Email Sharing: Youtube Ignorance & Hate

I occasionally go on youtube and browse through videos. Sometimes I discover good new music that I hadn’t heard before. Sometimes I find something interesting that makes me learn more. Some things are funny, some are stupid, some are pointless.

Well, the worst videos are those that are aimed at propogating hate & helping push ignorance about something. This is what I found the other day while broswing.

User Tom101229 (http://www.youtube.com/user/Tom101229) has a three part series that imagines a situation in which the world might be different if “Israel had not won the war of 1948.” The videos total in length to almost 30 mins of pointlessness that does nothing to further the discussion as to what Islam is, what Israel is or what should be done about the conflict in the Middle East. It’s only aim is to shout at you saying “Islam is evil and power hungry” and here’s are why.

Now, I entertained the idea of watching to see where he was going with the video, despite the fact that what he did could easily have been done quicker and more effectively. However, he completely lost credibility when he suggested that the Osama Bin Laden would rise to the leadership role of the Islamic take over of the world. Only the ignorant believe that Islam as a whole supports the likes of Bin Laden.

So, I posted a comment on his video saying to the extent: “I can’t believe you wasted 30 mins of video on this crap. You lost all credibility when you discussed someone like Bin Laden would be the leader of this movement.” I was blunt & to the point, but since he moderates the comments, I had a feeling I would not have my comment posted. Which already shows how cowardly he is.

So, I got the following email from him in response:

Tom101229: Subject: Hey

Did you failed to read the message I wrote? FAILURE! Say hello to my ban list.

Unfortunately my sent messages did not save (youtube fail). So, here is a paraphrase of what I said in response:

Why do I need to read your message when your videos clearly are meant to be a propaganda aimed at spreading false lies to create hate towards a religious faith. It’s completely pointless for me to waste another 5 mins on your lunacy.

In which he replied:

Tom101229: Subject: LOL!

By the way that video is about alternative history? Do you know what alternative history is? It is absolutely strange and unbelievable things coming true due to changes in the past. Who knows if napoleon had died from before he joined the armed forces of France, Osama Bin Laden could had been borned in the United States and be America’s current present taking Obama’s place.

That is what alternative history is about! And it doesn’t matter who is the head of the Islamic Caliphate! You don’t know anything about Islam. There is no way you can, because you live outside of Islam. You are not a muslim. And even if you called yourself such as a sunni or shi’ite, you still couldn’t because you are an American and uphold principles that are contrary to Islam such as women’s rights.

I’m a liberal, you dumb bitch!

Now, this is getting to be just humorous.

Again, to paraphrase what I said in response:

You have no idea who I am. You assume I do not know Islam because I live outside of Islam? Islam is not a place, Islam is a religion, a way of life that exists within the hearts of the followers of Islam. You assume that because I live in the United States, so I do not know Islam? You are ignorant.

You believe that Islam is against woman’s rights, which just shows how ignorant you are. Go back to school and learn about Islam before you post hate propaganda that is meant to support fear of a faith you know nothing about.

Get a life.

I have not receive a reply to my last email.

Muslim Woman Murdered in Germany becomes martyr of the hijab

A very dear friend of mine on twitter (@lela2000) brought this to my attention & after reading about the story, I wanted to write about it. You can view the BBC article by clicking here.

As reported by BBC News, Marwa Sherbini was stabbed 18 times by a man in a courtroom. Ms. Sherbini was suing the man in Germany after he called her a terrorist and hatefully put her down because of her religion & the fact that she wore a hijab. Ms. Sherbini was 31 years old & married, carrying her second child now 3 months old within her womb. Her husband, who came to her rescue, was severely injured & is in the hospital. All of it was witnessed by their 3 year old son.

Her attacker, age 28, was convicted in the courthouse prior to stabbing Ms. Sherbini. His punishment was a fine of 750 euros ($1,050), which he could have appealed. Ms. Sherbini’s body has been sent back to her homeland of Egypt for burial.

This is a terrible and heartbreaking story & in some ways I cannot discover the words that I want to write. On one hand, you want to mourn her death, offer your thoughts & prayers to her family in hopes that her husband makes a full recovery & her 3 year old son can have a wonderful happy life.

On the other hand, you want to become angry. Angry at the idea that someone would be that ignorant and hateful of another’s religion & choice of dress that they will kill them. Angry that the government does not do more to help erase the hateful false stereotypes that exist surrounding Muslims. Angry that this woman, who was using the law to bring justice, was stabbed 18 times & her husband is in the hospital. Where were the law enforcement officers or the other people to stop him? 18 times… not once, not twice. 18 times, think about that for a moment. Some reports have indicated that her husband was possibly injured by police gun fire in the courtroom as well as being stabbed, but details are sketchy. But still. 18 times and no one stops the guy?

