I’m not  concerned about “Muslims being drawn to my county”,  I’m concerned  about “Christians” in my county exhibiting such ignorance and fear ,  and so in the  process,  bringing shame upon the name of the Christ they clam to worship. That is actually what “blasphemy” is.  It is to bring “stink” to the name that has been taken (ie “Christians take the name  of ‘Christ’ when they identify themselves as followers). And this REALLY stinks. At SO MANY levels.

Click above image to go to YouTube page where you can watch CNN special “Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door” (still looking for actual CNN link to their video. They have a study guide and encourage people to record it and use it for a year,  but  provide  no actual downloadable or viewable  video)

As a Christian, first.  Such propensity to creating enemies out of people based on fear,  by no ACTUAL fault of the people being targeted.  The idea that “THEY” flew their planes into the Towers is ludicrous.  These were no more THEIR planes than the nooses the KKK used to lynch black people belonged to the religion of the Klansmen (Christian).  How difficult  is this to understand? I’ve heard people argue: “But they (the Klansmen) weren’t REALLY Christians. “  Exactly.  And the 9/11 terrorists?  Were they REALLY Muslims? Ahh,  there’s the rub, isn’t it?  Then others will go further.  “But  THEIR book,  the Koran,  DOES teach violence.”  Again,  you mean like the Old Testament does?  These Christians arguing for a Violence teaching Islam will say that the Christians know this is not the whole Bible.  Hmmm…and how much of the Koran do they ignore in their insistence  that the Koran is  a violent book?  I would venture to guess next to nothing. 

And  that’s beyond  the issue that the “contextual  and  cultural and historio- critical considerations of  Interpretation are widely known by educated Christians re: the “Old Testament God” and the Old Testament accounts.  None of this educated analysis is allowed when considering the blanket use of the “violent Koran passages”.  It just stands alone,  for this is aim  of the “attack mode” of ignorant non-Muslims concerning the proper interpretation of the Koran. 

It is the tendency of the culturally blind who project such fear and prejudice (out of their ignorance)  to easily accept the simplistic labels which would underpin their ignorance.  It’s how preachers and theologians who seek to instill fear of the other have always operated.  It is often a work of a nationalistic view to demonize the “enemy” for purposes  of increasing enough of it to obtain consent for what is held out as the appropriate  national policy to deal with the threat.  It certainly works as well in sub-cultures and various forms of violent radical resistances. It operates in the twisting  of theologies in various cultures to meet ends that have not been sought by that religion; ends often explicitly rejected by those religions.

Other links:

George Alexander, HuffPo contrib and tv producer/journalist on the CNN Special

"The Muslims Next Door" educator guide (have yet to find an actual CNN link to the video,  so for the moment,  I am depending on the Youtube videos provided by “LoonWatchTV”,  which is not  exactly an endearing  title or username,  as disgusted as I ma with the ignorance of the “Right wing Christian outrage” and as often as I may have used he term “loon” myself in my less tempered moments)