One of my over riding believes about Republicans is that they have trouble putting themselves in other peoples shoes. Today in the news there is a story from Egypt where Christians rioted at the Giza government headquarters in a dispute over a church construction project. The claim by the Christians is that they are not being allowed the same rights as their Muslim counterparts when it comes to building houses of worship. Sound familiar? Yes, this is exactly what is happening in America with Christians attempting to stop Muslims from building mosques. Even going as far as committing arson to prevent construction.
The problem is that American Christan's will not see the similarities between the two situations even though they are exactly the same. They will have some justification for their irrational fear of Muslims and their overt discrimination here in America and then act like the situation in Egypt is somehow different. They will be surprised when a Muslim in America gets pushed too far and reacts with violence then support the riots in Egypt as justified. In their mind all Muslims are Terrorists and all Christians are good people. Unfortunately for Christians neither of these beliefs are true and their existence is a self fulfilling prophecy that creates the very terrorist they fear.
Both sides are wrong here and their intolerance only makes the situations worse. Their unwillingness to understand the other side causes the very hatred that they claim to be against. Being Christian or Muslim doesn't define you as good or evil, but failing to recognize your differences and acting out of fear instead of understand, puts you on the wrong side of the debate every time.
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