After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, I think we all need a little bit of a reminder about who Muslims are (hint - they're NOT terrorists). It drives me insane that we categorize an entire group of people based on the extremist views of some.
As usual, BuzzFeed hits it on the head. Check out their video:
A few weeks ago I posted BuzzFeed's video, "I'm Christian, But I'm Not...," because I felt really strongly that BuzzFeed got it - Christians aren't all hateful. So when the horror of the Paris attacks happened, I was so happy to see this "I'm Muslim, But I'm Not..." video pop up on my Facebook newsfeed.
Again, some people hate the video, and again, I don't see why. I'm not Muslim, and I won't pretend to completely understand their religion -- I'm just not informed enough about it -- but I do know that religions are based on love. The fact that some people took that love and twisted it so completely that it reflected something else entirely... it's just sad. And it's sad that some people honestly can't see how the whole religion is skewed by those extremists.
I saw this post on Facebook the other day:
That last line, though! Really, think about it. What religion is based in terror and fear like that? What religion tells its people to go out and destroy others? Not Islam. Not any religion. So why, oh why, do we discriminate against Muslims as if every one of them was behind 9/11 or the Paris attacks? Why can't we just understand that some very bad people shouldn't ruin our view of everyone else?
The BuzzFeed video basically reminds us that a whole bunch of people who come from different backgrounds can have a common religion and not hate America, or be terrorists. So, watch it a few times if you need help understanding it, but here's the gist: Muslims are not terrorists, even if some terrorists are Muslim.
People are people. And some people are bad people, and some people are good people, and you'll never get to know which is which if you just assume the worst in all people. So let's throw off our ignorance for a change and stand against terrorism... but not against a religion.
Remember - terrorism has no religion.
