frustrated musing
Jul. 7th, 2005 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbicideIn awful news, in case you haven't heard: a series of bombs on the London Underground have killed 33 people (so far reported). Allegedly al-Qaeda is behind the attacks.
Outside of feeling awful for the victims and their family, what drives me crazy about this sort of senseless horror is that it's only going to further perpetuate misinformation about Muslims everywhere.
I may be an atheist, but my family still practices and I grew up understanding very clearly that a large part of our religious belief system involved not hurting others. Acts of terror like these go quite against the tenets of Islam. You don't get to run around killing civilians, blaring "YAY ALLAH!"
No doubt that Bush will use this as an opportunity to sneer, "SEE! I told you so!! The sky IS falling!!!!"
On the one hand, our policies and actions (Patriot Act, frex) freak me out. But I have a fair amount of rage at terrorist groups that act outside of the religion they purport to believe in, and have achieved nothing but (to trivialize) bad PR. Not to mention the body count, which I have to compartmentalize, or I would get nothing else done.
I know there are arguments to be made about how our policies have bred this sort of action, and I can't personally image being in the desperate place some of these people are in. But it's frustrating all the same. I hate feeling so helpless and terrified that the next 'act of terror' is going to be somewhere where MY loved one is and I'm going to lose my mind. Makes me want to grab my family and friends and go hide someplace safe until all this is over. And yet, it eventually has to be over. This volatile state can't last forever.
Outside of feeling awful for the victims and their family, what drives me crazy about this sort of senseless horror is that it's only going to further perpetuate misinformation about Muslims everywhere.
I may be an atheist, but my family still practices and I grew up understanding very clearly that a large part of our religious belief system involved not hurting others. Acts of terror like these go quite against the tenets of Islam. You don't get to run around killing civilians, blaring "YAY ALLAH!"
No doubt that Bush will use this as an opportunity to sneer, "SEE! I told you so!! The sky IS falling!!!!"
On the one hand, our policies and actions (Patriot Act, frex) freak me out. But I have a fair amount of rage at terrorist groups that act outside of the religion they purport to believe in, and have achieved nothing but (to trivialize) bad PR. Not to mention the body count, which I have to compartmentalize, or I would get nothing else done.
I know there are arguments to be made about how our policies have bred this sort of action, and I can't personally image being in the desperate place some of these people are in. But it's frustrating all the same. I hate feeling so helpless and terrified that the next 'act of terror' is going to be somewhere where MY loved one is and I'm going to lose my mind. Makes me want to grab my family and friends and go hide someplace safe until all this is over. And yet, it eventually has to be over. This volatile state can't last forever.
