There is no lack of hate anywhere, unfortunately, but it would be great if we could agree to agree upon what to hate, in a word: evil.
Regardless of religion, people often do what they want and what they think is right. Much of our activity seems to fall into these two camps by
indulgence, on the first one, and neccesity/beliefs/cultural rules/laws on the second one. So none of the good or evil of people who are Islamic are
any different than those of people who are not.
Anyone who is a terrorist is evil, and no one country or religion has the market corned on that. We can all agree. Hint: Timothy McVeigh =
American.
The first European settlements were, as we may all remember, mainly populated by people seeking religious freedom. It's the very fabric of our
earliest baby clothes, as a nation. We've never gone on the record to change this, and if we did, we would be wrong, and we all know that. NO one
wants mandated or forbidden religion. It's a person's choice.
Having said that, generalizations and stereotypes are wrong. They are wrong when other nations use them against Americans, because I am not a
corporation corrupting their lands and underpaying their workers. I am not the government, and I would not qualify for an office if I did care to
serve in that capacity. Many people wouldn't. Should we be terrorized here for what some of us did overseas? No.
Nor should anyone else.
I apologize, OP, for what you've dealt with. A town I lived in for a couple of years after 9/11 lost a wonderful and beloved pediatrician from
Jordan, who moved back there because his two young boys were repeatedly threatened at school. None of them even looked Middle Eastern, and they were
actually Jordanian Christians!
Furthermore, most suicide bombers are unemployed (because of terrorism) and depressed. They are suicidal anyway, and are manipulated into doing it to
serve a "purpose." They are used by terrorist programmes, lured with food and a place to go, and discarded. Notice none of their superiors believe
in the cause enough to publicly declare their belief in it and blow themselves up? There's a reason.
No one in America would want to be considered "Jim Jones"-like because he was American and did awful things. We should not treat anyone else that
way either, if we have any sense of decency or fairness.
Finally, as a Christian nation, as Christian people, as decent Americans, we have, on all these foundations, a basis for altruism because we are
blessed/fortunate, because we honor God and remember His understanding and mercy towards ourselves, and that He made all of us in love, and that
diplomacy will go further than ranting and weakly-based prejudices. Most Americans who know Muslims are probably not the problem, since the ones I
have known and worked with are well-liked, friendly, smart, hardworking, funny, intelligent, and everything else that is the sign of a healthy,
well-balanced person. If one wants to judge by what one has really seen, one must admit that Muslims do not cause trouble in America as a group any
more and quite less than some more homegrown groups who openly spew hate and anarchy.
Again, to the OP, allow me to offer you a human-to-human apology for the behavior of other humans that hurt and offended you, and judged you so
unfairly.