The boldness in which Brian Eller simply mocks people’s faiths or their followers in his article “Organized religion and the bigger picture” is appalling.
It provides a few examples that do not tie into the faith, but rather to those who do act in the name of their faith. He mentions that some “religious leaders ask their followers to perform suicide bombings.” What he fails to do is provide a background discussion on what perpetrates these events. Israel has frozen all money owed to the Palestinians simply because the government is not what Israel wants, and the Palestinian people are in turn in a financial crisis. We denounce dictatorship, yet continue to support Israel, which has violated over 60 U.N. resolutions and is constantly dictating palestinian politics. Eller was indirectly attacking the organized religion of Islam in this part of the article. From a religious perspective, the Quran – the Muslims’ holy book – states that if any person kills an innocent soul unjustly, it would be as if he/she slew all of humanity, and if anyone saves a life, it would be as if he/she saved the life of all humanity.” (5:32)
Islam denounces aggression and hatred towards anyone, so it is very dangerous to judge an entire faith based on a few people’s actions. The Muslim world is criticizing the United States’ discriminatory foreign policy aimed at controlling and westernizing the world. Unfortunately, millions of people solely depend on the corporate-bought media to make up their minds on such critical issues. The United States’ media is biased and discriminatory toward issues involving the Middle East, causing unjust judgments to develop throughout our society. It is a double standard to consider Palestinians to be “terrorists” while mentioning nothing of the Ku Klux Klan, who propagate racism, breed hatred and encourage lynching. They use a cross as their symbol – yet, why aren’t they “Christian terrorists?”
Mocking an organized religion based on a few violent riots is absurd. It does not represent the values taught by the faith. In regards to the cartoon publishing, it is not freedom of speech to insult people’s faiths or their religious figures. And why is it that we claim to seek peace and justice and then we support actions that cause hatred? If we want to challenge others, it should be through intellectual discussion, not through blatant bigotry.
On another note, I was amazed at Eller’s audacity in writing an article about getting rid of Black History Month. Anyone with such views clearly does not understand the perseverance and struggle of Blacks to receive basic civil rights.
OK, so here’s the deal. I’m asking Mr. Eller to follow some common sense rules before he writes another article: 1. Turn off Fox News; 2. If you’re going to address an issue, listen to it, research it (off mainstream media), understand both sides and then form an opinion; 3. Any time you choose to make uneducated comments, you will be hearing from me through this paper.
Humza Chowdhry is an architectural engineering senior and Mustang Daily guest columnist.