Hello, protesters,
Over the last few weeks, you have made your rage clear to about everyone in this world. We have seen you on TV, online and in the papers. We couldn’t ignore you if you wanted to. So, congratulations. You have achieved at least one of your goals.
Clearly you and I have different viewpoints on limits of speech, and on how binding the rules of your religion are for those who don’t practice it. I am not going to belabor those differences here, and I am not going to argue.
But there is another matter that I wanted to bring to your attention.
There is a tragedy going on for Muslims as we speak. One that actually involves human death and suffering.
You know about this country name Syria, where the population is overwhelmingly Muslim? Since the people of Syria rose up against the murderous Assad dictatorship in March of 2011, nearly 30,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians. And what have we heard from you? Not a peep. I am not a Muslim. Worse, you can call me an apostate. And yet I care more about the striving of these Muslims for freedom and for their cruel treatment at the hands of their fellow Muslims than you do.
When someone makes a video you don’t like, you burn embassies, kill diplomats, riot on the streets, send death threats, demand changes in the international law. When a brutal murderer kills your brothers and sisters by the tens of thousand, you look the other way.
You know, you could have made a difference. What if you showed up by the Syrian embassy in your country rather than the American embassy? What if you protested and demanded an end to the killings? What if Assad saw anger raging at him from North Africa to Indonesia? You think he could get away with this genocide as he has been? You don’t care, do you.
So here is my question for you. Suppose your prophet lived today. Do you think he would be bothered more by the fact that his followers are massacred by the tens of thousands in Syria, or would he care more about a poorly done video insulting him? This is not a rhetorical question. I really want to know what you think he would do.
If you think he would care more about what would happen in Syria, then your actions have not just been pointless, they have been a disastrous waste of time and resources and they have cost lives.
If you think he would care more about the video, then, I am genuinely thankful to you for this insight into Islamic mindset. You know, if it weren’t for people like you, I’d likely still be calling myself a Muslim.
