We've heard two presidents, one Republican and the other Democratic, say that "we are not at war against Islam." I concur.
However, there's a phrase circulating around the media, sometimes from the mouths of our politicians and other government officials, to describe Osama bin Laden and his followers: "Islamic extremists" or "Islamic terrorists." I have serious concerns over those phrases.
First, our presidents can't keep saying that we're not at war against Islam, and then have the media and other officials use the adjective "Islamic" to describe the enemy. That adjective phrase makes null and void efforts to preach religious tolerance to the masses.
Second, our two spheres of philosophy, the Orient (East) and the Occident (West) have what's called Ur texts. These texts are the foundation for much of what is written or spoken in these respective societies. In the East, that text is the Holy Koran. In the West, it is the King James Bible. All laws, good stories, and yes, good movies are taken from some part of these texts. But just as law makers and myth makers use these texts to provide order to society as well as entertainment and moral instruction, so do people who are in simple quests for power and dominance.
Ever since Reconstruction, certain Americans have been terrorized by other Americans. The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan is filled with "Bible talk." They burn the cross to signify Christ, and kill in the name of God. However, I would not call these people, "Christian terrorists," though by the logic of the media concerning Al Qaeda, I could.
Just because Al Qaeda, Taliban, and other Eastern terror factions use the rhetoric of the Koran, it doesn't make them "Islamic terrorists." Just like their American counterparts, many of these leading terrorists find people who are young and idealistic, and maybe living in poverty, and use the words of the religion to turn them to evil. Much of what the Klan and Al Qaeda says cannot even be found in their foundational texts. For instance, the Bible specifically says that there is no male nor female no Greek nor Jew in the body of Christ. Yet, the Klan, by some twisted logic, has used the Bible to justify the torture and killing of innocent African Americans for decades. To make matters even worse, the Klan has whole churches, complete with their own Klan-inspired hymn books, dedicated to preaching hate and intolerance.
The Koran commands that women should be treated with respect and if a woman is due some sort of inheritance, she should have it. It commands that a widow be taken care of by family, even if that family is her husband's. Yet, the Taliban, by some twisted logic, has forbidden women by law to inherit property. In many countries, widowed women and children are left on the street to starve, since the Taliban has also forbidden women to work and attend school. Also, there is nothing in the Koran about blowing yourself to bits for heaven and 70 virgins.
See a pattern here? So call these people what they are: misguided people who have been influenced by power-hungry ego-maniacs. In my book, Osama Bin Laden is the same as Timothy McVeigh. Please don't conflate these two with religious leaders...of any sort. I just want the media to drop "Islamic" when describing these terrorists. Drop "Islamic" because the Klan is not "Christian."
