Overture

"One" is a thirty something caucasian male of English birth, Asian residency, mixed politics, a strong social conscience & an arguably overly opinionated mind. A champagne socialist, armchair environmentalist and an ardent future activist to a wonderful cause as yet unknown. Married to a gorgeous Floridian belle, Father of an amazing 12 year old daughter and a beautiful half English, half Welsh, half Scottish, quarter part Irish American made in Singapore boy.


As a product of some interesting genetics, untold maternal sacrifice and much good fortune the ramblings that follow may prove either of interest or objection to the casual reader. Sometimes I write often, sometimes not often at all but when and if I do in future I truly look forward to sharing my perspective through this new window with the world.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

From Murfreesboro To Mecca

I figure an update to my ramblings are probably quite overdue as the past month or so of my life’s been spent sharing an amazingly wonderful time with my family as opposed to getting aggravated by idiots and posting my thoughts.

After 2 fantastic days at Disney with my thankfully super healthy, super fit 10 year old daughter I promised to pen an observational record on obesity and in particular my belief that many parents in the world should be charged with attempted murder or at the very least Child endangerment for the irreparable damage their lifestyles are doing to their kids. This I fully intend to put together and post another time but for today I can feel myself being pulled in a different direction, that simple vain of Religious Fanaticism and the unbelievably hypocritical fear mongering that I sadly see today at every turn.

I’m not really a religious man, I attended a boarding school with twice daily multi denominational services & I’ve listened since to fascinating people from many religious persuasions but I’ve also seen the true horror of hate, fear and abuse that’s packaged by extremists within virtually all major churches of both East and West. Whilst I’m not a strict follower of His Holiness the Dalai Lama the Buddhists strike me as the only probable exceptions to this as they don’t seek to strike fear in the name of a “God” or potential “Hell” but rather they seek nirvana for all in the form of perfect peace and true enlightenment. I’ve felt for a while that whilst worshiping a mystical force might be beyond my personal comprehension that taking the consistent themes of love, peace, charity and truth from the ancient worlds very similar Abrahamic scriptures can only be a very good foundation on which to base a personal ideology and way of life.

With this religious freedom in mind I feel I can be broadly impartial when I take a look at the raging debate over Mosque construction and the insanity that I hear on the matter across the widespread media. I’m certainly not a lover of evil Islamic Clerics preaching Jihad on the Jew’s and I naturally abhor those that seek death in the name of “The Prophet” but I also get a shiver down my spine when listening to their equally as imbalanced piers in the Baptist Bible belt and without fail feel nauseous each time I read of the latest Catholic priest to terrorise an entire generation of prepubescent alter boys and drive many into a life of drugs and ultimate despair.

The fear mongering that I hear today from the Pat Robertson’s & Laurie Cardoza-Moore’s of this world sounds an awful lot to me like the kind of rhetoric Joe McCarthy was spilling in the 1950’s… “Beware the Communist !”… “Is your neighbor a secret Muslim ?”... “Lock up your Children, There’s a rogue Cleric on the loose !!!”... “The Reds are coming the Reds are coming !”… “... Its all pretty interchangeable stuff yet we look back to the 50’s, or the 60’s and civil liberties and we shake our heads at the stupidity of society whilst at the same time we allow the 2010 version of fear mongering to resonate in peace.

If a black kid wants to play in the sand pit with a white kid then that’s just great, if two same sex consenting adults want to take vows and commit their lives to each other then that’s just fine, if someone in my neighborhood wants to fast for a month and prey to Mecca then who the hell am I to stand in his or her way.

I understand the sensitivity with regard to the Ground Zero Mosque debate and you know what I probably agree that it would be better for all if out of sensitivity that particular plan voluntarily relocated itself 5 blocks or so north but this latest fracas in Murfreesboro Tennessee is just sickening to me in its obvious and blind hypocrisy. I see some of the most fanatical religious bigots on the planet strutting their stuff on TV with the goal of stopping a Mosque with 30+ years of unquestioned background from expanding its premises as the 1,000 strong congregation are finding the current 2,200 square foot of prayer floor a little cramped, their reason ??? Fear that this larger facility will attract religious extremists to the area… Your kidding me right… LOOK IN THE MIRROR !!!!... So its ok to build a 50,000 square foot mega church with an annual profit margin of a gazillions dollars (a large chunk of which I’m sure get siphoned off to pay for private jets and Lithuania’s finest hookers) but a 6,000 sq foot Islamic center will supposedly bring pariahs of terror to the local streets after Friday prayers… Right…. Ok, I’m not being fair here, I’m sorry.. The argument put forward by the delightful Ms Cardoza-Moore is that apparently some trustee of the existing Mosque once posted an anti Semitic headline on his MySpace page…. That’s it ? That’s the sole reason you want to stop 1,000 perfectly reasonable Muslims from rebuilding their place of worship ? A post on an individuals MySpace page ? Your serious ?... If someone’s doing something illegal (such as a radical anti Semitic inciting violence or maybe a Catholic priest molesting a choir boy) then call the FBI !.. Oh you did that already and neither they nor anyone else found anything amiss … Alrighty then... My suggestion ? Grow up and start loving thy neighbour (Mathew 19:19) as otherwise your hate will feed their extremists and the ensuing circle will forever remain vicious.

1 comment:

  1. It all comes down to CASH. Tragically most churches is the US today are nothing more than cash machines to benefit their leaders. What better way to rev up the cash inflow than generating fear and terror into the minds of simpletons who have become conditioned to shake and tremble at the sight of a "Brown Person", whether they are middle eastern, IE they must be a violent terrorist or Hispanic, IE they must be an illegal alien here to sell you drugs and rape your daughter. So long as US citizens are so easy to scam.... the scammers will be out there preaching their "Fear of the week" in order to fund their lavish lifestyles...

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