Someone sent me a PM, and as I replied, this is what came out of me, I figured it was better as a post, than a PM reply, lol.
I've been a man of action my whole life. I'm physical, before I communicate. It's taken me years to be able to move from one type of battle to another. But to me, battle it still is.
When you break Islam down into it's small bits, you ave people at the heart of it, I understand that. Hence my issue isn't with Muslims, it's with Islam.
All people, even myself, when in a group, are far different then when they come together in a collective. It's at the head of the group that the direction is laid out and the mission determined. If the leadership is negative, the group will be negative.
Individually, I see Muslims state that they do not condone beheading, stoning, or honour killings, and that they are the better representatives of Islam. But then if you watch them and listen, they show the small signs of being in concordance with the negatives. People like to accuse me of nitpicking, or stereotyping. But I truly do try and avoid doing that at all cost, but I will not sell myself or my country out to do so.
Long ago, I was in a whole other world, I saw the very reality of that group think. Individually, I saw Muslims take my hand when I offered help. I saw their pain and their suffering. I emphasized and had sympathy. But when I, a mere infidel, was forced to take a stand, I saw the individual join the group, and the group focus that negative without remembrance of what was given them, and what I/we had done for them.
That plays a small role in how I view people in general, but it plays a very big role in how I view Islam.
I'm not really a bigot. I've employed Muslims, I have Muslim friends (I know how that sounds, lol), I've exposed my sons to Islam through my friends, so that they do not take what I may project as all there is. I understand that the negative of Islam is not all there is, but I'm also keenly aware, that Islam is not what all Muslims would have us believe.
This can be seen in the posts made by some Muslims at this very site.
America a swamp.
Jews are bad.
The CIA is trying to control Islam.
One sect is criticized, because they don't follow the Quran to the letter.
This may seem small and insignificant to some. But to me it isn't. These are the things some are trained to look for. Yes, I dissect posts. Yes I dig, yes, I may seem to take things out of context. But in the end, in a majority of the challenges, what I saw, and ultimately poked at, comes to the surface. Then what do you do? You now see it, you can interpret it as one thing, or another. And from varying perspectives, you're always going get a different picture.
But it's still the same.
As an example, just because you may sort of agree, that the US is the great Satan, do you ignore the viral context of the assertion? This is where we are falling off the track. You see a common enemy, and you embrace something that will use that in you, until you are no longer useful.
Hence the term "Useful idiots". A profound and under used sentiment that I find to be quite applicable to those that will defend the abhorrent, because they share a common feeling.
The dangers associated with that are paramount.
I may be out of line, I may be wrong, but that is how I see it.
I don't hate Muslims, I hate the collective of Islam and the abhorrent actions it causes and/or defends. I actually hope that my beliefs as to how this will end, are completely wrong. I truly do. Bit in the mean time, I will stay my course, and hold my ground. If not for myself, but for my sons, whom I wish to be able to pass onto their sons, the freedoms that we as a culture posses today.
