Here’s something that’s really telling.
Earlier this week, Rupert Murdoch said in a tweet that all Muslims need to be held accountable for the recent terror attacks in Paris (one might assume that may have also included the town that was wiped out in Nigeria, but I’m gonna go on the side of common sense and say that no, Rupert Murdoch was not talking about the deaths of thousands of brown people). In rebuttal, Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling tweeted “I was born Christian. If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I’ll auto-excommunicate”. As Australian television presenter Adam Hills said “wow, you know you’re doing bad shit when the woman who created Voldemort thinks you’re evil”.
Hills brought up a point, though. There are 1.6 billion followers of Islam in the world. If Islam really was a breeding ground for terror, we’d all be fucking dead right now. With even just rough estimates as to the number of members of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram, the percentage of terrorists within Islam is still only 0.000175 percent. Less than half of 1 percent. And that 0.000175 percent as an actual number; 28,000. 28,000 is still a pretty massive number. Here in Saskatchewan, that’s larger than the population of North Battleford. That’s half of Moose Jaw. And that number is still only 0.000175 percent of all followers of Islam.
Sure, there’s those who say that there is a larger number of Muslims who secretly agree with the actions of that 0.000175 percent. Somehow, I doubt even that number is over 1% of all of Islam. I’m pretty sure that the other 99% percent of those who follow Islam are actually just trying to get on with their day, just like the rest of us.
But you can be sure that there’s also a collective inner cheer from right wing Christians who agree with some fuck-nut flies a plane into the side of an IRS building. Those guys actually aren’t so silent. You search youtube and you’ll find all sorts of right wing “freedom fighters” who herald this idiot with all sorts of praise. These are the same type of shit-heads who probably were cheering on Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing.
And this shitty behaviour isn’t new. During the American Civil War, in the British Houses of Parliament and the Canadian Legislature at the time, politicians were cheering for every Confederate victory. Because that meant the continuation of cheap textiles.
So does that mean that Christians should be held accountable for all the shitty things done here? The list is pretty long. From FLQ terrorists in Quebec during the October Crisis to the Wako, Texas cult that finally committed suicide as they were surrounded by Firearms and Tobacco to the people of Jonestown. How about every single white man who gets pissed off, picks up a gun and shoots up a school? Instead of labeling them as poor, misguided, and troubled youth, how about we start branding them as the monsters that they really are, who decided to take the lives of dozens of children, or college students, or theatre goers. What about every fucking douchebag who thinks he’s entitled to a woman and threatens to kill her or take that next step and end the life of a woman just because she won’t fucking date him.
If we demand that the leaders of Islam take responsibility for the terrorism that has claimed thousands of lives, then we Christians better start claiming responsibility for ever Ecole Polytechnic, every Dawson College, every Columbine, every Oklahoma City, and every fucking idiotic Fox News presenter.
While we deride one religion for the atrocities of a few, we better recognize that there’s an equally shitty number within our own religion.
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