Postby Hypocrisy » 2016-06-19, 14:04
As a person who lives in a country with an overwhelming amount of muslim population and identifies as Agnostic, I would like to share my view on this topic.
There's this particular thing about such matters that I always find very worrying. People who experience said notion, which is Islamic terrorism in this case, first hand or suffer from indirect reflections/repercussions of such an act being committed by those who identify as an adherence to the notion, are neither a siding party nor encoured to partake in such discussions for the most of the time. I don't think you'll get much from a conversation which is conducted by those who live in the same environment and are exposed to similar arguments from all sources of information. This is not peculiar to this topic. It's just a general concept that needs to be upheld by humanity if problems are to be solved, in my opinion.
As for the problem at hand, I think, there are several aspects to it. People who can't stand a group of Islamic people solely because they identify as Muslims are plain absurd. Aren't you in the same category with the people you're criticizing for being religious extremists while you, yourself, come off as an overthinking extremist for classifying people according to their personal belief, regardless of their attitude and intentions? Indeed, you are. Isn't it the sprout of the Fascist ideology created by the media overlords who are there to manipulate communities? Yes, it is. I can guarantee that the people I live with, who are mild Muslims, do not conspire against you and won't take deliberate actions that will harm you. Why would you hate these people without distinguishing what's good and what's bad? One must not fall for the vilification of targeted masses through false news and social media. They are powerful tools that can easily provoke people and turn them into mindless zealots as religion does to some people.
Speaking of the other side of the coin, most of the Islamic communities are undereducated, corrupt and ignorant. They are unaware of the true meaning of deeds they carry out on a daily basis. They don't soak the piece of information they need to, rather they get stuck at idle details. They mostly get separated from their motive of doing something benevolent and end up doing it for the sake of action. They pray to god not to repent their sins and be a good person, they do it because that's what they're taught and that's how it's written in the holy book. They find no shame in mentally/physically torturing someone throughout the process of a well-meaning action. Here's an analogy to get it across; it's okay to reprehend a mischievous kid on his birthday for whatever reason and gift him a present afterwards. Isn't the sole purpose of celebrating a day called "birthday" make your child happy? What's the quality of your good will if you miss out on many steps to achieve your purpose? This is just an example to express how the mind set of an average Muslim is in Turkey. Here's another example that might supplement this argument. I'm currently serving in the military and the Turkish military is the kind of place where younger soldiers tend to arguve over how faithful they are and coalesce around religion. On the other hand, they force newer recruits into doing their personal work, use brute force to keep them under control, disobey the commands and smoke weed frequently. Yet they fast since we're in Ramadan and try to perform religious rituals whenever possible. When I ask them why they act like that, they say it's okay as long as they go by the written dogma. You can see the inconsistency between their ideas and their actions.
These people need to be approached with love, affection and knowledge. They need to be taught what's right and what's not. They need to be shown what's to approve and what's to disapprove. They shouldn't be condemned for sharing the same religion with a few lunatics who fell victim to a mastermind as a consequence of many hardships.
TL;DR: It's not their fault that some people condone religious extremism. They're not desired to speak out loud and they're deprived of lots of facilities due to corrupt powerhouses. Do not hate them, let go of your prejudice and help them prosper. Aggression is not the way to go.