IBK’s JOURNAL (Entry 6)
August 6
So recently I’ve wondered if it’s not a bit unsettling to tag a whole religion violent because they have a high rate of terrorism.
This argument has been going on around me and I used to sort of tune it out or sit on the fence because I didn’t know what to think and wasn’t interested in having anything to think about it. However exams are done with and I have a lot of time on my hands and a lot of space in my brain to use since I’ve de-crammed it.
So I decided to treat being Muslim like being gay. Many (ignorant) people equate being gay with being a pedophile. That narrative is so not true. Sure, we have pedophiles that are gay, but they are not gay because they are pedophiles, and vice versa.
The same could be said for Muslims. The fact that a number of bad eggs exist among them doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad or that they are all terrorists, right?
However as I thought I’d gotten the answer about how it’s bullocks to associate a whole group of people to something bad, I realised my argument is flawed (yes, I argue with myself).
Using gay people as an example might not be the most feasible or steady example to use. It’s a shaky support.
Also the problem, as much as it has to do with people being violent, is the fact that the religion enables it. There are places that preach peace in their holy books and those that also talk about violence. So it can’t be entirely absolved from the blame.
In the case of the Christians, the most you’d find Christians doing nowadays is hate speech. But then again, this doesn’t mean they’re absolved of being cruel. Sticks and stones may not break my bones but names will still hurt me. Verbal abuse can still be as harmful as direct a use because it leads people to do things like take their lives. Also parents have kicked their young ones out of the nest and done harmful things to their children all in the name of God.
These religions seem to have their bright sides and dark sides.
I personally believe in the bright side of Christianity. I won’t however pretend the dark side doesn’t exist or claim that everything is all about love just like Islam claims to be about peace.
However I will still come to the conclusion that to label a whole group of people terrorists because of some of the people practising it wrongly is to keep making the same mistake of prejudice humans can’t seem to stop making.
*
Sometimes I think wanting something is a function of many things including the options placed before you and what you have been programmed to want by external factors such as society and past experiences.
I’ve seen gay men say they want to marry a woman. They’d be quite happy to marry a woman, they say. They don’t want to marry a man. It is their choice to marry a woman and not the result of what other people think.
Sometimes I laugh when I hear this. Sometimes I feel pity.
Let’s switch things around. Let’s say you were born overseas into a more tolerable clime and you are gay, would you still decide to marry a woman? If tomorrow, your mother and father and all of society say they don’t mind gay marriage at all, would you still marry a woman? Let’s say it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that the deity of your religion (if you have a religion) doesn’t mind gay marriage, would you still marry a woman?
It’s your business to want to marry a woman as a gay man, but when it’s portrayed as something that you’re doing with your heart, body and soul, as something that you genuinely want, I find that very hard to believe and laughable.
Seems more to me like you’ve convinced yourself that what you’re settling for is the best.
It’s kind of something like this. I wanted a Nokia E71 when I was younger. Mother got me a chinco phone because at that moment, she couldn’t afford to get me the Nokia. I convinced myself that my chinco phone was way better; the music was louder, it could use two Sims, etc. I started to believe it was better till my mum asked me if I still wanted the E71, that she could get it for me. I promptly discarded the chinco phone in less than a heartbeat.
Anyhoo, this is just what I think when I hear a gay man’s desires to marry a woman and how he is doing it because he wants to. (Please note, I said gay man, not bisexual!).
I probably sound like Judge Judy. I probably am judging (bite me). But at the same time, I realise people get married for different reasons and I guess no one reason is greater than the other. But I (will) only take offense or be indignant if all the important cards aren’t laid on the table. But then, again who is to say what cards are important and which cards aren’t? I’d say let the conscience judge, but people have different degrees of consciences.
This is a slippery slope.
I guess in the end, my opinion on how someone is running their life is inconsequential, unless the person makes it otherwise.
Okay, I’m done contemplating.
Written by IBK
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24 Comments
Francis
August 07, 06:47Like a friend once told me, both religions have been violent but Christianity has had time to move away from that and Islam is still struggling with it. The problem with Muslims being tagged terrorists, IMO, lies with them. They need to start cultivating the habit of not coming off overly defensive to the extent one feels threatened…..like they are about to scream out “that chant” and descend on you with their hidden knives.
This habit of defending God like he can’t do that himself is just nauseating and don’t get me wrong, some isi ewu Christians do it too.
Why can’t people just worship their God in peace without shoving it down everyone’s throat?
Pjay
August 07, 23:59Because God commanded them to shove it down your throats. It’s in the great commission, somewhere in Matthew. “Go ye therefore into all nations…”
ambivalentone
August 07, 07:09And that’s how very recently I had asked someone in a chat if he were a conditional bisexual or REALLY bisexual. Dude didn’t know. The chat ended in a heartbeat.
For me, the best kind of muslim is a lip-service muslim…and even then, I’m quite careful around them.
Mandy
August 07, 07:15This is quite true. In a different more tolerant gay clime, most of the guys who come here to talk of getting married probably wouldn’t see that happening with a woman. Of course they won’t admit it. Conditioned by the homophobic environment of this country, most of them have become convinced that in spite of their homosexuality, they’d just looooove to wed and be with wives till death do them part. Lol. You’re right, IBK, it IS laughable.
But hey, whatever floats every individual’s boat. That’s what I’m about. If the bullshit works for you, bravo!
Mandy
August 07, 07:19And as for Islam, Tbh, I feel no branding the entire lot with one view of negativity. Your kind, a VAST majority of your kind kills and slaughters at the slightest provocation, fully backed by your holy book, and you want to argue that you’re a religion of peace? Miss me with that logic abeg.
ambivalentone
August 07, 07:34My dear, u r duly missed
Kainene
August 07, 07:47This post is everyyything.
