Confronting the Monolith: The Struggle Against Islamophobia and Osamaism

[Hatalles]

Selected excerpts:

"On the one hand, Muslims are confronted with Osamaists (those who can be characterized as approving of an Osama Bin Laden variant of Islam) who espouse a doctrine of religious violence and oppression. On the other hand, Muslims are also confronted with Islamophobes (those who can be characterized as harboring fear, hatred, or prejudice towards Islam or Muslims) who fully equate their religion with violence and oppression. What is most remarkable about both groups is that the arguments they make about "Islam" are actually founded upon the same antagonistic, literal, and selective interpretation of the religion."

"Every religion has the potential to be abused by some and Islam is no exception. However, what Islamophobes would have us believe about this particular religion is that one splotch is representative of the entire spectrum. One needs only apply this to Christianity, the most familiar religion in the West, to recognize the flaws in this narrow-minded approach."

"Religion has the potential for great good but when in the wrong hands, it also has the potential for great evil. When Islamophobes conflate Osamaism with Islam and simply blame the religion, one of the consequences is shutting down discussion of the social, political, and economic reasons and motivations behind many of the conflicts taking place around the world today."


Full text:

http://www.amperspective.com/html/the_struggle_against.html
or
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/33820

[katty]

1. puppermasters drive resource wars, cloaked in fanatical belief

“All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.”

-Jiddu Krishnamurti-