March 2nd, 2015

After the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, some people have been linking the
entirety of the Islamic religion with crime and terrorism. This connection simply spawns
from ignorance, which is a crime in itself.
The most important thing to keep in mind after events like this is that there is a difference
between piety and extremism. The extremists who committed these horrendous crimes
dont represent an entire faith that has 1.57 billion followers. If thats what you think,
then you are basically saying that over 23% of the world population are terrorists. Thats
completely absurd.
First of all, extremist groups are more cults of corruption than religious bodies. Any
person can just go along and shoot some people in the name of their religion, but that
doesnt mean that they are a true representation of that faith. It also doesnt mean that
their religion is breeding terrorists.
Many religions have had problems with extremist groups in the past who claim to cause
violence in the name of God.
Why then is this generalized mark of terrorism only attributed to the Islamic faith? Why
is it that we are imposing a harmful stereotype on a people who arent connected to these
actions?
People are making these claims based on antiquated racial notions and a lack of
understanding of an entire culture and religion that isnt violent.
What drives me crazy is when people say that if there are that many bad apples then
there must be something wrong with the tree. The thing is, you cant make statements
like this. If you find yourself thinking this way, stop for a minute. Do those bad apples
really represent every single person of the Islamic faith? No.
There isnt a group of people that you can ever do this to. Whether you apply
generalizations like this to groups of friends, teenagers or whole religions as some have
done, you have to understand that some people act out of line.
The Islamic religion is not, in itself, a violent faith. It is often thought that images of their
prophet are sacrilegious. The reactions that followers or extremists have to these
depictions are not part of the religion. These terrorists are acting independently of the
faith. The Charlie Hebdo magazine had every right to publish their cartoons, but the
extremists did not have any right to kill the staff members for their publication decisions.
Just because these individuals were working in the name of Islam doesnt mean that
Islamic people are working against the world. There is a huge break in logic there.
People need to be more careful about the things that they are saying about the entire
religion and its intentions. The remarks some are making are very harmful to people of
the Islamic faith who are perfectly innocent.

You have the right to say and think what you will about the recent occurrence and others
alike, but just be cognizant of the effect of the words you say on the people around you.
Part of being a well informed and mature person is consideration and looking at things
logically, something a lot of people dont do.
People will interpret religion in different ways, and some will take it too far. That just
happens. It is critical for everyone to stop seeing motives in connection with religion (or
race for that matter).
Consider this. When an Arab person shoots someone, people call it terrorism. When a
black person shoots somebody, people call it gang violence. When a white person
shoots someone under the same circumstances, people attribute it to mental illness.
Race, religion, and gender have no bearing on well...anything.
You can make generalizations all day long, but the fact remains, your assumptions are
stupid.