In Regards to Last Night... - Comments

@ leopold fitz
I'm not sure of the number now. I just saw a news clip yesterday on TV that said 44. & I was just thinking, there's no freaking way... but I looked & it says 31 on most of the "news pages." but seriously, legally they can't do anything. & they shouldn't anyway. the refugees are just trying to survive & we should be trying to help them.

@ shilohfernandez.
just to put my own input into this discussion, refugees are actually, statistically, the least violent group of people. It's more likely for an American-born person to be a terrorist than refugees (and a lot of the terrorists that were identified from Paris were French-born/Belgian-born). And with the Syrian refugees, it literally makes no sense for them to be the terrorists because what happened in Paris is exactly what they're fleeing from back in Syria. They just want a stable living WHY CAN'T WE LET THEM HAVE THAT?

I'm just so annoyed at the governors (my own state's included) because like...1. They have no legal right to do that so what they say is irrelevant anyway and 2. No one is using their brains!!!!!! I'm glad President Obama went off on Twitter about how they should let refugees in because it goes again the values of America because TRUE. This country was "founded" by people escaping religious persecution and now they're not letting in people who're also escaping persecution?

Also I think it's more like 29 governors...not 40+, that would actually be truly horrible. But it's the Republicans and, like, one Democrat. That's still more than necessary.

@ nearly witches.
I hella appreciate the time you took to post this because that was long as hell, but I enjoyed every minute of it It's lucky that you grew up in a liberal household that taught you to not do the things your school taught you to do. Not a lot of people get that privilege so kudos to your parents forreal.

I saw that headline and I was like YASSSSSS SCOTLAND GOD BLESS U. Finally someone has a brain!!! Obama, thankfully, is also like "ya we aren't turning away the refugees because it goes against the deepest values of America" so SUCK ON THAT @ALL THE STATE GOVERNORS THAT WANT TO HALT THE REFUGEES.

@ nearly witches.
no, I know what you meant. it is sad. Muslims don't owe anybody any apologies, they're just human beings like you and me trying to exist in this world and of course a couple of bad eggs have to ruin it for the entire group.

which is basically what's going on right now over here in America. like 40+ state governors have said they don't want the Syrian refugees to come to America. and I understand, I truly do. they want safety for the American people and "blah blah blah." but just because a group of extremists decided to do their own thing go off on their own way, doesn't mean all Muslims/refugees are terrorists. yeah, a few refugees might be terrorists in disguise, but they'll most likely get caught. the government isn't stupid. obviously they'll working something out. and the whole terrorists disguising themselves as refugees can happen ANYWHERE. terrorists can come from Mexico, Canada, Africa, anywhere... any shape, any size, any color, ANY race, ANY religion... why has that fact suddenly slipped everyone's minds?

Exactly. It makes the same point, yet because Christianity is basically the entire Western world, it's okay? That definitely doesn't fly with me. I mean, I've had more hate off of Christian preachers in the streets than I ever have had off of anybody Muslim and it infuriates me that getting abuse off of a Christian is somewhat okay, yet if it's anybody else then it's wrong. It really is racist, and it's so stupid that it still exists nowadays. I mean, I went to a Catholic school (both for primary and secondary education) and they were practically teaching sectarianism in the school. It was disgusting and that's the problem. A lot of kids aren't being taught that being a different religion / colour / race isn't a bad thing, which is crazy. I mean, if I had been any more impressionable in school / if I had actually listened properly in Religious Education then I'd probably be disgustingly racist myself, if only through the way I was taught. Thankfully, my parents are super liberal and I've been subject to quite a bit of racism myself after kids in my class managed to find out my dad was born in Singapore -- apparently I should be able to cook awesome noodle dishes, who knew?!? -- so I wouldn't subject someone else to that. This is the bit that I don't understand -- everybody is now trying to push refugees away from the UK because they're 'dangerous', yet we're the ones throwing bombs on their countries to try and defeat ISIS, ruining their chances of a normal life in the meantime. Why shouldn't they come and seek refuge in our country? It makes no sense. Scotland's fairly liberal as well though and I'm really proud of my country, because this headline is what's circulating around in the wake of refugees coming into Scotland this week. Unfortunately, not everybody shares the same sentiment and it makes me so angry. People are people and if we're going to continue to bomb the shit out of their country, I'm more than happy for my own country to act as a refuge for those affected. Everyone's entitled to the right to live.

