The Dehumanization of Humanity

Date: 9/18/2001 As-Salaamu 'Alaikum, Religious fanatics who smoke and drink and party and have girlfriends? Makes sense Muslims who who read the Qur'aan and follow the traditions of Muhammad but don't know that know that to take a single life unjustly is like killing all of mankind? Sure Religious fundamentalists whose duty it is to bring you the message of Islam and who know the Prophet Muhammad did not take revenge on people who stoned him, boycotted and tortured his followers would surely understand that to slaughter people who are not at war with them would make them become Muslim Absolutely People who want sympathy for the cause of oppressed people and the support of the world would commit an act that will undoubtedly turn the entire world against them. Heeey Someone who wants to make sure the world knows he can hurt them at any time and any place would refuse to take credit for it when it happens. Logical A government whose people are suffering terribly and don't even have an infrastructure would assist someone to commit and at that would bring the entire civilized world down on them almost guarantee further destruction of themselves and those around them. Yup Muslims who buy American products, buy and use American technology, whose economies are dependent on the US economy, have families and friends who live and work there and who work side by side with Americans every day certainly want them all to die horrible deaths and become their enemies for life. Sure Maybe a public would buy all the above that has for years largely been...

...blocked from getting the full human picture of who and what Muslims are and what they believe or what they have suffered ...given a steady diet of Muslims as radicals, fanatics, backwards, against technology, ready to die for any old wild eyed preacher with Arnold or whoever blowing them up by the dozens ...told even the Muslim religious intellectuals or scholars are all stuck in the 6th century ...made to believe Islam is a threat to all the values they hold dear with no distinctions made between what it says are destructive or constructive among them ...prevented from seeing the horror that is the life in a refugee camp or a victim of mass slaughter in a camp or a village ...blocked from hearing and seeing the lives and stories of those who have lived through or seen the disease, torture and mutilation of their brethren because advertisers don't want their company's ads next to such pictures ...denied hearing the personal accounts of what it is like to be maimed or have loved one killed by US arms or chemicals since that would be unpatriotic ...shown images of the horror of others pain and sorrow and the details thereof but who get the details of the crimes committed by Muslims ...shown the few who fire (or one as in the special edition of NewsWeek) a round of bullets in blind joy as a celebration of death but not the image of those around him who wonder if he is nuts or the thousands of others who see it as an inappropriate display and who relate to the pain of the slaughter ...have Islamic culture painted as an ancient irrelevant and pass civilization that only deserves a shelf on in the Oriental Philosophies section of the bookstore or library When people are dehumanized, we can believe what we want about them. It excuses us and it is convenient... ...it goes both ways ...and it leads to disasters. Abdul-Qaadir Abdul-Khaaliq