On the home page of the right-leaning blog site Little Green Footballs, a very short, perplexing piece was posted. This blog was not perplexing in a deep-though-inducing manner, rather, perplexing in the sense of how did this get published? The title?… Equating Islam with Terrorism Will Lead to Terrorism The author, remaining nameless, I suspect might have been blogging without his or her morning cup of Joe. This blog seems wildly incomplete and confusing. For example: evidence(?) in the form of quotes are dropped in unaccompanied with a clear explanation as to the reason for their inclusion, no clear cut line of logic is followed, there is an overall lack of flow, and worst, the thesis statement remains elusive. Is the author in fact trying to make the claim that linking Islam and terrorism encourages terrorism? If so, how?
The blog begins with a short quote from the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, M. Tazhin, which read “equating Islam with terrorism is dangerous”, followed with the author’s statement “Because it will lead to…uh…terrorism.” I am assuming this to be the author’s deduction, as there is a period rather than a question mark. Certainly, this brief and flawed statement will need solid evidence to back it. Said blog continues with two “dropped-in” quotes by Tazhin, taken from the recent Inter-Faith Conference. The Minister shared his belief that “it is a great pity that we see incessant attempts to authenticate and unify Islam and terrorism.” Tazhin goes on to state that “the doctrinal substance of Islam is distorted” and that Muslims “cannot help but be offended by such treatment of the Quran.” The author ends this quote with a subtle “Tazhin warns” in order to conjure imagery of Tazhin with his finger waving and eyes squinted. The piece then jumps to another short utterance from the blogger stating, “The amazing thing about these kinds of statements, which are issued almost every day by one Islamic leader or another, is that the people who say them have no apparent recognition that they’re tying themselves into a rhetorical knot.”
Maybe I missed something ominous and threatening in Tazhin’s comments, but for me the quotes only prove that the Islamic community is tired of being linked with the image of some crazed, turban-wearing bomber, rather than a citizen who happens to practice a different faith. If you ask me this blog only illustrates the author’s lack of respect for other’s religious views, not that there is a link between Islam and perpetuating terrorism. The author looses all credibility, in my opinion, with the lack of logic, convincing evidence, credible sources, and clarity of both reason and presentation. While Little Green Football is a right-leaning site (denoting a smaller number of minority readers), citizens will, hopefully, see through this prejudice. Thus, I feel conservative site or not, the audience will find this blog half-baked.
*In addition, I felt somewhat uneasy about interpreting the words of Minister Tazhin without investigating him elsewhere, so I did. In an editorial entitled Kazakhstan Celebrates Eid ul-Fitr festivalhe, Tazhin stated, “I wish the thoughts and prayers of the people who fasted and who celebrate the holiday today to reach Allah. I wish our country to preserve friendship relations among people and religions…All religions have one philosophy – friendship, respect to each other, and giving a helping hand to neighbor.” WOW, sounds like a blood thirsty extremist to me! In all seriousness, shame on you sleepy blogger.
The blog begins with a short quote from the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, M. Tazhin, which read “equating Islam with terrorism is dangerous”, followed with the author’s statement “Because it will lead to…uh…terrorism.” I am assuming this to be the author’s deduction, as there is a period rather than a question mark. Certainly, this brief and flawed statement will need solid evidence to back it. Said blog continues with two “dropped-in” quotes by Tazhin, taken from the recent Inter-Faith Conference. The Minister shared his belief that “it is a great pity that we see incessant attempts to authenticate and unify Islam and terrorism.” Tazhin goes on to state that “the doctrinal substance of Islam is distorted” and that Muslims “cannot help but be offended by such treatment of the Quran.” The author ends this quote with a subtle “Tazhin warns” in order to conjure imagery of Tazhin with his finger waving and eyes squinted. The piece then jumps to another short utterance from the blogger stating, “The amazing thing about these kinds of statements, which are issued almost every day by one Islamic leader or another, is that the people who say them have no apparent recognition that they’re tying themselves into a rhetorical knot.”
Maybe I missed something ominous and threatening in Tazhin’s comments, but for me the quotes only prove that the Islamic community is tired of being linked with the image of some crazed, turban-wearing bomber, rather than a citizen who happens to practice a different faith. If you ask me this blog only illustrates the author’s lack of respect for other’s religious views, not that there is a link between Islam and perpetuating terrorism. The author looses all credibility, in my opinion, with the lack of logic, convincing evidence, credible sources, and clarity of both reason and presentation. While Little Green Football is a right-leaning site (denoting a smaller number of minority readers), citizens will, hopefully, see through this prejudice. Thus, I feel conservative site or not, the audience will find this blog half-baked.
*In addition, I felt somewhat uneasy about interpreting the words of Minister Tazhin without investigating him elsewhere, so I did. In an editorial entitled Kazakhstan Celebrates Eid ul-Fitr festivalhe, Tazhin stated, “I wish the thoughts and prayers of the people who fasted and who celebrate the holiday today to reach Allah. I wish our country to preserve friendship relations among people and religions…All religions have one philosophy – friendship, respect to each other, and giving a helping hand to neighbor.” WOW, sounds like a blood thirsty extremist to me! In all seriousness, shame on you sleepy blogger.
No comments:
Post a Comment