*Concepts and Cultures...........by Jamil Shawwa

Concepts- some might say or describe- are buckets where we store and channel our thoughts. Cultures are our backgrounds,also who we are now, we might be the product of many cultures past and present and future, our heritage and from there you can add education and other things that shape the way we think or act. I do not believe that there is any culture on earth right now that has not been influenced someway or somehow by other cultures or itself has not been exposed to the world around it. Explorers and people of courage have been through out history eager to look beyond their borders. This is how religions and science spread and this is how great countries were formed, from people looking for a better place, safer placer, opportunities for better living. All of us humans share these sentiments. We have our fears and our weaknesses; we also have our hopes and our strengths. The struggle between good and evil will continue as long as life itself continues. The concepts of good and evil are universe, all people believe in them but all of them interpret them differently. Enough vagueness, read below, this piece might help you think and see things from more than one lens and from more than one angle. Today, I’m talking about two concepts and two cultures; although I think and I know that they are so intertwined, so integrated and so interconnected but still both of them are voicing concerns that the other does not understand them. Here how it goes; In general, we must make it clear that there is a huge difference between Islam as one of the great three divine religions with Judaism and Christianity and the practice of the religion or the practice of the Muslims. You can say that you are a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish and commit atrocities in the name of the religion; that does not mean anything; it only means that you are evil and not your religion. Some people have risen what has been going on for years and years which is why the west looks this or that at Islam. In fact, I think people should stop using the West as a separate entity as the world in my opinion is no longer divided by west and east or north and south. In the era and age of youtube, Facebook, Twitter and others, we have all become the residents of one world though living physically in different locations. The problem is mutual, In the Arab and Muslim world; schools and culture for decades and until now have raised the children, those innocent creatures, to be afraid of everything that is foreign, everything that looks different. You have curriculums that depict progress as something to be feared. These powers of darkness know that their only chance to survive is to create a culture of suspicion that thrives on conspiracy theories to justify anything that goes wrong in the Arab world. Once you have open, transparent, and democratic societies, the urge to justify yourself or prove to others that you are a peace-loving person or country, would not be necessary. Actions will speak louder than words. On the other hand, the world now is so interconnected that people can see, those who can see, that there is a huge difference between faith with all its purity and actions committed by a minority in the name of that faith. In the same token, people here in The United States would stop questioning on "why they hate us", referring to the Muslims. “Why they hate us" has been the cover story of many magazines, such as Time, Newsweek, and The Economist since the terrorists attacks of 09/11/2001. I said it before and I will say it again, Muslims do not hate The US, they love it, but its is an envious love, it is the love of that sexy girl that you cannot have or you think that you can never have because you never tried. But seriously, we all understand, as I said in other articles, if you want to call them articles, that there are groups of individuals, and not Islam, that their goal is total destruction not only in the outside world but also in their own original countries because when you destruct, when your motive and goal are only to create state of chaos, then it comes to a point that the whole world would be your playground. The bottom line is this, dialogue, interconnections, and keeping the religions away from any accusations and just look at faith as a very private matter that has nothing to do with destruction, would really enable us all to fight terrorism better. It can be done. Again, we cannot be just dreamers, politics play a role and things usually evolve on formal levels based on politics and not how people feel. Still, people can make a difference and can minimize the ability of the few to terrorize and destruct the rest of the world.



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* I participated in discussions with friends on Facebook and thought to copy with some ads-on and modifications my side of these discussions into this blog. Might be interesting to some.