Ground-zero mosque
Aug. 18th, 2010 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackhttp://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012540.html#012540
There are plans to build a mosque and islamic centre next to the site of the awful twin towers terrorist attack, supposedly representing how Islam can be, you know, normal and positive. Now, various people who (a) are Muslim or (b) live in New York, have spoken up why this is a good or bad idea.
However, many people who are neither Muslim, nor live in New York, have chosen to take the interesting tactic in a war on terror, of finding all people who share are sort of characteristic with the terrorists, and screaming "YOU'RE SCUM AND WE HATE YOU" at them.
Now, the this is a singularly unhelpful (as well as repugnant) strategy. The thing is, in any sort of war, the purpose is not to create MORE enemies, it's to create FEWER enemies. If you're blessed with a small finite number of enemies it may be practical (whether or not ethical) to simply kill them all. However, violently discriminating against large numbers of people, both those who might have had any sort of sympathy with the original terrorists, and billions who didn't have any at all, is not going to improve matters. It's going to make matters MUCH WORSE.
If person A attacks you and person B says "Oh no, are you ok?" then retaliating against person B and saying "why are you on the side of the person A scum?" will probably NOT make person B say "You're right, I'm sorry, let me make it up to you". The BEST you can hope for is a sort of pyrrhic rhetorical victory where person B says "Very well, have it your own way, ok, I WILL be on person A's side, take that." That might be rhetorically satisfying, but notice that it didn't actually make things BETTER.
There are plans to build a mosque and islamic centre next to the site of the awful twin towers terrorist attack, supposedly representing how Islam can be, you know, normal and positive. Now, various people who (a) are Muslim or (b) live in New York, have spoken up why this is a good or bad idea.
However, many people who are neither Muslim, nor live in New York, have chosen to take the interesting tactic in a war on terror, of finding all people who share are sort of characteristic with the terrorists, and screaming "YOU'RE SCUM AND WE HATE YOU" at them.
Now, the this is a singularly unhelpful (as well as repugnant) strategy. The thing is, in any sort of war, the purpose is not to create MORE enemies, it's to create FEWER enemies. If you're blessed with a small finite number of enemies it may be practical (whether or not ethical) to simply kill them all. However, violently discriminating against large numbers of people, both those who might have had any sort of sympathy with the original terrorists, and billions who didn't have any at all, is not going to improve matters. It's going to make matters MUCH WORSE.
If person A attacks you and person B says "Oh no, are you ok?" then retaliating against person B and saying "why are you on the side of the person A scum?" will probably NOT make person B say "You're right, I'm sorry, let me make it up to you". The BEST you can hope for is a sort of pyrrhic rhetorical victory where person B says "Very well, have it your own way, ok, I WILL be on person A's side, take that." That might be rhetorically satisfying, but notice that it didn't actually make things BETTER.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-18 06:31 pm (UTC)