Lumping people together.
In the last week, I have heard a lot of Pro-life people who want to make it clear that they do not agree with the actions taken by the murderer of Dr. Tiller. I completely agree. I understand the desire to completely seperate themselves from the Christian Fundamentalist Terrorist, because 99.9% of the people in the pro-life movement would never even consider doing such a thing.
With that in mind, I would hope that many would take that experience and evaluate if their perception of Muslims has maybe been distorted in the same way. The vast majority of Muslims, especially those not in the Middle East, would never consider doing any acts of terrorism. In fact, most left the Middle East for that exact reason…they wanted to live in peace with their families and not have to live with the craziness of war and terrorism in close vincinity.
Use this experience to remember to show kindness and respect to others, even if they disagree with you. Lumping groups together rarely accomplishes anything other than mistrust and misunderstanding.
Well said!