This letter is written in reaction to the recent article “Freedom of speech? Or freedom to ridicule?” by Khadijah Bagais, published by the Northern Review (Jan. 19, 2015). I am a non-Muslim, Midwestern-born and raised American, married to a Muslim from Central Asia. The day the Paris killings happened, my wife called me and, with fear in her voice, told me she was afraid of what might be the reaction towards Muslims by the West. After reading Bagais’ article, I am moved to respond first by a feeling of anger that she (Bagais) felt she had to justify the very existence of her religious beliefs in a country that was founded on the freedom to exercise those very same beliefs.
I have included a picture from protests in Europe following the massacres in Paris. Does this picture look like the Europeans are “for” freedom of speech? (Also, he’s holding up a picture with words that are in German– that doesn’t scare anyone?)
It seems that European hypocrites exist who lecture us about human rights from a continent littered with former concentration/extermination camps. Jan. 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a memorial that was defined by arguments over who would take credit for liberating the camp and not about why they existed in the first place! Flash forward to the early 1990s and Srebrenica (Bosnia), where Muslim men and boys were slaughtered AND where the Europeans refused to intervene until President Clinton forced them to.
I would like to add to Bagais’ article by emphasizing that the ones that did the Paris killings are simply criminals. Worse, they are MASS MURDERERS! And when they say they’re doing it for Islam, most everyone believes it! The logic escapes me. You have to believe then that mass murderers are incapable of lying or, at the very least, you must believe that these mass murderers are incapable of deluding themselves that they are doing it for Islam. Who’s the delusional one?
The beheadings by ISIS, al-Qaeda on 9/11, Saddam Hussein— all these motivated by Islam? No. They ALL have done it, and are doing it, for personal gain and for what criminals have done their deeds through time immemo- rial— for money and power. “… and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Whatever happened to blaming the criminals themselves for their actions? These people knew it was wrong (they wore bulletproof vests and they ran!) and they did it anyway. The very definition of a criminal. Ask them “Why did you do it?” They say, “We did it for God!” Oh really? The real reason is they did it for themselves, for the fame and glory it would give them personally and selfishly. And that’s why most criminals do what they do! It has nothing to do with anything or anyone but themselves.
If I did something bad, and I said, “the devil made me do it,” you would slap me upside the head and say don’t be ridiculous! However, many immediately believe these criminals when they say, “God made me do it?” Unbelievable! Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh, Jim Jones… Americans did not believe them when they said it. I hope that my American students especially will graduate from ONU with the ability to think critically about all they see and hear, encompassed by the belief that we all have the right to worship as we please, but tempered by the respect that each of us deserve.