Mutual Respect
Wednesday
And someone made this comment: "Respect other peoples belief and they will respect yours."
Under ordinary circumstances, that seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to say. But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.
This is how I responded: "Should I respect another's belief that I am a kafir, an unbeliever, and therefore fair game for abuse? And if someone is following Allah's teaching that Muslims are the best of people and nonbelievers are the worst of people, will that person really respect my beliefs if I respect his? And what good would it do if he did? So I respect his belief that I am an unworthy human being, and he respects my belief that we should all live and let live? What has my offering of respect done for either of us?"
3 comments:
A great response, and thank you for doing so! So many people refuse to speak up on places like Facebook. Their reasoning is, "I use FB for fun/relaxation. I don't want to get into an argument."
The real reason is cowardice. If we cannot stand up in an easy way, on the internet, how on earth are we going to stand up in the real world?
I doubt you'll get any responses other than the usual name calling. But if you do, please share them.
It was worth to note this asymmetry! It can be compared with the "mutual respect" of a sheep and a wolf.
Someone just emailed this comment:
I think it is more important to respect that others have a right to believe what they want. Not because it will facilitate a reciprocal belief, but because it is the basis of freedom.
I don't have to respect WHAT you believe and you don't have to respect what I believe. As long as what you and I believe does not cause us to take action that will bring harm to others.
This is what surprises me most about the radical Islam issue,
Even though they are taking actions to have a harmful impact on societies worldwide, we seem to still do nothing and are fixated on what they believe. We are not going to change what they believe but we can protect ourselves from being harmed.
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