Sunday of my Life

I’m disgusted, honestly. I’ve recieved what amounts to a chain letter from a few different sources today, and I am disgusted by its contents, and by the fact that the hate-mongering vitriol contained inside it is being passed off as ‘patriotism’. I’ll quote the whole email here, minus the headers and addresses, to protect the ignorant. I’ll also note that one of my good friends told me about recieving this same email today, and she replied straight to the person who sent it with what amounts to “Thankyou for proving your lack of validity to me, now fuck off, I never want to hear from you again.” I won’t do that, yet. I will not name names. Whomever sent this to me will know who they are. Please note, however, that if I ever recieve anything like this in my inbox again, then I will publically berate you.

!– PLEASE NOTE THAT THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOCK QUOTE DO NOT REPRESENT THOSE OF THE AUTHOR OR ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH SOML. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. –!

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they? Come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of
their suicide bombs.

I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this:
I don’t care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college hazing
incident, rest assured that I don’t care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don’t care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed “special” food that is paid for by my tax dollars,
is complaining that his holy book is being “mishandled,” you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don’t care.

And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled “Koran” and other times “Quran.” Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and —-
you guessed it, I could not have said this any better myself!

If you agree with this view point, pass this on to all your e-mail friends. Sooner or later, it’ll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior! If you don’t agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don’t complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great country.

This one of the worst pieces of bullshit I have been spammed with, to date. Here’s a little analytical breakdown from me to you, whomever may have originally written this ‘opinion’.

1. America (and unfortunately Australia) are nominally fighting a war on terrorism. What is actually being done is anyone’s guess, as we do not actually get told. It was not brought to ‘our shores’ by Islamic people. Do you know why these people are called extremists? They do not represent the religion, the faith or ideals of Islam. Islam is a peaceful religion that believes in peace, friendship among peoples and love for all. Go read the Quoran before you label these terrorists as Islamic, despite what they may say of themselves. They do not represent Islam, nor does Islam support them. And Quoran brings me to my next point;
2. Quoran. Q. U. O. R. A. N. Not Koran, or Quran. Quoran.* One of the central books of the Islamic faith. Note I said one of. There are others. Before you go expounding opinions on the goodness or badness of a religion, I suggest you read that religion’s teachings and stories to actually get an informed opinion. Please also note that I have never read the Quoran, nor any of the other books of Islam. I’m also not expressing an opinion of the religion. Go figure.
3. “…when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana…” May I just say: Wrong. Damn. Religion. Nirvana is not a perfect state of being sought by adherents of Islam. That’s Hinduism (or Buddhism, or Taoism… one of them, I can’t remember). But not Islam.
4. I know the photos being blurry must make it easier for you. And how far away you are. But honestly. Think. Stop and damn well think. These people, no matter what they have done, or may be suspected of doing, or are being held on suspicion of on little or no evidence of; they are still human. They still deserve to be treated as human beings, not put through humiliating tortures for the amusement of others. Guys wanting to join a fraternity at college don’t deserve it. Prisoners at any of the US-run detention centres for suspected terrorists in the Middle East don’t deserve it. Grow some fucking decency.
5. Being fed special food? Special food? It’s a requirement of the Islamic religion that any meat they eat be ‘halal’. Wanna know what that means? Look it up. Google is your friend. This is not ’special food’. It’s simply food killed and prepared in a different way. You may as well protest over Jewish inmates in US prisons being given kosher food. And if his rights to practicing his religion (within reason, obviously. We’re not going to get into the whole ‘well what if his religion involved human sacrifice?’ debate. We’re just not) are not being respected, yes, he has every right to complain about it.
6. “When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because…” Yes. Thankyou for not mentioning if he moved or not. Or how much pain he was in. Pain is an important factor here. The human body hurts, and what does it do, without consulting the concious mind about? It moves. It tries to shift to a comfortable position and relieve the pain. I would like to see you, Mr. or Ms. Hate-Mongerer, avoid moving under similar circumstances. And, as I said, we don’t know if he moved as not, since you appear to have omitted that. Possibly he was just shot. I wouldn’t be surprised.
7. Finally, on the ‘brave marine’ point. Remember that, to someone, everyone is brave. It is this categorisation of ‘brave marine’ on the good-guys’ side, and ‘Iraqi Terrorist’ (and, as an aside: thankyou spreading that little bit more of country-based racist sputum on the minds of the three-dozen or so people you sent this email to. He’s an Iraqi! He must be a terrorist! Oh Noes!) on the bad-guys’ side that is part of the reason why war still rages today. Look at the people around you, wherever you may be. Then go outside and look at the people there. Take a train or a bus. Look at people. See something fundamentally the same about them? That’s right! They’re human beings! Where they came from, where they’re going, who they are, who they were; none of it matters. They’re human, just like you. What you expect as your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of whatever-the-fuck it is you call ‘justice’ are pretty much what they expect too. You would be shocked (shocked I tell you) to learn how much better people get on if only they treat each other with compassion, forgiveness, respect and common human decency.

That, for the most part, is pretty much what I have to say, except for one thing. This email asks me — if I agree with the opinion expressed therein — to pass it on so that it will eventually get to ‘the people responsible for this rediculous behaviour’, and there I agree. Pass this post on. You never know, it might one day get to the offices of George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Tony ‘<– I’m With Stupid’ Blair and John ‘Brown-Nose Extraordinaire’ Howard. Maybe they might get a glimmer of how rediculous this ‘war’ of theirs is. How it could have been avoided completely. How how much support they don’t have among their own people. Maybe.

I’m not holding my breath.

*No, it doesn’t bring me to that point, since someone kindly pointed out the error there. Oh well, we all make mistakes. Koran and Quran are perfectly acceptable.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2005 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Apolitical Views, General, Rant 'n' Rave. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.