These days, it is easy to hate Islam and, by extension, to hate Muslims. After all, they have been responsible for notorious terrorist attacks, for swamping white homelands with demanding immigrants and imposing a regime of fear upon most of the world. Unfortunately, reality is a bit more complex than Muslim = bad. It shouldn’t be necessary to list specific acts of kindness or courage done by “Muslims”. Or, more accurately perhaps, good people who happen to call themselves “Muslim”. Despite what it says in the Quran, some Muslims have been known to risk their lives to save non-Muslims from death and persecution.
When it comes to Muslim atrocities, such as the recent fatwa issued against a Seattle cartoonist, evil plans are hatched in my mind to put those Muslims in their place. I am inclined to write pages of the Quran, in beautiful Arabic calligraphy, on pig skin and sell them online (note to Muslim extremists: for a million dollars, I might reconsider and refrain from carrying out this plan). But then I think of all the decent Muslims, the ones who would stand up for what is good and right when push comes to shove, and I consider how my actions might radicalize them and convince them that “those infidels really are a bunch of bastards after all.” I wonder if there is a way to insult only the bad Muslims without inflaming the good ones.
Then, in moments of introspection, I remember my own attitude when I lived in Israel. At the time I witnessed Arabs being abused by Jews and I knew that, if I ever had the opportunity to save an innocent Arab from a violent Jewish mob, I would do it. Would my attitude have changed if some Arabs had gotten together and burned a Torah scroll? Not at all; I would have recognized that the actions of a few do not represent the attitudes of them all. Furthermore, I would have understood that such demonstrations might simply be protests against Jewish persecution*. Not necessarily hatred for all Jews. This is a distinction that must be made.
But there are some questions that need to be asked:
If it was one of the Torah scroll burners whom I had the opportunity to save, would I still save him?
If a Muslim were considering saving me from a violent Muslim mob and he knew that I was the one who wrote the Quran on pig skin, would he still save me?
Furthermore, would an impartial jury condemn the Muslim for not saving me?
I do not have the answers to any of these questions.
*My opinion on persecution in Israel has always been that it is a two-way street. Arabs persecute Jews and Jews persecute Arabs, each using the tools at their disposal.
Jewamongyou's Blog 
Understood but that’s a little too expansive an application of methodological individualism.
In a polity, each member must be responsible for the actions of other members of his polity against the members of another polity. This is the principle of accountability – self policing. We don’t let christians (or jews) display unbridled oppression. We punish states for the behavior of their citizens as a means of creating states themselves so that they MUST administer the behavior of their citizens.
Until muslims adopt this symmetry, they’re just a problem. They do not take accountability for their members, and as such we can, and must, hold all of them accountable for the actions of their abusive minority.
This isn’t a moral question. It’s a practical one.
“This isn’t a moral question. It’s a practical one.” I like that.
The fact that muslims run the majority of failed states outside of africa isn’t a mystery.
“…Arabs persecute Jews and Jews persecute Arabs…”
Yeah, right. There is no difference at all between Jews and Arabs. We are all the same people with identical aspirations.
There are 1.85 billion muslims as of the last count and 12-13 million Jews in the world. We are on our way to extinction – why are you so worried and protective about muslims?
I’ll try to explain my position to you.
No, I do not believe Arab Muslims and Jews are the same people. I do believe we have a lot in common. Most of my friends, while I lived in Israel, were Arab Jews – that is to say, Jews whose native language was Arabic. Arabs can be of any religion. I just wanted to clarify that.
1.85 billion Muslims, most of whom are not Arab. 12-13 million Jews, most of whom are not religious at all. This being the case, they (we) would be “ethnic Jews”, which basically means our Jewishness is by virtue of our heritage. I feel very strongly about the survival of the Jewish people. If you read more of my blog, you’ll see this.
I do not worry about Muslims. As a matter of fact, I find them to be more of a problem than anything else. But I do worry about Jews displaying blanket hatred and animosity toward Arabs. The point of this post was to point out that not all Muslims are evil. Not all Arabs are evil either. Like it or not, Israeli Jews do, in fact, persecute Arabs – though not in the same ways that Arab Muslims persecute Jews.
Well, most Jews I meet and talk to always try to convince me how wonderful muslims are. The fact is that the only nationality Jews really, truly and unequivocally hate is other Jews. As for Israel Jews persecuting arabs – I am not even going to argue. Just read this article:
http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/muslim-germanophobia-in-of-all-places-germany/
That’s a good site eddie, thanks. It still does not change the fact that there is anti-Arab persecution in Israel. I’ve seen it.