Wednesday, January 2, 2002
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Wednesday, January 2, 2002 |
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Ignorance unchecked breeds hatred I hope that it is just ignorance that fuels people to write articles like 'Sad day' for Fayetteville and that people like Chuck E. Bryant are few and far between in this world. It is imperative to understand other people's cultures and religions precisely to avoid more tragedies like that on Sept. 11. It is ignorance that promotes tragedy and death because we always fear what we do not know. And, as far as saying that Jesus Christ is the savior, I do believe that when you pose the question in church, that will be the unanimous answer. Saying that Jesus Christ is the right choice is an opinion, absolutely not a fact. Religion itself is a belief not based on reason or facts. And, whether Chuck E. Bryant wants to believe it or not, other religions do exist, and what makes America great is the fact that these religions can peacefully co-exist. And, I think it's sickening how Bryant misinterprets the intent of the founding fathers in this article. America we a haven for people being religiously persecuted, so how could the founding fathers be opposed to religious freedom? If there can be a church placed on every spare piece of land in our community, why cannot there be one mosque built? Why is it so hard for people to accept differences among people? Do we honestly want a bunch of cookie-cutter citizens believing in the same thing? Why then should we even have a democracy? I think Bryant would prefer a fascist dictatorship with his extremist views. One thing we must remember is that terrorists are not nations or religions, but individuals. We cannot blame Islam for what happened on Sept. 11; it was specific individuals responsible and terrorist exist in every nation and religion, including America. Let us just reflect on our own country for a minute. Have we already forgotten about Nichols and McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombings? They were homebred terrorists. But, we wouldn't feel justified to generalize Americans based on Nichols and McVeigh and their actions. And, would we used the KKK as an example of Christianity is all about, then how can we use Bin Laden as the example of what Islam is about? Human nature is to classify, and religion is way to divide and classify people. I personally do not place myself into one of these pretentious categories because it does not mean anything when people blindly follow customs without using intellect to decipher right from wrong. That is the issue at hand here; it is a matter of ignorance v. intelligence, not Islam v. Christianity. People like Bryant are the epitome of ignorance and ignorance unchecked breeds hatred. It is disheartening to see people like Bryant in the home of Martin Luther King Jr. who had a dream of peaceful co-existence of all people. I guess Martin Luther King Jr. would just have to keep dreaming when there is still such hateful sentiment today, almost a half a century later. Lakshmi Sridaran College freshman
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