Today and last night there has been an impressive display of support for the victims of the attack in Paris on Charlie Hebdo. It comes after a series of high profile violent incidents commited globally by Islamic extremeists globally.
To me, this instance brings home a mixture of feelings, sorrow for a tragic waste of life. anger at the conditions which create philosophies that uphold certain life and demonise others as worthless and dismay that as a society we can't seem to move beyond ideological petty spats. Foremost on my mind at the moment is my utter disgust and the bigotry and hateful comments, the seemingly growing Anti-Islamic attitudes spilling themselves into every day life. It disheartens me that the response of many comic book artists has been to attack and insult. While I staunchly defend the right to freedom of expression and press, this is a petty move. The equivalent of schoolyard bullying, using local laws as an ability to pop a witty "yo mama" joke. It is childish and insulting. I agree that we should not feel the need to fear reproaches such as this massacre. It was heinous and inhumane, but the response has been a very low-blow, and kick to the groin of a community who is torn apart by extremeists on one side and an agressive, generalized western response.
As a country, Ireland's reputation has always been one of welcome. The hospitable Irish have a reputation for kindness and compassion. Unfortunately, this is not how I see our society too often. Far too common now are hateful, ill-founded and graceless comments objectifying and generalizing demographics. "Filthy travellers", "disgusting pro-lifers", and "junkie/homeless scum" are gross, stagnant comments that fail to promote any positive environment for forward momentum and progress. They have no place in a modern society, especially not one who prides itself on being western, developed and advanced.
"Those muslims, is there anything they won't do..."
It deeply saddens me that we have become defensive in our attitudes to an entrie demographic. Callous conservative attitudes that leave no room for geniune cooperation merely hold us all back, as a society. How you can claim to support justice and equality, and uphold your own country proudly as an example, while at the same time demonising and bullying another nationality or group makes no sense. If we were truly the country we uphold ourselves to be we would stand in solidarity against the true enemy; fundamentalist extremeism.
Unfortunately the aggressive attitudes being portrayed against the global Islamic population is not a battle against fundametalism. It is an ill-thought out display of fear and hatred. We need to move beyond this attitude. Extremeism is a threat to our global way of life, and our muslim brothers and sisters are victims too. They need to be stood beside, not vilified. The attitudes I hear being expressed and the anti-Islam behavious, from Germany and to further abroad, make me very worried. These are the attitudes that have led to aggressive occupations and wars in the past and nothing the world needs more of.
It makes me deeply worried that these prejudiced attitudes are so prevelant in a society that is so multi-cultural and intermixed. Ireland, and the rest of the Western world not only welcome Muslims(and other demographics) into the country, we also lean on them for many parts of our economy.
These generalized attitudes are the cause of the problems we see today. What else could it be? Osama Bin Laden did not have a personal vendatta against the men and women in the Trade centre on 9/11, but he had a hateful agenda based on gross generalisation and misleading philosophies. It is ludicrous to lump people like Bin Laden and IS with their victims and peace orientated Muslims, like Malala Yousafzi. The solidarity between Muslims and Christians is sometimes stronger in places riddled by violence, like Cairo in 2011, than it has been in the Western world. If an existence based on peace and harmony can be created there, it can be created here. Furthermore, if the approach is that of an atheist, I would implore you to abandon anti-religion dogmas, they do no good and only perputuate non-critical and cyclical thinking. As a modern atheist, the ability to look beyond the obvious and abandon rigid declarations and beliefs should be paramount.
"But its our country, our rules, if they don't like it..."
In essence, I agree with this statement. I would want all, immigrant or national, of all ethnicities and religions to adhere to the laws in the country the reside. This is neccessary for social cohesion and if it were the case we would have no massacres anywhere in the world. Unfortunately this statement can also be extremely poorly founded and used simply as an aggressive attack against a migrant who simply knows no differently.
As I have said before we, as a population so proud, should lead an international example. That is two-fold. First, by leading by example. If we want our rules, laws and culture to be respected, we must respect others. We must educate ignorance and not respond with aggression and angry postulation. Second we must respect anothers culture and appreciate their background. How can we expect to understand and combat the issues that we face globally if we cannot even begin to make strides towards comprehending our differences.
In the coming months, years and decades I would hope that our generation, through education and compassion will become capable of understanding the complex issues that face our society. We cannot simply continue on a "this is right, that is wrong" basis. We need to understand the why and the how, and we need to stop taking a pathetic cop out of blaming an entire global community for the behaviour of a minority. Only then can we move forward, together, to root out these injustices and stop perpetually recreating them for ourselves with a new target to blame.