That really irked me. I mean, why even bother having a safety check if you're only going to use it for Western countries? The safety check is there as a tool for human beings to use, why are we still, in this day and age, discriminating against people for the colour of their skin? It's so sneaky and underhand, the way the media is dealing with this. I haven't seen one news report on the UK news about the bombings in the Middle East, other than when we mange to blow up someone from ISIS. Let's just not mention all of the bombs we;re dropping on innocent people, because they're not white and obviously that doesn't count. It just infuriates me. As I said above, everybody has the right to live so why do we put more weight on someone dying based on the colour of their skin?

Oh god, don't even get me started on that! Everybody here is celebrating like we've just done something major and awesome and I'm just sitting here like... no, no, it's not cool. Do we want a third World War? Russia are getting involved as well -- our Prime Minister was talking to him about it and I'm just not up for the idea of carpet-bombing a place where many innocent lives will be lost. They don't deserve it. Nobody deserves it.

Hopefully they will! Our generation are the most liberal bunch, I reckon, so hopefully that gets passed along and we'll live in a world where everybody can be cared for and valued as much as the other.

@ shilohfernandez.
[casually going to reply even though this isn't my blog because I'm awkward like that]

That's part of the point I was trying to make in my initial comment -- it's the same for Muslims. WBC and the KKK are tiny minorities who show extremist views that don't necessarily reflect the views of the Christian and Catholic churches as a whole. ISIS are the exact same -- an extremist minority who don't reflect on the actual views of Islam as a religion. Catholics and Christians aren't forced to apologise for the (frankly disgusting) views and actions of the WBC or the KKK, yet Muslims around the world are having to apologise for the views and actions of ISIS despite not being associated with them at all. It just doesn't make sense for them to have to apologise when it's essentially the exact same sentiment with others.

I get what you mean though -- I was raised in a heavily Roman Catholic extended family, and there was this kind of... I don't know, superior air? I'm not sure how to word it, but a lot of my extended family now snub me because I no longer follow a religion, and sometimes it feels like they resent me for not being RC anymore. It's so sad that people can take scriptures and holy books and warp them because I feel like if God does exist in whatever form people believe him to be in, he wouldn't want that for anybody. That view (plus my experiences of being in a strict RC school as a child) kind of pushed me away from the religion as a whole. I don't know how people can just be so cruel when really, it probably goes against everything their religion stands for.

Kudos for your voice. I am so glad I could find a muslim sister like you who always stands up for Islam. I am so disgusted by ISIS for what they're doing. Any sane person wouldn't like to kill for sport. They're all psycho! And the worst they always bring Allahuakbar wherever they kill. Ugh. Recently I watched CNN, they're interviewing someone but they're like labelling the whole Moeslim as terrorists!!! Western medias are the worst!!!

the only answer I have about the Christians not apologizing for the Westboro Baptist Church thing is: that there are so many different kinds of "Christian" religions. like: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, etc. so therefor not all Baptist people hate gays... since the Westboro Baptist is just one church and only one church of Baptist people, not Catholic and so on and so forth.

I was raised in a pretty strict Pentecostal household. and most days I don't even associate with it now because it was so judgmental and hateful towards anyone who wasn't Pentecostal. it's pretty sad and I just don't think any God would actually want his children to believe that way, you know?

@ nearly witches.
I complete agree. Same with Westboro Baptist Church and their hatred of gays, but you don't see any Christians being forced to apologize on their behalf. It's so racist and stupid, like minorities shouldn't have to apologize or even educate people on who they are. It should be inherent, like learning it in school, to not be racist and to learn more about other people. AND YES EXACTLY! Like this is who the refugees are running away from! This is what they had to deal with every single day.

And I completely understand, especially since you had a friend in Paris. I'm glad that he's okay! It's just western media propaganda that I'm annoyed by because Facebook activated their safety check for Paris but not for Beirut or those 100+ people that were killed in Kenya (?). And we all know why they did it, it's because Paris is in the west and quite frankly, majority white. Nobody cares about the brown bodies dying in the Middle East who go through this every day.

