Ignorant People pose as Progressive

The following is a post that enraged me both because it was ignorant, and because it appeared as part of a discussion reacting to an article on the progressive news source CommonDreams.org. The article itself treated the issues of Blackwater and the US government's attempts to offer monetary compensation to families of those killed by Blackwater security forces but refusing to offer an apology. The article can be read here: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/04/8713/?jal_edit_comments#comment-268931

One of the best features of CommonDreams is that it offers a forum for dialogue among (what I thought were) like-minded progressives regarding the news stories posted. I recently responded to the following post. It was discouraging and upsetting to see someone on the site who thought the following way and considered themselves to be progressive...and in posting my response to him here I am giving in to the urge to publish some points that need to be heard, just for the sake of it.

willdr747 May 5th, 2008 4:54 am
Old Jeffersonian,In reviewing theology, I’m unable to discover where in Christianity it’s taught that you have to either convert everyone or kill them, yet in Islam, it is a main point. We can be distracted by other points but this remains my question:
What is acceptable action to take when someone not only refuses to respect my spiritual beliefs but attacks me for them??
By the way, it is despicable that a “civilian security force” can get away with crimes just because there is no “governing authority”.
Anyone recognize that phrase: no “governing authority”??
BTW, if “Sadly, we have become the most hated people on earth” why are people literally dying to come here??

