One of the most depressing thing you can do is go to the comments section of any article about something happening in a Muslim country.

Now I get that the internet offers a modicum of anonymity that isn’t available in everyday life and that very very few people would actually utter these racist horrible remarks right to my face, but still…

There’s both good and bad to that.

And maybe I’m a bit masochistic in even reading the comments, but I do it with a fair amount of regularity, exercising a good amount of discipline, in order to remind myself what kind of mentality exists under the veneer of civility here in the west.

Goodness, most times I even forget I’m wearing a hijab never mind that I’m in any way ‘different’ from the average Canadian. Reading the comments is an, “Oh yeah, that’s what a lot of people really think when they first look at me!” kind of reminder.

It’s hard watching the news, and even harder watching the ‘lack of news’ on the carnage in Egypt.

Over 600 people killed in Egypt and CNN barely covers it. They’re all over that blonde who got abducted by the family friend.

It’s kind of surreal.

And ask the average American what they think of Muslims and those people ‘over there’ and they somehow think that Arabs are just different. They’re crazy, irrational, and according to the comments on one news story, every day that ends in a ‘y’ is a ‘day of rage’ for them.

Came across an interesting article that I think makes some good points:

http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/the-idiot-s-guide-to-america-s-role-in-the-middle-east-1.1218797

Read another article too but I can’t recall the link. It was talking about ‘winning the hearts of minds’ of the Muslim world, and it made the point that hey, Muslims aren’t as dumb as Obama seems to think they are.

It’s fundamentally about fairness, and there is none when it comes to America’s involvement as an honest broker for peace, especially with regards to Israel and Palestine.

Israel has recently launched an initiative where it actually pays people to defend it online.

Don’t they realize they can do that all they want but it’s not going to  change their image?

All the sweet talk in the world won’t hide the fact that they’re blatantly oppressing people and stealing their land.

The people who are on Israel’s side won’t change their minds of course.

There’s a double standard out there and a good amount of people think that any Muslim gets whatever comes to them.

I remember when the IDF went into Jenin and slaughtered dozens of people and razed buildings to the ground. And the Palestinians called it a massacre and the Israelis argued back saying that enough people hadn’t been killed to warrant the label of ‘massacre’.

And people bought that argument!

Basically Muslims have to stop looking to America or anyone else for approval.

They have to live up to their own standards and values and stop riding the coattails of other people’s agendas, understanding that their own standards and values are pretty darn universal!

Stop hankering after American approval.

It aint coming!

But as long as we have the king of Saudi Arabia coming out on the side of the Egyptian military, justifying the massacre of more than 600 fellow Muslims along with giving the Egyptian military 5 billion dollars in ‘aid’ after Morsi was overthrown then it doesn’t even matter that the American government refuses to call a coup a coup so that they can line the pockets of the murderers too.

And maybe those bigots have a point.

Maybe Muslims do deserve whatever they get!

Until we can stop being divided and conquered, nothing is ever going to change.

God help us all!

It’s enough to knock me off my diet for goodness sakes!

Subhan Allah!