It is a bit hard to say why Muslims forcing their religion onto people from other religions is in the news of late. It could be from any number of reasons stemming from more occurrences to simply being more news worthy. With the seemingly spontaneous violent and aggressive behavior of mobs citing Islam as their fuel, it becomes understandable why it may be news worthy.
The most typical reaction that a non-Muslim has when they hear about some of the religious enforcement methods going on in the Muslim world is simply shaking their heads in disbelief. The thought that this is now 2010 and so very far in time from the days of Christian inquisitions, and that coexistence comes second is shocking at the very least. In fact a whole bunch of jumbled thoughts parses in people’s minds as to how this can be.
In many cases the only logical answer is that some with extreme views somehow managed to position themselves in a seat of authority. That would allow them to force their narrow views onto others under threat of punishment for non compliance. Using this logic one can then comfortably assume that some people are being compelled to act in what can easily be seen as extreme or narrow viewed behavior for self preservation. This is little different than what is seen in a circus with lions and tigers forced to act in ways not natural to perform and entertain.
But the fact that this is getting such global attention has to do with the violent reaction to just the thought of some non-Muslim burning the Muslim’s book that is equal to the Bible. There is a certain trigger with that behavior that stimulates the survival instincts of onlookers that danger is present so pay attention.
So in this case it is a very real set of dots of single events that is showing a much bigger picture to all. Women in Iran being stoned for alleged adultery, two Algerian Christian men on trial risking 3 months in jail for eating lunch during Ramadan. In Indonesia church elders attacked simply for not being Muslim. The list of dots goes on seemingly forever with new dots appearing all the time. The picture they collectively create is Islam is out of control.
What some people may be defining as anti Muslim, is in fact anti intolerant. However sorting out the people who are extreme and intolerant is as difficult as identifying a suicide bomber before they explode. Security professionals do exactly what our survival instincts tell us to do, and that is to trust nothing. We have seen airport terminals evacuated and people re-screened before being allowed to reenter. That not to trust behavior is being learned and assimilated in the places the extremists have targeted. That is a significant part of the issue with the proposed ground zero Mosque in New York.
So seeing more of this in the news may simply be because our survival instincts are being triggered, and the media is acting like Prairie Dog sentries. It may be that we are now looking at this more because it is a topic that sells newspapers. Or it simply may be that more is going on in direct relation to global human population growth. But no matter what it is from, it is there and people are reading it, and that is what this story is all about so says the title.
