I ask the question because of reaction I received about my post on OS yesterday, "God Is Not Allah." 153 views, 14 other comments and one favorable rating later, I am speechless at the reaction.
I will leave you to research it if you feel a need to read it, but in it, I basically took Catholics and Muslims to task in Malayasia.: the Catholics for using the word "Allah " to represent God and the Muslims for their predicatable violent reaction. I also admitted I did not know where Malaysia was and went further stating I don't really care where it is.
The topic or incident could have happened anywhere, Pureto Rico, Chad, Canada, Monaco, you name it and my feelings would be the same. (And yes, I know where each of those countries is located.) Yet I was labeled ignorant for not knowing or caring where Malaysia is (which I have since located,) told I don't know there is a God and many other comments, some accurate, some not.
I welcome any comments, and honestly appreciate the time taken to share them with me. I also take responsibility for not knowing yesterday where Malaysia is. But I see no relevance of geography to my main point. There are many countries I don't wish to visit and don't care where their locations are. That doesn't make me ignorant.
Which brings me to my question now. I professed choosing to be politically incorrect in yesterday's column. Why is that bad? Have we taken hurt feelings and supposed sensitivities and offences so far that we cannot tolerate hearing another opinion? If one states he doesn't care about the location of a country, why does that get others in a lather?
I don't want to live my life tip toeing around sensitive issues trying to appease each side. I don't try to force anyone to become a Christian, learn where a country is, know political forces of any one area, before I listen to him or her. I can agree or disagree. But I don't insult those with whom I disagree.
All I can see in political correctness is intolerance right now. I think it was created to show tolerance. But the message got lost the day some felt slighted, had hurt feelings, felt more accepted as victims and took their toys and went home.
I'm still here. My feelings aren't hurt. I've been called a communist, a Kool-Aid drinker, a socialist, a leftist and worse over several months. But once I step over a polictically correct trip wire, democracy is stifled and a verbal explosion occurs.
Believe in Allah if you want. I don't advise it. And know where all countries are if you want. Just don't label me as ignorant on the basis of geography, political incorrectness or of my knowledge of my God and Christ.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
2) Not to get too deeply into the Malay melee' over the Catholic church's use of the word Allah instead of God, but I listened to the NPR story about this the other day. My understanding of the story was that Malay law grants freedom of religion as long as it does nothing to interfere or prosletize against the "official religion" of Islam. To our Western/occidental eyes this may be preposterous but it IS Malay law. There are strong suggestions that the Catholic church has long treaded a fine line on this in Malaysia.
But, to have no idea of where Malaysia is and to have no interest where it is and/or what the culture is like and then to comment and judge is pretty arrogant, narrow and decidedly un-Christian.
I read and commented in your earlier post...and most of the comments there were fairly benign. Mine actually asked you to explain what your point was.
The very last thing in the world anyone here in OS wants you to do is to "tiptoe around sensitive issues." Fact is, there is very little tiptoeing done here.
But if others come clomping in...don't complain because you expected them to be tiptoeing back at cha!
I didn't detect a lack of political correctness. I detected ignorance. Ignorance about geography which you admitted, and ignorance about religion (to which you appear ignorant of your ignorance).
You write: "There are many countries I don't wish to visit and don't care where their locations are. That doesn't make me ignorant."
Yes it does. It makes you ignorant in the 'unaware' sense of the word, not the 'rude' sense of the word. I believe it was the 'unaware' sense of the word that the commenters on the previous post were using. It is also the meaning I'm using in this comment.
There is nothing wrong with ignorance, per se; we all suffer from it in a whole variety of topics.
Most people however choose not to lecture on topics of which they are ignorant. I believe it was this point to which your readers were responding.
Perhaps your real message in that post was lost to your readers for that reason?
I have no problem with political incorrectness. Go for it.
Nor am I bothered by ignorance of geography (although you must admit that it is somewhat ironic that you wear your ignorance of geography like a badge when you are commenting on foreign affairs-- a bit counter-intuitive, don't you think).
What does bother me about your post is your willful denial of the facts. That's not POLITICAL incorrect, that's just incorrect.
It is not a matter of opinion: Christianity is not originally a Roman or an Anglo-Saxon religion.
Jesus Himself spoke the Semitic language of Aramaic. The word He used for God was etymologically equivalent to the word ALLAH -- the word LATER adopted by the Arab Muslims who spoke a Semitic language closely related to Aramaic (the way that Spanish words are closely related to Italian words).
Your opinion as expressed in the post is factually incorrect and displays fundamental ignorance about the history of your own religion.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam all worship the same God: Elohim in Hebrew, Allah in Arabic. The Koran is mostly a re-telling of the stories of the Old and New Testaments, with new material added by Mohammed.
Arabic Catholics used the word Allah since before Islam even existed.
Saying that Allah is not based on the very same root-word as Elohim is incorrect, no matter what you want to believe.
Sorry!