I’m Not Ready to Make Nice

I like to consider myself a tolerant person, even though I know, deep down inside, I’m not. I’m a generation Xer, a former military member and a girl who grew up with the threat of Islam leaning over her head. So excuse me very much if I look at you sideways when I see a person in America wearing a head scarf or a woman covering her face. I’m very sorry that my shock offends you, but let’s admit if I showed up in your middle Eastern country with my hair unbound and my face on full display, I’d get a few shocked looks too.

The difference between you and me? No one is tossing you into prison when you come to America with your head scarf on. I doubt I would be given the same courtesy if I was to go to your homeland.

You’re welcome, BTW.

I’m frustrated by something I shouldn’t be frustrated by. I know it’s wrong. I know it’s not tolerant and my liberal guilt just has me stewing in my own angry juices but I’m going to say it anyway. It’s not my job to make sure the country you chose to live in assimilates to you. It’s your job to assimilate to your country.

I’m on this tangent tonight because of the Australian hostage crisis and the whole #illridewithyou liberal guilt parade that followed.  Never mind the two people that died because of religious extremism, or the 10 more that were horrified because of the hostage situation in the first place. Apparently us westerners need to still make sure that people of different religious backgrounds feel comfortable around us.

We say “I’ll ride with you” to our Islam counterparts, so they won’t get harassed. Because god forbid someone who just goes about their regular business gets harassed. Like when they go to a coffee shop or something and then get held hostage for two days. Unless they’re white. Apparently then, it’s ‘fuck you white people. Game on.”

Yup, it pissed me off that this person, an Islam terrorist, was able to take a shitload of people hostage and the first response of everyone else? “Well, it doesn’t mean all Muslims are bad. We should have a Twitter campaign to support them.”

Are you assholes fucking serious?

We ignore the real victims and we avoid getting angry because of our liberal white person guilt. If we were truly being ourselves, instead of “#illridewithyou” we’d have “#illkickthenextmuslimextremistiseeinthenutsnoregrets.”

No motherfucking regrets.

That is a campaign I’m ready to see. All this over zealous, liberal guilt, religious reverse discrimination is just about enough. Right now, the bad guys are Muslim. In fact, for the past decade, the bad guys have been Muslim. Just so you know Muslims, I’m suspicious of you and I feel no need to defend you. Deal with it.

“Oh, I had nothing to do with it. I’m a peaceful Muslim.”

Well I’m a peaceful white chick, but I still get blamed for slavery. Despite the fact that my family never owned slaves and that I believe black people deserve the same rights as white, I’m a villain. That all occurs because of an accident of my birth.  I didn’t have a choice.

So welcome to the club, motherfuckers. In this country, you get blamed for every single mistake every single one of your predecessors made. It’s up to you to fix it.

You know what I don’t see enough of? These peaceful Muslims stating their extremist counterparts are wrong. I don’t see them getting on the news like Al Sharpton, defending their race. Instead, I see the allegedly peaceful ones expecting others to do it for them.

So no, I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to defend your right to wear headscarves or not touch pork or whatever, because you are not taking the opportunity to defend yourselves.

So yup, when I see a headscarf, a burqa or anything in between, I immediately think “terrorist”. I think so because history has told me to think “terrorist.” You not bothering to defend yourselves gives me no confidence in your position. I think if you had that much faith in your religion, you’d be a bit more outspoken about it.

It’s not up to me to change my view. It’s up to you to change my perception. So get vigilant about it. Take a strong stance against Al-Qaeda, against Isis, against any religious extremist group. Because people are suffering and they are dying because of the religion YOU chose to be a part of.  It’s not your fault but it’s part of your community and it’s your responsibility to fix it. Welcome to the club.

Meanwhile, don’t expect me to defend you religion. Defend it yourself. Otherwise, I propose a new hashtag. Its called’ #getyourowndamnride

Either defend the religion you apparently think so highly of, or let it go. But stop expecting others to defend it for you. Because I, for one, am not ready to make nice. I’m still a bit pissed about the whole 9-11 thing.

And maybe, just maybe, its about time we all got fucking good and mad about it, rather than talking about how much we “tolerate it.” Because I’m a bit sick of tolerating fairy tales being used to drive my life or as an excuse to kill my family and my ‘tolerance’ only goes so far.