Angry because this is not the only European country that seems to have a problem with the hijab or burqa as French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stated that they are not welcome in France. (see Huffingtonpost)

How are these acts of violence, hatred & ignorance going to bridge the gap that has become very apparent? And, what is your government doing to help educate the ignorant & bring acceptance into society so that if a woman chooses to wear a hijab or burqa she may. Even if you do not agree or understand completely, should we not stand up for the rights of women to wear what ever they desire?

For more information about the online attention & lack of Western Media attention to this story, check out Global Voices Online

Poem: For You

This poem was written May 12, 2000 by Moonstar Silverwolf. All Rights Reserved.

I walk with you
You’re by my side
holding my hand
I see
I see your delicate hand
Rests inside mine
soft, smooth
like a feather
floating in the air
your skin is soft
soft as a pillow
my hand is my head
and I want to sleep
Sleeping
Darkness falls over night
Moon bright
Star light
Sleepy sun I know
your will
Your want
below and above
left and right
we walk
we talk
I listen
your voice like a song
beautiful and full
It’s my desire
Bricks
There are bricks
and holes
our travels, they’re tough and rough
not like I want
I carry you over some
but you stop, I can’t help
beware, danger ahead
what is it?
evil, hate, love
doubts
my thoughts
your thoughts
what are they
why
stop, continue
go over the bricks
around the holes
success
and failure
we have them both
only I’m still there
Did you doubt?
I will always be there
There to hold your hand
forever and a day
to walk with you
to talk
to listen
to you
for you.

When pain threatens to overcome

One of the questions in my poll a few posts back was “Have you ever thought of suicide?”

The answer is yes. There have been two moments in my life that I have been within moments of making the choice. The first one seems so lame now that I look back on it as I had not known pain, yet I thought I was in pain so unbareable that I suicide was the only way to release it. It wasn’t until the second time around did I realize just what pain felt like.

Both of these incidents happened in moments of my life when I felt very lost, alone & unsure of how to survive on my own. But, both of these events, I believe were changing moments in my life that has led me down a path of greater understanding & happiness. Had things gotten worse in those moments, I may not be discussing it now as thought it was in the past.

It became known to me during both of these that suicide is only one answer to the question, but only one. While it is still the choice of the individual & is not to be denied to them, it must be known to them that their choice is the ultimate one without being able to go back. It may seem like the answer, but it does not have to be.

My first experience happened when I was 15. I had grown up in a fairly good home with both parents being educated, employed and happily married. But, things fell appart a little in the family life at that time. My mother would reveal that she was pregnant & have her third child (she was 38 years old at the time). My younger brother would have his first major panic attack during school & the next year I witnessed things that I wished I would never see. I was even put into a situation where I was asked to hold my brother so my father could talk him down from his rage. Anxiety & panic attacks can be very hard to deal with, especially for an 11 year old like he was. So, while my family started to split apart, I found myself feeling more alone. I was having trouble making friends at school & would often find that my “friends” were more interested in getting answers for homework than being my friend. And, of course, I was also in the middle of my teenage years where emotions play with your head & hormones mess with your ability to focus sometimes. While locked up in my room, I had very little to do but think about the pain. It was at that moment that I returned to the God I had been raised on & saw the power of faith and what role it can play in bringing you out of the destructiveness that I had found myself in. Between age 15 & 18, my spiritual self played a big role in who I was. While I would eventually leave the faith I was raised in for my current ideals of god, it was a path that has forever changed me.

The second happened after 6 months of torment in a failed marriage that was not even a year old. My emotions had been played so long as I competed with the “other”. The stress & emotional low that came with the idea that my 7 year relationship, the person I cared the most about & loved so much that I would die for them, only to find out they are willing to say they love someone else, but they love me as well. To see the notes exchanged between them, to know they work together & spend time together every day, to feel betrayed & unsure who to trust. This pain is almost unbearable. Seeing the hate from their eyes as they blame you for their unhappiness without any compassion for your own pain. Seeing the person who took your first kiss, your virginity & pledged your life to them for life stare at you as though you are some sort of disease. Hearing them degrade you one minute, then shower you with affection the next only to turn their back on you the moment the “other” comes back into the picture with an email or myspace message. And, the whole time wanting to be supportive to them because you believe they are going through an identity crisis & because you love them you want to be there as they go through their own painful experience.

This pain is greater than I thought I would ever experience. It tears you apart from the inside, slowly, painfully & you can feel every pin as it pushes against the walls of your organs, your heart & tries to break through the skin.

