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Here is an article about a young boy suspended from school because he was talking to his friend about video games and said the word "Taliban". A Muslim girl heard this and reported him and now the mortified boy is suspended from school because of it.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/educ...n_comment.html
Seriously, this article is making me think about offensive things and how we deal with them.
First and foremost, I think as Muslims we need to grow a thicker skin. People will always find offensive things to say about us and it will never go away. The best thing to do is ignore the offensive people. By doing so, their words fall on deaf ears.
For example, let's say the boy did refer to the Muslim girl as a Taliban. If she just ignored him, that would be the end of it. Instead, she made a big deal out of it and now a kid is being suspended and it's making headlines. Look at the comments on the news page and on the forums. They now think we are hyper-sensitive and now non-Muslims will fall into two categories: the ones who are too scared to say anything about Islam (good or bad) in fear of offending us, or those who purposely insult Islam because they know they will get a reaction from us.
Another example: the South Park cartoons. In April, South Park aired an episode with Santa in a bear suit (which the children in the cartoon said was Muhammad). Muhammad is not seen in this episode whatsoever. If any Muslims were offended by the thought of Santa in a bear suit, they should have just kept quiet. But because we had extremists make threats of violence, it prompted "Draw Muhammad Day" the next month because people knew they would get a reaction out of us. If Muslims just ignored the initial South Park episode, nothing would have happened. Instead, extremists decided to sh!t a brick and what followed was the largest Islamophobia wave in years. Draw Muhammad Day, the Park 51 (Ground Zero Mosque) protests, and Burn a Qu'ran Day were all results of Muslims protesting trivial things.
To summarize, if we see something offensive, the best thing to do is ignore it. If some idiots like Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh do say offensive things against Islam, they are basically giving Dawah to non-Muslims. If we react peacefully (or not at all), then we will have more people see Islam for what it truly is instead of extreme Muslims making Islam the laughing stock of the world.
And that's the Memo.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/educ...n_comment.html
Seriously, this article is making me think about offensive things and how we deal with them.
First and foremost, I think as Muslims we need to grow a thicker skin. People will always find offensive things to say about us and it will never go away. The best thing to do is ignore the offensive people. By doing so, their words fall on deaf ears.
For example, let's say the boy did refer to the Muslim girl as a Taliban. If she just ignored him, that would be the end of it. Instead, she made a big deal out of it and now a kid is being suspended and it's making headlines. Look at the comments on the news page and on the forums. They now think we are hyper-sensitive and now non-Muslims will fall into two categories: the ones who are too scared to say anything about Islam (good or bad) in fear of offending us, or those who purposely insult Islam because they know they will get a reaction from us.
Another example: the South Park cartoons. In April, South Park aired an episode with Santa in a bear suit (which the children in the cartoon said was Muhammad). Muhammad is not seen in this episode whatsoever. If any Muslims were offended by the thought of Santa in a bear suit, they should have just kept quiet. But because we had extremists make threats of violence, it prompted "Draw Muhammad Day" the next month because people knew they would get a reaction out of us. If Muslims just ignored the initial South Park episode, nothing would have happened. Instead, extremists decided to sh!t a brick and what followed was the largest Islamophobia wave in years. Draw Muhammad Day, the Park 51 (Ground Zero Mosque) protests, and Burn a Qu'ran Day were all results of Muslims protesting trivial things.
To summarize, if we see something offensive, the best thing to do is ignore it. If some idiots like Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh do say offensive things against Islam, they are basically giving Dawah to non-Muslims. If we react peacefully (or not at all), then we will have more people see Islam for what it truly is instead of extreme Muslims making Islam the laughing stock of the world.
And that's the Memo.
<--- I look like that and when I'm not :zzz:, I'm usually like like:banbear:and like:rotfl:but sometimes I'm like 
as well.
and His Messenger :saw:, whatsoever.
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