Re: OT - A Request for Tolerance

Well stated, tilly. Though I wrote elsewhere that I was eager for the monastery to return to more on-topic material, I think this note deserves wide readership.

I think some analogies may serve to amplify your third paragraph.

Assuming all Arabs are Muslim is like assuming all Americans are Christian. (I read somewhere that the majority of Arab Americans are Christian, though I can't vouch for that one way or the other.)
Assuming all Muslims are radical militants is like assuming all Christians are members of the KKK.
Assuming anyone with a dark beard or head covering is Muslim or Arab is like assuming anyone who is white is American.

Overgeneralization and ignorance are a big part of the cause of this disaster. Let's not propagate them.

Comment on Re: OT - A Request for Tolerance

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Re: Re: OT - A Request for Tolerance by mdillon (Priest) on Sep 17, 2001 at 20:31 UTC
in tragic illustration of your third point, a Sikh-American of Indian birth was killed in the early hours of the morning yesterday in what was apparently a hate crime (the 12 pack of stolen beer did not appear to indicate a financial motive). Balbir Singh Sodhi had recently moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Mesa, Arizona, where he was gunned down while working at the gas station he had recently purchased by a man who also killed a Lebanese-American gas station attendant the same night. (from A.P.) in these sad times, tilly's call for tolerance is of paramount importance. update: the Lebanese-American man was not actually killed or injured. he was targetted by a man who also fired shots at an Afghan-American home, but it is not yet apparent that this same man also killed Sodhi (though all three events took place in the area of Mesa, Arizona on the same night).	[reply]

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Re: Re: OT - A Request for Tolerance
by mdillon (Priest) on Sep 17, 2001 at 20:31 UTC

in tragic illustration of your third point, a Sikh-American of Indian birth was killed in the early hours of the morning yesterday in what was apparently a hate crime (the 12 pack of stolen beer did not appear to indicate a financial motive). Balbir Singh Sodhi had recently moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Mesa, Arizona, where he was gunned down while working at the gas station he had recently purchased by a man who also killed a Lebanese-American gas station attendant the same night*. (from A.P.)

in these sad times, tilly's call for tolerance is of paramount importance.

*update: the Lebanese-American man was not actually killed or injured. he was targetted by a man who also fired shots at an Afghan-American home, but it is not yet apparent that this same man also killed Sodhi (though all three events took place in the area of Mesa, Arizona on the same night).

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