Add on top of the pain, the stress of being in your final semester of graduate work, putting a theatre production together in two weeks, working 20 hour days for that span. Putting together your thesis debate to defend it. And, having your wisdom teeth removed.

Yes, all of this happened between Jan & April of 2007.

A number of things happened that helped me through this. I had some wonderful friends who supported me. I had family who loved me. I had my own intellectual mind that was able to see the signs of pain & I had the strength to call a counselor while in tears & her kindness of talking with me on the phone for 30 mins for free, scheduling me the next day AM to come into the office. During that 30 min call, she suggested I seek additional help from a Psychiatrist as they may want to put me on a med to help me through it. I was able to get myself an appointment that following Monday into a new doctor that had just opened up her private practice after leaving the University’s hospital. (If any of you know Psychiatrists, you know their schedule is never that open..I was lucky).

I also went for a few appointments to the family counseling center at the University. I think I shocked the Graduate student who was my counselor, as I had quite a story. (What I have revealed is not the full story.)

All of that support around me helped me get over the pain enough that I no longer thought suicide was the answer. But, it wasn’t for another year and a half that I would be fully out of that emotion. It would take me moving in with my parents for 2 months, filing for divorce, moving 900 miles away to Alabama for my new job to get me moving. But, it wasn’t until a few months after my divorce was final did I ever feel free enough to break away from that pain. That was a year ago last March. I went off medication in July of last year. I still struggled with highs and lows, but it was no longer completely based on my past, but now about my future & present, so I had moved forward.

What suicide, depression & pain has taught me is that I’m extremely strong, I have the desire, the will and the want to not allow the pain to overtake me. But, most of all, despite having only a few close friends, they are ones that I love with my life. While my relationship life may have forever been hurt as I struggle to trust people, my love of life was not destroyed. I would not let that die within my heart. My heart still longs to be compassionate & I long to love someone greater than myself. For now, that part of my life remains empty, but I know when it’s time, I’ll be ready (I hope). I just hope they are ready to handle what might be within me not only in love, but also in pain. For I know, once I have someone who loves me enough to be willing to comfort my heart, the darkness that hides within me will need some light but the switch is nowhere to be found.

Andrew Newberg on Religion

“I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good. … Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country.” — Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, 1993.

Since I was traveling this past week, I was able to get my hands on the USA Today on Monday (I don’t normally read this newspaper). Inside the front section, Andrew Newberg had an Op-Ed that discussed the role of religion and how it can affect the brain. He began relating a story of an experience with an ex-girlfriend and her family when he was in high school. Her parents were born-again Christians who were “pleasant to me, but they made it quite clear that in their view I had deeply sinned by not turning to Jesus. Oh, and because of this, I was going to hell.”

Mr. Newberg is an associate professor of radiology & psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. During his Op-Ed he discussed how faith & religion can be a good thing for the brain and can actually lead to someone living a happier, more protective and longer life. Religion can aid in how you cope with stress & emotions and help deal with questions related to the meaning of life. However, in order to get these benefits, the religion & spiritual practices must be positive and uplifting.

Religion can also have a negative affect on the brain when the faith is too negative.

If you ruminate on negative emotions, they activate the areas of the brain that are involved in anger, fear and stress. This can ultimately damage important parts of the brain and the body. What’s worse, negative emotions can spill over into outward behaviors that generate fear, distrust, hatred, animosity and violence toward people who hold different or opposing beliefs.

These hateful ideas result in quotes like the one above, and ultimately lead to destructive acts of violence such as the ones against abortion clinics or hate crimes like the one against Matthew Shepard for being gay.

I thought this was a really good op-ed as it described exactly why I disliked many in the organized religion. When I think about faith, I think about positive ideas. Since life is made from love, why wouldn’t the divine be filled with the same love and compassion. The moment someone starts blasting at me that God is somehow hateful or going to damn me to hell for not believing in this or doing that, it turns me off. My mind does not need more hate within it.

I think this does explain some of the reasons why we have people who act out hatefully towards “sins”, or even why sometimes we have extremist groups that strap bombs to themselves. When God is power-hungry, the people who follow will do anything to bring people to him. But, when God is forgiving, loving & compassionate – people will come to him without force.

If there is a hell, why should I fill my heart & mind with the pain of fear when I believe that no god will let a loving, compassionate person not be with him in paradise. But, this is just my opinion about most of the religions in the world & why I will challenge anyone who uses fear & hate to get me to come to god as it does not work.

If you want to read the Op-Ed, it’s available online at: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/this-is-your-brain-on-religion-.html