What Exactly is Radical Islam?

If you came to this post looking for a description of Radical Islam, I apologize because that is not the purpose of this post.   The purpose of this post is to wonder why the Media, Terrorism experts, law enforcement and politicians love to use that term.  I would be less puzzled if they used similar terms when talking about other wackos like the members of the Westboro baptist church.  Yet I never hear them being referred to as radicalized Christians.

I have not heard that term used for the Norway attacker, nor for Timothy McVeigh.  In neither case was their religion brought into question, nor was there any determination to go into churches and see if anything there was radicalizing them. 

For example according to this article (http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=15532).

"There is no doubt that Timothy McVeigh was deeply influenced by the Christian Identity movement. Christian Identity is a profoundly racist and theocratic form of faith that developed in the late 1970s and spread like wildfire through rural communities throughout the U.S. in the 1980s."

So why is the religious angle important ONLY when the suspects/perps are from Islam or from another non Christian religion?  

What exactly is so different about an Islamist radical, a Hindu radical, a Christian radical or for that matter a secular one?  It really does not matter where they got their beliefs from what matters is what they did with them.

If you think about it the Boston attacks killed fewer people (although the injuries were greater in number) than the Newtown shootings, the Aurora shootings, or even the 2011 Tucson killings, these were all white males and none of them were Muslim.  

I think that we should lump all these people under the same term, either you call them all terrorists, or you call them all extremists, or fanatics.  But to single out a religion in one situation, but not in all of them, to me seems rather bigoted.

If anything the Boston attacks show exactly why racial profiling makes no sense, these criminals can be anyone, and can look like anyone. 

Walking with the Dinosaurs

There are days when you move off the beaten track, sometimes the result is amazing, sometimes horrible and other times you hardly notice the difference.  Today was one of those days for me.

I had figured that today would be a lost day, I had to take my car in for what I thought were repairs that would take some time and would be expensive, as I could not get an appointment earlier than noon I figured my day was shot.  So I admit that when I set off towards some fast food restaurants to get food after I dropped off my car I was not in the best of moods.

As I was walking a well dressed, elderly gentleman stopped me.  I could tell from his face that at some point in his life he had suffered a sever and disfiguring injury which appeared to have left him partially blind and made it hard for him to talk.  He asked me were a particular street was I told him I did not know, which was true.  He then asked me if I had 50 cents to spare for a bus token, I told him I did not have any which was not true.

I did not get far before guilt set in, what was 50 cents after all, I looked back and noticed that he was walking slowly with a limp and leaning heavily on a walking stick.  It did not take much time for me to catch up with him and press a dollar into his hand.  He seemed genuinely grateful and thanked me.

I kept walking towards an intersection, when I got to it I noticed a police car stopped waiting for the light to turn, the light had just turned green for him, yet he reversed a little and waved me past (there was nobody else in the intersection with him).  I was a little surprised but waved my thanks and crossed.  I now had to cross a wider road, but a similar thing happened, before the light turned for me, the only car in the intersection that had right of way over me, waved me across.

You have to understand, I live in Connecticut, the citizens of this state have many positive qualities, random acts of kindness (in my experience) are not unfortunately among them.  That this would happen twice in the span of a few minutes was rather surprising to me.  My surprise continued when as I finally reached my destination as I was heading towards the door a gentleman rushed to the door (not to go through it before me as was typical) but to open it asking "can I carry your bag for you?".  I was so surprised I nearly dropped said bag which contained my work computer.

Perhaps it was all a coincidence, very likely had I not given the person the money, perhaps all of this would have happened anyway.  Or perhaps all these people had seen that I had given the money and for that reason were more kindly disposed towards me.  I don't know and to be honest I don't care, it just felt nice.

I drove a couple of hours into Massachusetts to do some shopping at one of my favorite stores, on the way home I decided to go straight rather than take the turn off towards the highway.  I figured I would drive for a while and then turn around and go home.  It turns out that the road I was on actually ran alongside the highway heading south, the direction I was headed in but was a much more picturesque and pleasant drive.

On the way I passed a sign that said "Dinosaur Tracks", I had the time so I made a U-turn and went back to the area.  It was a tiny park near the river and close to the wall that supported the road was a flat rock surface on which were clearly visible several Dinosaur tracks.  It was one of those small mind blowing experiences where suddenly either the vastness of nature of the immenseness of time and the universe are right there for you to touch and feel.  As I looked down at the tracks made millions of years ago by something that had stood in the same place I was now standing I felt a sense of awe and timelessness.

