Oh no...it's Barry...and he's got a soap-box under his arm...
I don't do this often (I don't think) but today I'm going to post topically.
I am currently frustrated by this weeks big news event. I am of course referring to the latest terror plot. One question resounds in my head towards these would-be murderers: Just who the hell do they think they are?
I know people of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, religions, non-religions and I am very much an advocate of "live and let live". I don't have anything whatsoever against Islam, indeed my knowledge of that religion is fairly limited. What I do know was learnt in School in PSRE; the same lesson in which I was taught about Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism and every other well-known religion. I don't believe most Muslims have an ingrained hatred for the west. I don't believe that Islam truly commands the terror that this grotesquely visible minority claim to do on its behalf. I also feel sorry for innocent Muslims who will doubtless be taking alot of crap from ignorant people who have adopted a xenophobic 'them and us' stance.
I respect anyone who has a strong faith in their own beliefs.
At the same time I despise anybody who has the ignorance and the arrogance to judge and condemn MY beliefs and MY way of life, simply because it doesn't quite fit with theirs. You have NO RIGHT to force me to believe in your way of life. How dare you pass judgement on me, my friends, my family, on the freedoms that I believe in.
On one hand I am very angry that these people would seek to take any life, let alone life on the scale they planned. On the other hand I can tell them that their plot is already foiled. Not because we can't bring hand-luggage onto a plane, not because the intelligence services are on high alert. It's already foiled because I'll keep using planes. Because I won't stop going about my daily business. Because if you kill me somehow, you do so in vain. Because if you kill me, I assure you I died with your threat dismissed. Because yes, we might all have concerns about the potential threat, we might be a little more wary, a little more vigilant, but the more this happens, the more defiant we will become. The more we will resolve to go about our business regardless of what you might plan or what you might do. Whether we are Christian, Jewish, Islamic or otherwise, there are millions of us who believe in the ethic of freedom: of leaving one another to believe and do as we wish with the one simple provision that our actions do not harm others.
I am currently frustrated by this weeks big news event. I am of course referring to the latest terror plot. One question resounds in my head towards these would-be murderers: Just who the hell do they think they are?
I know people of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, religions, non-religions and I am very much an advocate of "live and let live". I don't have anything whatsoever against Islam, indeed my knowledge of that religion is fairly limited. What I do know was learnt in School in PSRE; the same lesson in which I was taught about Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism and every other well-known religion. I don't believe most Muslims have an ingrained hatred for the west. I don't believe that Islam truly commands the terror that this grotesquely visible minority claim to do on its behalf. I also feel sorry for innocent Muslims who will doubtless be taking alot of crap from ignorant people who have adopted a xenophobic 'them and us' stance.
I respect anyone who has a strong faith in their own beliefs.
At the same time I despise anybody who has the ignorance and the arrogance to judge and condemn MY beliefs and MY way of life, simply because it doesn't quite fit with theirs. You have NO RIGHT to force me to believe in your way of life. How dare you pass judgement on me, my friends, my family, on the freedoms that I believe in.
On one hand I am very angry that these people would seek to take any life, let alone life on the scale they planned. On the other hand I can tell them that their plot is already foiled. Not because we can't bring hand-luggage onto a plane, not because the intelligence services are on high alert. It's already foiled because I'll keep using planes. Because I won't stop going about my daily business. Because if you kill me somehow, you do so in vain. Because if you kill me, I assure you I died with your threat dismissed. Because yes, we might all have concerns about the potential threat, we might be a little more wary, a little more vigilant, but the more this happens, the more defiant we will become. The more we will resolve to go about our business regardless of what you might plan or what you might do. Whether we are Christian, Jewish, Islamic or otherwise, there are millions of us who believe in the ethic of freedom: of leaving one another to believe and do as we wish with the one simple provision that our actions do not harm others.