Monday, June 1, 2009

The Terrorism of Labeling

I've always despised the word "terrorism".  Just the way it was used, solely targeting specific ethnic groups was extremely grotesque and ignorant to me.  I thought of the many many incidents - DOMESTIC incidents that occur where masses of innocent people are killed for reasons unknown.  Columbine massacre.  Oklahoma City bombings.  The KKK. The Jewish Defense League.  The list goes on.

I want to refer you to an interesting article published on the Huffington Post.  It starts off 
"Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism. It's shocking to write. But it's time to start calling it what it is."

My first instinct upon reading this article was to immediately post it on my blog, with a description of how terrorism should NOT just be denoted to people of Arab of Islamic ethnicity.  That terrorism goes far beyond the Gulf and Arab world and is located within the U.S. among OTHER faiths.  But then I started thinking, really thinking about the whole concept.
I find it somewhat.... interesting when people attach a faith to the word "terrorism".  Seems like an oxymoron to me.  It creates a feeling of ignorance and antipathy surrounding a certain religion.  It builds upon our already looming sense of misunderstanding of each other that exists in today's world.  I strongly feel we need to reconsider and reflect on how we label certain acts.  

One person's 'Christian Fundamental Terrorist' is another person's devout leader.  One person's 'Radical Islamist' is another person's desperate 17-year old orphan.  
Don't take this the wrong way.  I am not excusing these random acts of violence.  However, I AM making a statement that religion does not equate terrorism and should not be forced into the equation because it will add up to increasing hate.