Muslims

Dear Elli,

I'm gonna pull a Kanye West and make a really belligerent statement.

America hates Muslim people right now.

That sounds really stupid, doesn't it?  I'm ashamed of the fact that I just wrote that.  It's awful and I'm disgusted. 

I'm disgusted with the fact that we are so weak-minded.  Busy behaving so ridiculously and insufferably that we cannot remember our own history.  We cannot remember the principles for which we stand, and those that made us great. 

Let me remind you.

Once upon a time, there were a bunch of weird religious people who nobody liked.  People treated them like shit because they weren't like everyone else.  They finally decided to high-tail it out of England and go somewhere that would provide them freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted to do.  They came here, settled, and eventually made this the United States of America.  They called themselves Puritans.  We call them Pilgrims.  And in England, they were called weirdos.

After the Puritans came the Quakers and the Lutherans and the Amish and the Mennonites and many many more weirdo religious people from Europe who were tired of being treated like shit. 

These are our heroes.  Religious outcasts.  Weirdos.  People who were persecuted for what they believed.  This is who we are and where every last damn one of us of European descent came from.

My father's family is Catholic.  It was only fifty years ago that he and all of his siblings were considered less worthy of respect in their community because of their Catholicism.  You heard that right.  I come from a long line of religious weirdos, just like everybody else.

And now the Muslims are the new weirdos in town.  Freaking weirdos.  They believe what?  Do you know? 

I do. 

They believe in God.  One God.  They call him Allah, but that just means God.  The same one God that the Christians and Jews believe in.  The foundation is the same, although the details make us different.  The biggest difference is Jesus.  Only the Christians believe in Jesus.  The Jews and Muslims think Christians are weird. 

See?  I paid attention in Humanities class in college.  Probably because it was before lunch and I couldn't sleep because I was hungry.

Some Muslims are awful people.  That's true of them, along with the rest of humanity.  But awful people of Muslim heritage happen to be front and center in the news right now because they've done awful things.  But they didn't do those things because they're Muslim.  They did them because they're awful people. 

Do we assume all Christians are drunks because the Catholics like their wine?  Do we assume no Christian women cut their hair because Pentecostal women don't?  Do we assume all Christian men have blessed underwear because Mormon men do?  Do we assume they all roam around neighborhoods knocking on doors because the Jehovah Witnesses do?

We know better than this because we've chosen to understand the details.  Not all Christians are the same.  Can we understand that the same is true of Muslims? 

We are better than this feeble-minded madness.  We hate them today out of fear and ignorance.  Our fear is understandable.  Our ignorance is disgusting, intolerable, and shameful. 

I'm afraid sometimes.  Most of the time I fancy myself to be a total bad ass, but I am afraid of terrorists.  However, I'm even more afraid of ignorance.  Ignorance breeds hate and violence and destruction.  And there is nothing more terrifying than masses of ignorant people.

Muslim people seem so different, and it's easy to make assumptions.  I get that.

I don't believe what they believe, and I think some of their practices are weird.  I won't pretend to think that stopping numerous times every day to throw myself on the ground in the direction of Mecca and pray is natural to me.  It's not.  I would never consider covering my head in public, unless I'm robbing a bank.  And I would never accept being told who to marry, except maybe if he were a Calvin Klein underwear model.  These things are normal for some Muslims, though. 

Just like Christians pretend to cannibalize Jesus Christ every Sunday with crackers and grape juice.  And that's normal for them. 

We're all freaking weirdos.

But guess what?  We can do whatever the hell we want, and being weird is supposed to be cool here.  Because our ancestors were a bunch of weirdos, too.  And they came here to make sure we can do that.  This is The United States of America, for Christ sake!  'Murica!  The Red, White, and Blue!  Land of the Free and Home of the Brave!

I'm sure hoping we come to our senses soon.  That we can be brave enough to push our fear to the side and learn to differentiate a terrorist from a Muslim.  They are not the same.

I love you.

Mom