Has anyone else noticed the amount of ignorant people there are in NZ at the moment? Its the year of elections and by golly they're everywhere!
Now when I say ignorant I don't mean stupid (although both can applied to an individual), I mean someone who's heart is in the right place, but they lack the knowledge or the vision to be able to offer an opinion of value.
The best example of this I have is my grandfather. He is a ninja.That's truly the best way to describe him. He is probably the most influential person I have in my life (except Christ) but the other day his ignorance blew me away.
We had finished watching "Body of Lies" with Leonardo DiCaprio. Its a CIA based thriller about an operation happening in the middle east in an effort to curb the rise of terrorism occurring in Europe (this is entirely fictional). As we left the movie theatre I was asked what I thought. Having only had 5 minutes to process an absolutely amazing movie my reply just prompted more questions by me and my family "When and how will the growing Muslim population in NZ start to affect us in terms of terrorism?*" Its something i've pondered a lot. How safe are we? Is our developing relationship with the USA going to hurt us in the long run? Should we or are we doing anything under the radar to help the CIA and MI6?
So i'm pondering these questions and my grandfather lets out a beauty. Now Pop and I have a lot of fun with politics. We know how to whind each other up, and its good value. However he wasn't having a laugh. He suggested (and I paraphrase as my memory is more filled with shock than anything else) that "We shouldn't allow them to build Mosques". I immediately inserted my clenched right fist into my mouth and forced myself to take a breath. I responded with a question, being as respectful as possible, "Why?" He came back with "because we can't build our churches over there".
What the hell do you do with that? I couldn't have come up with a more childish reason not to allow the building of Mosques. Had he suggested for the prevention of terrorism, lack of land available, or a myriad of other reasons I would have been less shocked, but his answer took a swipe at democracy.
Freedom of religion, as established by NZ after accepting the UN charter on human relations secures religious freedom for every New Zealand citizen and guest to our country while dwelling within our borders. Which means we cannot deny any person of any religion the opporunity to practice their religion (within the confines of NZ law of course). This is because we live in a democratic society, where peoples rights are valued, and all citizens are equal. Democracy ensures these rights, especially a country like NZ where we are one of the most succesful liberal democracies in the world**. This success is what seperates us from the non-democratic states in the middle east. This is ultimately what makes us better: FREEDOM.
Pop continued to argue that the risk of terrorism comes as a cost of our freedom. Its a cost that we must be willing to accept, something we should be leading the way in. It should also inspire us as a democratic society, as citizens, as human beings, to determine how we can we rid the world of terror without war. Bombing for peace is like f*cking for virginity, it just won't work. Samuel Huntingtons work "The Clash of Civilizations" highlights the lack of understanding between the West and East, the inability to come together and understand our cultural differences to move forward as a world without war, a world without poverty, and a world without ignorance.
This is because it is through our ignorance that we will go to war, and through our ignorance that we will continue to operate this way. It is through our ignorance that we will not move forward, but remain stuck in a rut. It is through our ignorance that will bring the end upon ourselves.
*Speaking of ignorance I am NOT of the belief that every muslim is a terrorist. I recognise that the teachings of the Koran promote peace and that Jihadists are the extremists of this religion. The Muslims get Jihadists, Christians get the Pope.
**Based on the 1st placed ranking in Transparency International's Corruption Perspective Index 2007 (CPI)
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2 comments:
Well, after your email I felt somewhat obliged to pass some sort of comment so you'd know I had read this. And lo and behold, at the end of your post you gave me something I just had to comment on.
Specifically your assertion that you realise that the Quran preaches peace. Really? I think you need to reread it if that is what you took away. It certainly doesn't. Now, that does not mean all Muslims are terrorists by any means, and I agree with you with regard to the building of Mosques, but we also need to acknowledge that in order for Islam to be a religion of peace, one has to do a fair few of those lovely "interpretations" in order to get out of taking some of the scripture literally.
So in that sense, if we chuck out half the stuff somewhat arbitrarily, then the Quran can be seen to preach peace - and indeed, it is this non-literal version which most Muslims follow. But the Quran certainly is not a tract of peace.
Having said that, it's still marginally easier to justify peace from the Quran than from the Bible.
Totally agree re: Body of Lies...great movie, I loved how they didn't really paint anyone as the good guys, there were idiots and terrorists on both sides of the conflict, as well as decent, intelligent, understanding and kind people on either side.
The problem is when we paint an entire people group as being a certain way...it allows us to dehumanize them and therefore excuse committing atrocities against them, because they are no longer people with rights, they are merely Muslims/Jews/Americans/homosexuals/Christians/Gingers.
We cannot disseminate the essence of a human being down into their nationality or their religion. Whilst I see my Christian faith as core to who I am, I would not like someone to identify me as Christian and lump me in with ignorant crazy right wing conservatives who kill abortionists and firebomb gay clubs.
I think that the Mental Health Society said it well...'know me before you judge me' (the thing about that is...what are we supposed to do, get to know someone with depression/bipolar for like, 6 months, become friends with them and then one day turn around and say 'you know what, I feel like I do know you really well, so I can judge you now...and you're still freakin me out man! Weeeeiiiiiiirrrrd!'.
Unfortunately, the very form of terrorism disallows such sweeping friendliness, as by the time you've gone up and tried to start a conversation with a person to know them before you judge them, they've opened up their jacket and blown up the 20 pounds of C4 they had strapped to their body...and you're in heaven, while they are realising that the 70 virgins they were promised are all Gold Card carrying senior citizens with chronic gas.
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