Media Perpetuated Hate

Yesterday I spent the day with friends of mine, shopping, having the best meal I’ve ever had, and of course, going to prayer. (That’s what Muslim’s do on Friday.)

Though my day ended on a great note with the best meal EVER, the beginning of my afternoon left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Most are aware of the shootings that took place at Fort Hood, Texas, where a gunman opened fire on his fellow soldiers. The nation was shocked to learn that a dozen soldiers had died and two and half dozen had been wounded. What was worse: the gunmen survived.

There are no words that I can say that will offer much comfort to the victims, and their family and friends of the shooting. Every one of them has a right to be angry, hurt, violated and grieved. With all my heart I wish there was something I could or say that would help them cope and feel better. The only thing I can offer is that as Americans, we stand behind you 100%. Please know that you are loved, that you are in my thoughts and prayers.

I showed up to prayer yesterday, intent of praying for those suffering because of the shootings that fell upon Fort Hood. I kept to that intent but was fully annoyed that camera crews were at the mosque, wanting to interview Muslims about their reaction to the shootings, and was filming the brothers while we offered up our own private prayers before the lecture began. While I stood towards the back of the mosque, hoping to be left alone, I couldn’t help but hear the reporter say, “Despite yesterday’s shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, local Muslims still maintain that Islam is a religion of peace.”

What is that suppose to mean?

It occurred to me that the media would not be running around a church if the soldier who snapped and shot his fellow soldiers had been Christian. Nothing about his religion would have been noted if he had been Jewish, Unitarian, Mormon, or whatever blether of religious rites one could think of. Nothing would have been said at all. But the fact that this man was a Muslim means I now have to suddenly defend my faith…again.

Now please notice that I said this man was a Muslim. As far as I’m aware, no, he isn’t dead, but I chose to say was because the second this man decided to commit an act of violence towards his fellow human beings, he forfeited his claim on Islam.

Despite the persistent villianization (not technically a word but it is now) of Islam by the media, Islam is a religion of peace. The Quran teaches: Peace! A word from a Merciful Lord. (Surah 36:58) {And please see any of the 188 verses that reference peace in the Quran…google it.} Any time something bad happens and the PERSON who has snapped laid hold a claim on Islam as their faith, the media immediately gets in the face of Islam. But let’s turn the tables. What happened if every time something bad happened and the culprit was a Christian, would the media publish it? No. Know why? The Christian community would be an uproar and emphatically state “We are a religion of peace!”

Let’s face it: In a nation where Muslims are the minority, it is for some reason okay to keep comparing the violent acts of those FEW to the entire religion, despite the fact that we supposedly have freedom of religion. I guess I missed the fine print that stated: Freedom of religion…as long as the rest of the nation agrees with you then you won’t come under fire for being different.  Thanks to the media, law abiding citizens, who happen to be Muslim, are constantly having to defend their faith. Why don’t we start picking on everyone’s religion, constantly mentioning in the news what faith people are who are committing crimes.

Now let’s look at it from another angle: Would a Christian church allow cameras in their worship services, to observe the sacred acts of worship like partaking communion or baptism, just because a supposedly follower committed a crime and the news wanted to broadcast these acts of worship all over the news? Doubtful. But because a Muslim commits a violent act, my mosque was subject to news cameras filming while we were in prayer. How respectful is that?

Could the media back off and get to the heart of the issue? The issue being an obviously disturbed individual void of any sort of representation of his religious beliefs snapped and harmed other human beings?! Do you have to constantly bring religion into everything and perpetuate the cycle of intolerance? Seriously?

I’m sorely disappointed in our nation at the moment focusing on the religion of someone rather than the fact they snapped, and oh yeah, let’s not forget all those people afflicted by this person’s mental break down. God forbid we remember them in their sorrow. It’s more important to focus on religion and get better ratings.

This isn’t high school, people! There are human beings out there with emotions and feelings. How about you focus your efforts on caring for those people and quit focusing on things that only perpetuate bigotry!