Mitch
August 07, 07:59Most religions of middle eastern origin are quite violent. Christianity has had the chance of evolving over the years. Such a chance shouldn’t be denied Islam. Quite right, there is a high spate of violence in Islam but let’s not forget the glorious days of the Crusades and Inquisitions.
As for the brethren who feel their happiness would be incomplete without a wife in the pinshure, lemme hold mail piss.
ambivalentone
August 07, 12:03It is the realisation of the wrongness of those days that caused christianity to be ‘factioned’.
Justin
August 08, 13:46Forget the thousands of lives that have to be sacrificed for that evolution to take place? 21st century mate, don’t nobody got time for that
Viera
August 07, 09:52HI Beee Kaaaaaaiiii *in eniola`s voice*
you see even if everyone subscribes to the fact that being gay is the new cool today, most gay guys won’t still get married to guys.
Some of us would pretend till we die just because of favors and things that don’t matter as much as our happiness does. Take for instance someone who is highly placed in a religious or moral organization turning around to his audience to say I’ve been living a lie for the past years here’s the truth. Not everyone can do that and moreover this whole movement is all evolutions… who knew that a phone would do the work of a computer camera telephone etc etc all at once
Brethren the time is coming where gay men and straight would dine one the same table knowing of each others sexuality and not bothered irked or hateful
Pink Panther
August 07, 09:59Someborri say Hallelujah to this comment! 😀
•*•sugarrrr*•*
August 07, 10:50Hallelujah ??✋??? … Ha ha ha today is a good day!
Jeova Sanctus Unus
August 07, 11:22Christians still shoot up gay bars and black churches in the USA. You probably don’t know about it because the word “Christian” is removed from the narrative and it becomes a person, not a Christian person or a minority person, just a person.
“Man kills wife over infidelity” vs
“Gay man kills husband over infidelity” vs
“Muslim man kills wife over infidelity”.
Christians don’t go about talking about the ugly parts of the Bible, as far as they are concerned, they don’t exist. “I bring you the good news” is the usual term. Islam is whatever it’s practitioners (if that’sthe right word) say it is. You don’t condemn Christianity after hearing hate sermons from the altar, do you?
It’s still Christians that sell arms to “Muslim terrorists”. It’s more a culture issue, than a religious one. People are poor, ‘uneducated’, misinformed, etc. Nigerians don’t hate the LGBT because of their religions. It’s a cultural issue. Take away the religion and the issue still lies there. Religion is the excuse, not the underlying problem.
Culture begets religion.
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Until the day straight people will marry same sex partners just because it’s what they want, I’ll keep my 3D glasses… this Stockholm Syndrome is a dope movie na.
ambivalentone
August 07, 12:11You do realise that the fundamental principles of Christ eschews all things ‘violence, dishonesty, selfishness’ and THAT is the good news. It is because of this basic knowledge that headings do not have the ‘Christian’ adjective in their narratives…except where it is a clergyman who is expected to know better. But as I have always said, we have more Jews (Pharisees and Sadducees) than Christians.
Chuck
August 07, 13:39I disagree, ambivalentone. Christians were violent for religious reasons in the Middle Ages – the Crusades, Thirty Years War, War of the Spanish Succession etc.
Of course, Islam and Christianity are different. Christianity might be unique in its ability to coexist with secularism, even though for the most part those secular places have Christian mores implanted in secular law. Islam on the other hand was developed as an all encompassing way of life. I don’t think it can necessarily yield the political sphere or coexist with secularism. Read Shadi Hamid’s new book for more.
Terrorism is just a violent way of pursuing political goals.
ambivalentone
August 07, 14:17And I have not said all that is not true. All I have said was we have had more Jews than Christians. And yes, the Catholic church at the head of dem ‘holy crusades’, the Witch-burning Southern baptists, the Anglican colonials were more Jewish than the Jews
Tiercel de Claron
August 08, 13:07‘Christians were violent for religious reasons in the Middle Ages – the Crusades, Thirty Years War, War of the Spanish Succession etc.’
Okay,let me come in here.
The Crusades were about territory, who controlled what lands,not religion.
Heck,they even sacked Constantinople at some point and established various fiefs and kingdoms.Like JSU said,religion was merely the excuse,at first,and a thinly veiled one at that.
The Thirty Years War,War of The Spanish Succession…..dude,what the hell are you on about?.
Two cadet branches of the same dynasty dragging who should wear the Crown of Spain had something to do with Christianity how?.
Principalities choosing to assert some measure of independence from the Holy Roman Empire and by extension,the Papacy is now war of religion?.
Do shut the fuck up if you have nothing important to add to the discussion.
Chuck
August 09, 10:26The Crusades were about Acquiring lands the way terrorism is about getting publicity.
Youve done your wiki search, it’s a good first step for you.
Tiercel de Claron
August 09, 14:39Wiki search?
Nodcock,I’m a historian.Medieval history,among others.Ask around,ere you engage me on such.
Actually,a bit of wiki search would do you lots of good before you go making a show of yourself again.
Brian Collins
August 08, 01:30This season 2 of James’s Journal is such a bore. I wish you’d just tell us about stuff going on in your life than this thing has become. I used to love reading James’s Journal those days when there was Lord and Gad.
Truth
August 09, 11:15Actually I’m glad his journals have taken this turn, if not for anything, just to piss off people like you.
He’s growing and he’s begining to think about and ask questions about important things which is more than I can say for you.
Tiercel de Claron
August 09, 14:51You have some growing to do too,Max.
I come in peace though,so don’t take that the wrong way and go all defensive/offensive on me
Pink Panther
August 10, 01:42Lol. You can hope, but you most likely will still get roasted by his offensive.