Homegrown Extremists

This photo has been floating about the internet for a couple years but this is the first I've seen it  "Liked" by a friend on Facebook which appeared on my radar.

We are worried about terrorists getting a hold of nuclear weapons but what would happen if some trigger happy Americans got a hold of them first? Now, I'm not saying all Americans want to nuke the Middle East and the same goes for Muslims. We are talking about extremists and extremist thinking (or lack thereof). There are extremists who would love nothing more than to wipe Mecca off the map. Shoot first and recover from an economic catastrophe, oil shortage, and environmental (dare I say planetary by the size of this impact we're looking at nuclear winter) annihilation later. All to settle a score. If you can look at this photo and not feel disgusted I don't think I could consider you human let alone a "friend". Here's the link to the Facebook page which posted this picture if you want to peruse through the comments. I posted this photo not because I feel I have better morals than these people but to demonstrate how poisonous a twisted ideology can be if left to fester. 11 years later and some Americans feel justice has not been served even though we have taken out Osama bin Laden.

This is not justice. To quote one of my favorite moments of the Bible Abraham challenged God

"Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Gen 18:25

We've come a long way from OT morality, or at least most of us have. Loving your enemy is hard, but a way towards that goal is to understand them. Once you understand them you will find they're no different than we are. There is no They, there is no Other.   We can be better than this. We are better than this. Or at least we should teach our children to be better than us.

How NOT to Explain 9/11 to Children

 Only in America can you turn a profit on a national tragedy and sell it to children. Presenting the We Shall Never Forget 9/11 Kids Coloring Book by Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. On their website the company states that the coloring book  "is designed to be a tool that parents can use to help teach children about the facts surrounding 9/11. This book also describes basic freedoms in America. We suggest parental guidance." They also state that this has been their fastest selling book in their company's history. I'm not sure if I should be more concerned that this was marketed by the publisher as a "coloring novel" with a PG rating or that these coloring novels are flying off the shelves. Now there are and has been a lot of commemorative 9/11 merchandise out there but a coloring book for kids? Not only does the book fail to make any distinction between Islamic radicals and peaceful Muslims there is this following image of a Navy Seal taking out Bin Laden. The publisher has stated in multiple interviews that they have presented all the facts and are presenting them in this "coloring novel" to teach future generations about these "facts". Oh did I forget to mention that kids can color in the smoldering Twin Towers before their collapse?

I believe we shouldn't guard our children from heavy issues but for a parent to use this as a instruction tool just doesn't cut it for me. What's worse is that in the minds of an impressionable child material like this is similar to the propaganda distributed by terrorist organization: They are the enemy, They have attacked us, They hate us. The connection that children would naturally make is that Muslims= bad guys. The publisher states the book is not about Islam but about 19 hijackers who happen to be Muslim. The parents who purchase the book are more than likely to reinforce the negative stereotype that the publisher states is trying to avoid. Luckily children are very inquisitive and may begin to ask the tough questions their parents may not have the courage to ask themselves.