How would you feel if you were a Muslim and the whole world is accusing you of being a terrorist?

probably frustrated and angry.

Good question. I would feel scared. Just thinking about having the entire world out to get you for something you haven’t done. Many Muslims just go about there daily business and are afraid of Terrorist more so than you and I because these attacks are happening in their own back yard. Even moving away from it all to places like America or Australia and still finding un-justified persecution would just make me afraid of what misguided people might do.

If we put as much time into making an effort to genuinely understand the faith, the cultures that have embraced it, and the history of the region, our world would be a so much better place today.

Reacting out of fear and clannishness is tribalism. It seems to be pretty basic to us humans, but it would be nice if here in the 21st century, we made more effort to think with our frontal lobes rather than our dinosaur brains.

I would like to add that my answer would have been the same without the Muslim bit in the question.

It’s difficult to argue that tribalism is over in our era. The rule of law is a very
new idea, a recent developmental step. We’re not entirely broken into it yet.
We look at people for whom literal tribalism is normal, and we find it “primitive”,
but we can’t separate ourselves from that. Everyone participates in it. “They” do it; “we” do it.
Dinosaur brains…. I dunno. It’s pretty mixed.

…“the whole world?”

@felipelavinz I just used it to generalized that a lot of countries in the world, more than the majority. I’m just exaggerating of course with this statement, which I know is not true

I am more scared of Catholics. Muslims are not the ones using religion to start wars or to police oil traffic.

@edmartin101: it was a rhetoric question; I supposed that you don’t literally mean “the whole world”, I just wanted to question the assumption that there is “a majority” of countries where this is an actual fact… which I still sustain

I can’t imagine what such a situation would be like. From where I stand now, I passionately dislike anyone who justifies any extreme action with religion, equally.

In Dutch there’s this nice word for it: kut.

Just imagine people always acting a bit untrusting towards you. Some people can deal really well with this, but I think I’d be very troubled.

Gotta say – It’s refreshing to see the intelligent responses here. As opposed to what I have heard in the real world (which is dismissive, angry rhetoric mostly)

I don’t know how many of you out there are Australian but if you’ve heard of the Chasers War on Everything they basically comment on political activities. A correspondent in America interviewed some people about the stats around 9/11 and the responses were quite aggravating
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HjtdxcNsRCM

I was just looking at a great new “semi-autobiographical” graphic novel on just this subject this AM. The title is “Arab in America” (OK, so it’s more about being Arab than being muslim). Here’s a link.

@joeysefika – doesn’t really mean much to me. I mean – so what, some people forgot the date of the 9/11 (duh :S) attacks. I bet that, if you ask any random person on the streets in the US how many innocent citizens died in the war in Iraq, they wouldn’t know, even though it caused far more victims. And I’d argue it’s also a more important part of the US history, as it really damaged the US’s reputation.

And that’s not even considering the rest of the disasters that take place in the world every day.

@Vincentt I agree. There is a real conspiracy here not to publicize the casualty numbers from the Iraq war, which we must remember had nothing to do with 9/11.

I know that publicly experienced disasters like 9/11 or major plane crashes stick in our collective consciousness, but I have often thought it was a little unfair. Death is death and just as davastating no matter what the cause. Why must we remember or memorialize some more than others?

An interesting question. If the Muslim world wants the rest of us to believe your premise it would behoove them to denounce the terrorists. It’s hard to believe things if no one speaks out. I also have problems with the concept that it’s OK to belittle other beliefs but leave us alone. Every faith seems fair game except the Muslim religion.
Let’s compare this to the Irish Catholic community in the US who sent money to the IRA then denounced violence.
My belief is that more harm is done by omission that commision.
If everyone, and I mean everyone, denounced violence we may have peace. What would happen if everyone prayed in our own way for a world without war?

NVOldGuy, from whom exactly would you like to hear that denouncement of terrorism? Who represents the worldwide, or even the American, Muslim community? Ever since 9/11, I’ve been hearing Muslims denounce terrorism, and I’m not sure why you haven’t heard that.

How do we know people aren’t praying for peace in their own way? Oh, I know, they are not wearing flag pins (the true litmus test of virtue today) like that Muslim* Barack Obama.

*For those in doubt, the writer is being ironic here, not literal.

i would feel like bombing some infidels!

@joey: that video could be done in any country. Large concentrations of morons are not only in America but all over the world. Education is even worse believe it or not in other countries.