Because these tracks were just there, out in the open as if they had been made a few months ago, and not behind glass, or in a museum somewhere, the feeling was much stronger and personal.  I was in essence 'walking with the dinosaurs'.

Sometimes moving off the beaten track has resulted in me getting lost, or being disappointed in what I found, or wasting time.  Today it was wonderful experience that reminded me of my more giving side, the kindness of others and the vastness of time.  Not bad for a day that I had written off as a 'lost' day :)

Anyhow, after that I kept on driving, ended up driving through a small town, finding a beautiful old warehouse that I took pictures of just before getting back on the highway much closer to home than I thought I would be.

The Perception of Racism

Most of us at some time or other will feel that others are viewing us differently, often negatively because of some visible factor such as race, gender, national origin, disability, looks, weight and dress (indicating class).  Sometimes it will be because they have found something out about is such as our sexual orientation, religion, or national origin. 

For some this feeling will come more often than it will for others, depending on what community they live in and in what way they are seen as different.   The more often the feeling and the more visible the difference the harder it is sometimes to know if someone is treating you differently because of that (your race, gender, class etc), or because of something else (they are having a bad day, they are unpleasant to everyone, they just don't like you or you did something to offend them).

I am currently living in New England and often find myself the only black female (often the only black person) in social situations.  What made me think about this today are three separate recent situations where I was either the only black person present or the only black female present and the interactions I had with the people that were present.

I will just tell the stories the way I saw them and leave you to decide for yourselves what to take from them if anything.  In the first situation I was taking a continuing education course, it lasted for three days.  I got to the first class early, although because I had registered for the class late, I was not on the roster for the first day, but the same was true of others in that class.  The people in the class were friendly and courteous. 

One thing I did notice with the instructor was that when he was discussing the photo's taken by the men in the class his comments were very positive even when he critiqued the pictures, but when it came to the women his comments were much more negative in general.  As this was directed to other women, I did not feel that they were racially motivated although the question about sexism does arise.

In the second situation I was taking a one time meditation course, I arrived a little late, but the class had not started, (after a few mins, as I was close to it and there was noise from another class, I closed the door and based on the reaction and the comments of the instructor I could tell that she would have wanted me to wait. 

My name was not on the registration and she told me to write down my phone number and address, I understand why, but she could have handled the situation with a little more discretion by saying for example "If your name is not on the list, please write your phone and address next to your name"

As the class went on it became clear that her interactions with me were much less positive than with the other women (I was the only black person in that class, the class and instructor were all female), it was so blatant that I did something uncharacteristic I challenged her about it.  She did not take to that too kindly either. 

It is hard to know if it was simply that I was late, closed the door and was not in the register for the class that led to the negative interactions, if for some reason she just did not like me, or if it was because I was black, or any combination of the above.

In the last situation I was taking a meditation class, I arrived early.  I could tell from the reaction of the two women, the one running the class and the one hosting it that they were probably not used to seeing black women in that class.  They were over friendly and over concerned about being nice (compared to the way the treated the other people in the class), this over solicitous behavior was later extended to the black man that came in with his white wife, though not to his wife.  She hugged him once or twice before he left and hugged me at least three times before I left.  She often stood close to me and made a point of remembering my name and asking me how I felt.  While this behavior tends to make me a little uncomfortable (I am an introvert), I don't really mind it, I know it is just a way to try and make sure they are being inclusive if there has not been much interaction with people who are not white. 

The only negative note to that situation was the store keeper who at one point asked me if I worked.  I am not over 60, I am not a teen, I clearly don't have small children and am not married, so I am not exactly sure why she would have asked if I worked, the assumption should have been that I did work.  Again, was that a racially driven question or not?

The truth is that even if some of those behaviors were motivated by racism and sexism, the people themselves would probably have been horrified if anyone suggested they were either racist or sexist.  These are clearly well educated liberals living in the north.  However, their lack of interaction with people of color might have had some effect on the way the behaved towards me. 

But then again, their behavior might have had nothing to do with racism at all, these could simply have been people having a bad day, or who either (for whatever reason), very much liked me or disliked me.  Unfortunately when you are a visible minority it is hard sometimes to know which is true.