Jonathan Farrell
Asalaam Aleikum
السلام عليكم
To me, this instance brings home a mixture of feelings, sorrow for a tragic waste of life. anger at the conditions which create philosophies that uphold certain life and demonise others as worthless and dismay that as a society we can't seem to move beyond ideological petty spats. Foremost on my mind at the moment is my utter disgust and the bigotry and hateful comments, the seemingly growing Anti-Islamic attitudes spilling themselves into every day life. It disheartens me that the response of many comic book artists has been to attack and insult. While I staunchly defend the right to freedom of expression and press, this is a petty move. The equivalent of schoolyard bullying, using local laws as an ability to pop a witty "yo mama" joke. It is childish and insulting. I agree that we should not feel the need to fear reproaches such as this massacre. It was heinous and inhumane, but the response has been a very low-blow, and kick to the groin of a community who is torn apart by extremeists on one side and an agressive, generalized western response.
As a country, Ireland's reputation has always been one of welcome. The hospitable Irish have a reputation for kindness and compassion. Unfortunately, this is not how I see our society too often. Far too common now are hateful, ill-founded and graceless comments objectifying and generalizing demographics. "Filthy travellers", "disgusting pro-lifers", and "junkie/homeless scum" are gross, stagnant comments that fail to promote any positive environment for forward momentum and progress. They have no place in a modern society, especially not one who prides itself on being western, developed and advanced.
"Those muslims, is there anything they won't do..."
It deeply saddens me that we have become defensive in our attitudes to an entrie demographic. Callous conservative attitudes that leave no room for geniune cooperation merely hold us all back, as a society. How you can claim to support justice and equality, and uphold your own country proudly as an example, while at the same time demonising and bullying another nationality or group makes no sense. If we were truly the country we uphold ourselves to be we would stand in solidarity against the true enemy; fundamentalist extremeism.
Unfortunately the aggressive attitudes being portrayed against the global Islamic population is not a battle against fundametalism. It is an ill-thought out display of fear and hatred. We need to move beyond this attitude. Extremeism is a threat to our global way of life, and our muslim brothers and sisters are victims too. They need to be stood beside, not vilified. The attitudes I hear being expressed and the anti-Islam behavious, from Germany and to further abroad, make me very worried. These are the attitudes that have led to aggressive occupations and wars in the past and nothing the world needs more of.
It makes me deeply worried that these prejudiced attitudes are so prevelant in a society that is so multi-cultural and intermixed. Ireland, and the rest of the Western world not only welcome Muslims(and other demographics) into the country, we also lean on them for many parts of our economy.
These generalized attitudes are the cause of the problems we see today. What else could it be? Osama Bin Laden did not have a personal vendatta against the men and women in the Trade centre on 9/11, but he had a hateful agenda based on gross generalisation and misleading philosophies. It is ludicrous to lump people like Bin Laden and IS with their victims and peace orientated Muslims, like Malala Yousafzi. The solidarity between Muslims and Christians is sometimes stronger in places riddled by violence, like Cairo in 2011, than it has been in the Western world. If an existence based on peace and harmony can be created there, it can be created here. Furthermore, if the approach is that of an atheist, I would implore you to abandon anti-religion dogmas, they do no good and only perputuate non-critical and cyclical thinking. As a modern atheist, the ability to look beyond the obvious and abandon rigid declarations and beliefs should be paramount.
"But its our country, our rules, if they don't like it..."
In essence, I agree with this statement. I would want all, immigrant or national, of all ethnicities and religions to adhere to the laws in the country the reside. This is neccessary for social cohesion and if it were the case we would have no massacres anywhere in the world. Unfortunately this statement can also be extremely poorly founded and used simply as an aggressive attack against a migrant who simply knows no differently.
As I have said before we, as a population so proud, should lead an international example. That is two-fold. First, by leading by example. If we want our rules, laws and culture to be respected, we must respect others. We must educate ignorance and not respond with aggression and angry postulation. Second we must respect anothers culture and appreciate their background. How can we expect to understand and combat the issues that we face globally if we cannot even begin to make strides towards comprehending our differences.
In the coming months, years and decades I would hope that our generation, through education and compassion will become capable of understanding the complex issues that face our society. We cannot simply continue on a "this is right, that is wrong" basis. We need to understand the why and the how, and we need to stop taking a pathetic cop out of blaming an entire global community for the behaviour of a minority. Only then can we move forward, together, to root out these injustices and stop perpetually recreating them for ourselves with a new target to blame.
Jonathan Farrell
Asalaam Aleikum
السلام عليكم
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