Ridecamp: Re: [RC] He/Him Bigotry?

>
> Not bigotry - reality.  Poll after poll shows that the Arab world views us
> with increasing disdain and hatred.  To lose respect for nations and
> nationals who are of this ideology is not, IMHO bigotry, but a dose of
> healthy reality.  Was it bigotry to think ill of the Germans under Hitler
or
> the Russians under Stalin?  Methinks we take PC too far these days.

I've got to be about the least PC person on the planet.  And I'd have to say
that applying polls to judging an entire group of people is about as
stereotypical and "PC" if you will as one can get.  I have absolutely no use
for the fundamentalist aspect of Islam that turns people into terrorists.
But to suggest that all Muslims follow those rigid, fundamentalist standards
is the equivalent of saying that all Christians stone people to death for
adultery (hey, it's in the Bible!), hate Islam (witness the Crusades), burn
"heretics" and witches at the stake (witness the Inquisition and the Salem
witch trials), etc.  As for Hitler vs the German people--my father had the
privilege of working with the Quakers at Pendle Hill (sp?) just prior to WW
II, who took in a fair number of the Germans that had been run out of their
beloved country by the Hitler regime.  He learned a great deal about the
great philosophers of the world discussing them with the man who had been
the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Berlin prior to the Hitler
regime taking over, as the two of them washed dishes together.  This gentle
and erudite man, IMO, likely came closer to representing what the actual
German people were like than did Hitler.  Just as a great many honorable
Germans hated what the Hitler regime did, so it is also possible for
honorable Muslims to hate what some of their co-religionists have done to
our country and to others.  Likewise, as an American, I hate how people such
as Tim McVeigh represent American values.  So certainly, hate Hitler, hate
Stalin, hate Shi'ite fundamentalism, but yes, it IS bigotry to apply what
they did as a standard by which to judge all of their countrymen.

Thank heavens for such opportunities as world-wide sporting events, where we
can get together and rub shoulders with people of different nations, races,
and political philosophies, and hopefully figure out that they aren't all as
bad as our stereotypes might perceive them to be.  And may we have the good
grace to be able to earn the same sort of respect in return.  (As one who
attended the WEC when it was held in the UAE in 1998, I can't say that all
of OUR countrymen behaved in a manner that would have been deserving of
THEIR respect!  Thank heavens the majority did.)

Heidi (glad that not all of the Muslims judge US by what their polls tell
them, either.)


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 If you are an AERC member - PLEASE VOTE in the upcoming By-Laws 
 Election!!!! (it takes 2/3rds to tango!!)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=