It’s been ages since I’ve blogged anything, and I don’t quite know why? It isn’t that there aren’t plenty of subjects that I could write about, it’s just that I find myself lacking motivation and time.
Since my last post, the world has pretty much gone berserk. I mean seriously. Last 12 months include the election farce in the US, consequently followed by a Trump presidency and all the drama, nepotism and blatant corruption that it has brought with it. In Europe, we are struggling with the alt-right’s rise and dealing with devastating tragedies in London, Manchester and anew with the fire in London. My heart goes out to all the families and persons affected by these tragedies.
The Euro-centricity though, makes any other attacks and tragedies drown in the background noise. There was a bomb attack in China, which prompted only a few small headlines. And then of course there is Syria, which is barely mentioned in the news anymore since more important people are dying (pardon the sarcasm).
Syria, the apparently never-ending source of human tragedy. Innocent people are being killed, caught in the bombing as ISIS is being hunted down without much care for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the cities being bombed. Children are suffering, and the world has shut its eyes and ears. If the situation in Syria is not clear to you, I recommend watching The White Helmets on Netflix. The voluntary first responders dig out families, kids, dead or alive from the rubble of houses bombed from above. Mind you, only the government and the foreign countries participating in the war have airplanes. The cruelty of so called leaders is mind boggling.
But enough about Syria. Back to Europe, well, kind of, since it’s all intertwined.
I have a theory. It’s about terrorist groups like ISIS and why they do what they do. I mean, ordinary Muslims are just as outraged as anyone else at these idiots killing people in the name of their religion. In my eyes ISIS does not represent Islam any more than the KKK represents Christianity. There are nearly 2 billion Muslims, and for some reason they are being judged by the actions of a few thousand lunatics. No one asked Christians to denounce the actions of Breivik when he attacked in Norway. Catch my drift? No one thought it was because of his faith.
And this brings me back to my theory. Deep down I don’t even consider these terrorists Muslim. All they do is harm the Ummah. They harm the Muslims all over the world. And believe it or not, this is exactly what the terrorist leaders want. They don’t want Muslims to have normal lives, to melt into the population of their location, to fit in. No. Their objective is to make ‘the others’ hate – dislike – discriminate against Muslims. Because if they don’t, then the terrorists will not have anything to base their propaganda on. If you are a part of society, if you feel like you belong, why would you harm your friends, your family? My point exactly, you wouldn’t.
Same goes for the school shooters etc. Often the attackers have a history of being bullied, or socially shunned for whatever reason. And it’s this feeling of not fitting in, not being accepted, that the terrorist leaders want. They want people to feel out of place, so that their propaganda will work. If you are happy with your life, if you feel like you fit in, why would you leave it all for a (fake) promise of something better? The terrorist groups seek out these young men and women, who have little to none grasp of their religion, a lot of frustration against the society they are living in, and with a bleak prospect of a future. These youngsters are then promised things, and ultimately brainwashed, to do whatever the terrorist organization wants, to finally make them feel like they fit in somewhere. Now, if these people knew their religion and not just the out of context taken cropped parts of the Quran, that even the alt-right uses to taint the religion with, they would know that what they are being brainwashed to do is against Islam. If they felt like a part of society and had hopes for a brighter future, there would be no ground for terrorist ideas to grow in. And this doesn’t go just for so called religious terrorists. It goes for all extremism.
So, the division of us vs them plays ultimately into the hands of these terrorist groups.
I can’t be the only one that sees it like this?
Sorry for the overly political and serious post. Next time I’ll try to keep it a bit lighter. But with the state of the world being what it is, who knows.
Sunsets and more 