Don't tell me who to hate!

The other day, whilst using my time very wisely </sarcasm>, I came across this on my Facebook feed:



This fills me with indescribable anger. I know it was meant in humor, but that makes it all the worse.

You see, humor breaks down the walls of propriety.
Makes it acceptable to suggest genocide.

According to snopes (http://www.snopes.com/rumors/naked.asp ), this has been floating around for a decade now, but this is the first time I've seen it.

To begin with, it's not ok to say that all Muslims are terrorists. Here, have some math:

Perhaps my real problem with this is that it's become an intrinsic part of society. 

In WW1, media told us the enemy was the Nazis. So we hated Germans.

In WW2, they told us to the enemy was the Axis powers. So we hated Germans and Japanese. 

In the Cold War, they told us to the enemy was Communism. So we hated the Russians. 

Now they tell us to hate the terrorists. So, like the good citizens we are, we extend our hatred to a peaceful religion. 

In our righteous attempt to protect our nation, we forgot to protect our humanity. 

This mindset is beautifully illustrated by a shirt I saw last week. 

Are we really so different from them? 

Their beliefs aren't so unique. 

Testimony of Faith - To fully be a Muslim, they must say "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet". They're monotheists. Big deal.  

And in case you're wondering, Allah is just God in Arabic. The Bible, when translated in Arabic, says "In the beginning Allah created the heavens and the earth..." 

Prayer - Every religion that I know requires prayer too. 

Almsgiving - Helping out the poor. Obviously, this leads to terrorist activities. 

Fasting - The belief that the spirit must overcome the temptations of the body is commonplace as well. 

Pilgrimage to Mecca - They want to stand in what they consider a holy place. That's not a good enough reason to hate them. Plus, Mecca looks beautiful. 

Did we forget that they are children of God too? They have families and homes and inside jokes. 

How did we let ourselves as a society fall prey to this idea? The idea that, because someone sees the world through such a different lens, it's ok to despise them? 

 I don't advocate terrorism, obviously. I think it's horrific that people would murder at all, let alone on such massive scales. But let anger fall where anger is due. Don't spread it to innocent children. Don't spread it to faithful fathers and devoted mothers. If we fill our hearts with hatred, we risk becoming the very evil we try to fight.

Can we truly live with that?