Regardless of how controversial or confrontational his views are, he has kept things interesting. I can't remember the last time we had more than one interesting discussion going at a time. I am not saying he should confront for the sake of it, but I have some questions now, especially thanks to W7Re's recent comments.
I am not homophobic. Does that mean I can't be uncomfortable if two guys are making out/fake humping?
I am not racist, does that mean I am not allowed to notice the major flaws of the African American culture?
But honestly, I guess it is just human nature to assume the worst. For example, I am not in any way anti American... I consider myself a balanced person, and only take sides on an issue after making an honest judgment based on the facts I come across. If I find Muslims at fault, I will point it out, and conversely will do the same if I feel it is the other side at fault. Over the past seven years with you lot, whenever there has been a discussion on a world issue, I have always been objective in my opinions. For example during the Danish cartoons incident, while I tried to explain the Muslim sentiment, I agreed that they were dead wrong to take part in any violence. I posted those exact same thoughts at a few of the Muslim message boards I frequent, and subsequently faced a backlash.
When it came to the Lebanon/Israel conflict, I thought that the Arabs were silly to ask the Israelis to leave. Again, most Muslims would disagree, but those were my thoughts without bias. It was just a judgment based on my interpretation of the facts. There was no prejudice that swayed my opinion in either direction.
So after seven years of posting with you guys, for the first time I posted a few threads that were considered 'anti American'. I still don't consider them to be anti American, because to say that would be to suggest I hold bias, which I don't. They were based on numerous news items about innocent Muslims detained on suspicion of terrorism, many of whom claimed to have been tortured. Eventually many of the accused walked away with judgments in their favor.
Anyway the point is that after those threads, I was amazed to get a few private messages accusing me of being anti American, and being biased.
I was amazed because that was the first time anyone had accused me of holding bias in favor of Muslims. People I know in real life would laugh at the thought. Whenever I am at a Muslim gathering, I try my best to explain the point of views of non Muslims, because I know it will help create a better understanding.
Yet of the dozens of views I have shared with everyone here, it just took one where I was on the other side of the fence for a lot of people to feel that I was 'anti american' and 'biased'.
So I am going to have to add to my list of questions.
I am not homophobic. Does that mean I can't be uncomfortable if two guys are making out/fake humping?
I am not racist, does that mean I am not allowed to notice the major flaws of the African American culture?
I am not Anti American. Does that mean I have to agree with everything the American government does?
Anyway I was not angry or upset in the least, though I was very amused. I mean this is just a message board on the internet after all, and it can be difficult to express views on any subject because of the limitations of the medium.