And now France is bombing Syria bc of this and I'm so irritated because this is gonna mAKE EVERYTHING 10000000000000000X WORSE.

but thank you! I'm hoping our generation will teach the next generations and so forth to not be racist and disgusting. Hopefully.

I'm gonna suggest that if people keep in this frame of mind where all Muslims = ISIS that we all just think that KKK = all Christians. It's the same thing. ISIS are extremists and the KKK are extremists and they both make up a tiny minority of an otherwise peaceful religion. But obviously because the KKK are white, we're not gonna talk about them. We live in a seriously fucked-up world where we're berating somebody because a tiny minority of people are warping a religion to justify their own twisted agendas. Unfortunately, the UK is apparently an inherently racist country and I've already had to remove three people from Facebook for making disgustingly racist comments. I've had the pleasure of knowing several lovely people who actively practise Islamic faith and not one of them has turned out to be a radicalised terrorist. Funny, that. Our news outlets have, however, focused on the refugees from Syria (who, last time I checked, were running from the carnage) and there's been a massive backlash from the public about how we should shut borders and kick out foreigners and all that stuff. It makes me so sad to see people still acting like that in a modern-day world.

I'm unfortunately absolutely guilty of being more shocked by the Paris incident than the incidents in Lebanon and Syria and the incidents that have been happening in the Middle East / Africa in general for the past year, but I've attributed that to the fact that I have a very good friend who was in Paris (he lives in Versailles but he was in the city for a night out) that night, and we didn't hear from him for a solid 18 hours afterwards. He's fine, thankfully, but I panicked like nobody's business until he let us know he was safe. Then again, I've been sitting thinking for the past day or so -- that's what people are being subjected to on a near-daily basis in Syria and it breaks my heart to know that there are people (if they can even be called that) who are so twisted and evil that they can orchestrate stuff like this. That isn't religion. They aren't fighting on the orders of any 'god' or whatever they want to believe in.

So I guess what I'm trying to say in an extremely roundabout way is that despite all of the publicised hate and nastiness being directed towards the Muslim community, like Symbiont, I stand with you, not against you and hopefully one day, that'll be the majority and not a seeming minority. Don't let the haters get you down -- they're not worth knowing if they judge you based only on your religion.

I'm definitely praying for all three countries because a life is a life regardless of the nationality and religion and to me, members of ISIS are nothing but bloodthirsty monsters that don't care about the lives they steal. It's sad that Baghdad and Beirut aren't being talked about but y'know, America is just so weird about shit like that and it's even sadder that our news talks about what they think will get higher ratings and more views.

@ leopold fitz
I wish it was too.

@ Symbiont
I'm glad there are people that realize that, I just wish it was everyone in the world.

@ cleopatra.
honestly! These people are monsters and that's all that they are. They have no religion or faith, if they really did, they wouldn't do this. It's disgusting and horrible and I hope more people realize that.

I'm not surprised either but it's just so annoying how western media propaganda works. Like this type of stuff is pretty much what happens every day for people in Palestine and Syria (hence why they all left and sought refuge in Europe, @people who think the refugees had anything to do with this) and other places.

It really is frightening. I'm scared this will cause a war and that is REALLY NOT something The Middle East needs right now.

This whole mess the world is facing right now is so terrifying and sad.

I cannot even begin to comprehend the backlash the Muslim community is getting because of this, but know that I stand with you. And I'm not the only one.

thank you for writing this. i've been entirely shocked of yesterday's events & i couldn't even comprehend getting on to write about it properly. it's so disgusting what's happened &... it really blows me away that humans can do this. but then again, they aren't exactly human. monsters that steal the lives of others is a better way to put it.

im also stunned that baghdad & beirut haven't been trending, but am i really? counties like this... they go through these things everyday & it doesn't seem like anyone knows or cares. thank you for giving them a voice here. my prayers w/ everyone involved & all the families affected. the world really stopped last night & im sure the generation growing will speak of this as we did 9/11. & it's frightening