BetheChange May 5th, 2008 6:52 am (ME)
I am suppressing an exasperated sigh at this point.
Willdr747:
(re: response to old jeffersonian and other posts)
Point 1 on Islam:In reviewing theology, I believe that you will find practical (and no scripture-based) evidence of the Christian mission to obliterate heretics and unbelievers in widespread massacres committed “in God’s name” during the Crusades of the middle ages. Or during the Spanish Inquisition or especially during the colonization of the South American continent during which genocide was perpetrated over and again against the aboriginal peoples with the justification being that they would not convert to christianity and were therefore inhuman. Again, there is no scripture to support this. Nor are there passages in the Koran that explicitly instruct believers “to either convert everyone or kill them”. It is extremely insulting and ignorant for you to state that this is the “main point” of Islam.
This is a religion that is the cultural centrepoint of millions of PEACEFUL communities across the globe and that fact needs to be understood and respected. Exaggerated and negative generalizations such as those you have just made get in the way of cultural understanding, dialogue, and tolerance of religious and cultural differences, especially in the United States.
Regardless of the fact that you are opposed to the war, your rhetoric re: Islam is placing you in a position where you are espousing the same beliefs that have led to the wholesale killing, detention, and torture of innocent Muslims the world over. You must understand that perversion of either religious text and its beliefs remains the responsibility of religious fanatics and extremists, NOT with the religion itself or with ALL of its followers as a whole.
It is especially important here not to place Christianity or any other religion on a pedestal in the process of denigrating Islam. The same violent extremism has occurred within the context of virtually all major religions throughout history. Let’s not pretend that this is some sort of abhorrent suprise unique to Islam that the world has not seen before. Religion, like political power, has been used abusively by fanatics to persecute people for hundreds of years. This is not to say that this is OK, rather, I am making this point to try and pull you out of the closed reality that you and many other Westerners live in at this point, treating the current phenomenon of Islamic extremism as an isolated incident without looking more closely at the modern (1800 forward) historical context surrounding it (and events much like it, see previous comments in paragraph 1).
Point 2: The acceptable action to take when someone does not respect your religious beliefs but attacks your for them is NOT to perpetuate the problem by engaging in the same behaviour (at which point you become exactly like those who have attacked you). Violence begets violence and this approach solves nothing.
The solution is:a) To thoroughly understand the actions taken against you. When I say this I mean that when most educated people examine closely the rise of Islamic fundamentalism they do not find Islam itself as the cause, but poverty, violence and inequity among nations that, incidentally, have been plunged into such state as a direct result of actions engaged in by the United States and other Western powers. (Reading recommendation: “Taliban” by Ahmed Rashid) Afghanistan is the perfect example of this and is a nation which has been torn apart by one war after the other for decades, treated as a pawn by the West (in the Cold war and now in the War on Terror) and plunged into poverty because the western world chose to sit, watch, and pour guns and grenades into the country rather than focusing on infrastructure, hospitals, education, and humanitarian assistance. The obvious result is that the sole remaining pillar of organisation and moral order (Islam) following the obliteration of the state and community was used by the Taliban, Al Quaeda and the mujahedeen to seize power and rally thousands of suffering and disillusioned people with no better option available.
The point here is that it is poverty and violence that has created the monster that is global terrorism, NOT ISLAM!!! Islam is instead perverted by various groups and used as a hook and a line to tow extreme theories of massacre, violence and destruction. It is no coincidence that Islamic extremism takes hold in areas that have been plunged into poverty and which endure violence on a regular basis, such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan, and now Iraq (note that al-quaeda was unable to recruit successfully in Iraq until AFTER it had been bombed to bits by the United States).
b) Following the above, engage in actions that solve the issues underlying extremism - community building, dialogue [AS IN PUBLIC APOLOGIES FOR THE ATROCITIES COMMITTED ABOVE,among others], increasing women’s rights, providing education and healthcare, fighting poverty and giving people BETTER OPTIONS so that they are not disillusioned and desperate to the point where they think guns and guerrila wars are the answer. Human life needs to be respected and valued over military and political objectives, and policies should be based on this simple fact.
c) States (and the people who support their policies) need to STOP engaging in the selfish and violent behaviour detailed in (a). Criminal and unprovoked wars such as this one in Iraq serve as the perfect example to show how the United States (for one) creates its own enemies in such a manner. Any and everyone with any semblance of a conscience should be actively protesting and pushing for an end to policies - note both economic AND military - that perpetuate poverty and/or violence in other nations. Period. That is the cause of this and it needs to be stopped at its root.
Finally, regarding the question “it is despicable that a “civilian security force” can get away with crimes just because there is no “governing authority”:
Let me first point out that this is a gross oversimplification with some major logical flaws.Firstly, Blackwater’s crimes are not despicable “just because” they have gotten away with it. These are crimes that are so atrocious that they are despicable in and of themselves regardless of the judicial consequences or lack thereof.Secondly, the absence of a governing authority in Iraq, though it may have contributed to the fact that Blackwater perpetrators have not been brought to justice, is NOT AN EXCUSE for not punishing these murderers as needed. It is the primary responsibility of the government of origin (THE UNITED STATES) to prosecute those american citizens who commit crimes in foreign territory, ESPECIALLY when they are assisting an American occupying force as part of an AMERICAN MISSION to stabilize the country and are in the business of providing security for AMERICAN CITIZENS. This has been the policy of the United States for as long as I can possibly remember and there is no reason why the responsibility to bring these murderers to justice should fall solely on the shoulders of the Iraqi government. This is yet another example of the Bush admin corruptly betraying the US’s own long-standing state policies. Though the Iraqi government has every right to throw these assholes in jail, it is the United States who has brought them there and it is therefore the United States who should be undertaking the (apparently burdensome) process of condemning them all to life in prison without parole and prosecute them accordingly for war crimes and murder.
Regarding the emphasis you have placed on “no governing authority”: The absence of an effective governing authority in Iraq is directly related to the US Military and the Bush administrations efforts to undermine the installation of a democratic government and to rob the current government of any major powers whatsoever. Why? Because to do so would jeopardize the ability of the US Military and private contractors such as Blackwater to move, operate (and kill) at will within Iraq. This would also jeopardize the economic monopoly that US corporations currently hold in Iraq because, of course, an effective Iraqi government would naturally attempt to regain sovereignty over economic resources and to stabilize the country (i.e. by removing the major destabilizing factor which is private contractors and the US military presence).
willdr747, you keep treating these issues as cut-and-dry and they are certainly not. They are much more complicated and deserve to be considered as such. It is simply not that easy to set up a governing authority in Iraq when the occupying authority is constantly working against that goal.
And on your last point, you are once again over-simplifying things. The idea that Americans have become “the most hated people on earth” is ENTIRELY SEPARATE from the question of why immigrants seek to move to the United States. No matter how hated US policies have become, and no matter how much democracy, human rights, and the standard of living are declining in that country, it still maintains a standard of living, jobs and educational opportunities that far surpass what you find in numerous countries in the developing world. I live and do humanitarian work across Africa, I grew up on the continent, I am African and I for one can attest to that.
It is extremely important not to confuse the issues here and blame current and prospective immigrants to the United States for seeking a better life by blurring their intentions with those of the violent extremists who generally have no desire whatsoever to settle in the country that is the seed of their hatred.
Not all “foreigners” are the same, remember?