A sad reality

I frequently come to the defense of Islam in my writing. And I "call out" those that I believe are guilty of hate speech, discrimination, or self-defeating behaviors agains Muslims. Andrew Sullivan said something over at his blog that, I feel, is, as he said, a "sad truth" that must be addressed.

And the sad truth is: no religion in the world right now has as many internal problems as Islam. The Muslim faith is being used to sanction mass murder; Islam is engaged in a civil war in which some Muslims are blowing up other Muslims' mosques and holy places; Islamic regimes are hanging gays and enslaving women...

His choice of words is careful and important. He doesn't say "Islam sanctions mass murder," but that it is being used to do so, for example. This separates him- by miles- from the Glenn Beck's of the world.

And it is true that no other religion in the world "right now" is facing the sort of problems that we see in Islam. Other faiths have undergone similar problems in the past (such as the Crusades and Inquisitions in Christianity), but, at this point in our history, Islam is torn and tearing itself apart.

But, this leads all the more to the point I continually make- we must engage our Muslim brothers and sisters, and we must stop policies and behaviors that alienate them from us. Perhaps we can be of some help as the 'moderates' of the Islamic world seek to regain control of the faith from the radical Islamist elements.

I try to continually push myself towards the truth as I write here. The truth is that Islam is in crisis. But, as other faiths, including Christianity, have overcome their own crises, Muslims can do the same. We, however, have an obligation to help, not hurt, in this process. We as individuals and as societies must think and act very carefully to ensure that we do help, and do not hurt.

Right now I fear that we, in the non-Muslim world, lack this thougtfulness, fail to understand the perspective and challanges of moderate Muslims, and continue to make their job more and more difficult.

We must change course.

GP