley based on the proximity of the mosque to Ground Zero and would blow over quickly.
Then, a couple of weeks ago in my agriculture law class, I was shaken into the sad reality of the seriousness of the ignorance pervading our culture.
We were discussing the First Amendment.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."
The discussion quickly turned from interpreting the Constitution in relation to the Ground Zero mosque to my classmates raising their hands to spew regurgitated, uninformed assumptions about Muslims out to the rest of the class.
For example, one of my classmates said that Muslims make it a goal to reproduce faster than the culture they immigrate into as a means of increasing their influence in society.
He gave an example, claiming that Muslims in Europe reproduce five times as much as the Europeans they live among.
I have also traveled to Europe, where there is a negative birth rate because abortion and birth control (neither of which are encouraged in traditional Islam).
I don't think that equates to Muslims strategically out producing Europeans.
However, being uninformed isn't what pisses me off.
What makes me livid is the perversion of Christian teachings into a holy war against Muslims.
Another classmate actually said (I'm paraphrasing), "I think we should let them build (the mosque) so they have to pay taxes on it. That'll just give us more money to build bombs to go blow 'em up with."
Others in the class who previously talked about their Christian faith chuckled.
I will ask you the same questions I asked my class following this comment.
Have you ever actually talked with a Muslim?
Are you remembering these people are all mothers, daughters, brothers and friends, just like you?
Are there not Muslim Americans who are as patriotic as you are?
Aren't there crazy, radical people in every culture, religion and race?
We need to evaluate what we say before we say it.
How can we justify defending our "Christian values," yet speak of "blowing people up" who have never heard the truth of Jesus' message?
Ethnocentric, arrogant, uninformed attitudes and opinions are not appealing, and they certainly don't promote peace, spread the Gospel or ensure national security.
Travel.
Talk to people.
Don't hate.
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