Monday, April 3, 2017

Anti-Muslim Hostility is Not Inevitable

Some within the COGs constantly talk about Muslims in a negative light. At times they will even talk of a grand 1,400 year struggle and present relations between Christians and Muslims as being continuously severe hostility during all that time. But that is not the case and there is nothing inevitable about this hostility and Islamophobia that is present within some sections of the COGs.

During World War II when renowned Hollywood producer Frank Capra made the film, Why We Fight: Prelude to War, to aid the war effort during World War II the film contains the following narration.
Let's take the free world first. Our world. How did it become free? Only through a long and unceasing struggle inspired by men of vision: Moses, Muhammad, Confucius, Christ. All believed that in the sight of God all men were created equal and from that there developed a spirit among men and nations which is best expressed in our own Declaration of Freedom: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." (Why We Fight: Prelude to War, 5:15 onward.)
This sequence shows animated representations of the Ten Commandments, the Koran, the Analects of Confucius and the Holy Bible.

Accompanying the Ten Commandments it shows the tenth commandment against covetousness; "Thou shalt not covet that which is thy neighbors [sic]."

Accompanying the Koran is the following text, "Mankind is one community. Page 85."

Accompanying the Analects of Confucius is the following text, "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others, Page 105."

Accompanying the Holy Bible is the following text, "The truth shall make you free. John, Chapter 8:32."

Back in the days of that cataclysmic war the makers of Why We Fight: Prelude to War offered respect towards Muslims. The Islamophobia that some within the COGs choose to indulge in is not the inevitable continuation of a 1,400 year war but an attitude that they themselves have chosen to adopt as their own and to promote to others.

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