Heavy Hearts

Hey, llamas!

THIS POST MAY OFFEND OTHERS.  I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE AS THIS WAS NOT MY INTENTION.  FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME BUT I WOULD PREFER NO RUDE OR MALICIOUS COMMENTS.

So.  No doubt you've been following all the stuff going on around the world.  Most notably at the moment, Paris.  While this blog's not known for serious matters.  I thought this should be mentioned.

Friday 13th.  Paris was not the only place attacked.  So many people lost their lives.  So many lost loved ones.

And I have one question.  Was it worth it?  Was all that suffering worth 'the cause'?  Because I'm not even sure what 'the cause' is.  I'm not sure I ever knew.  And I feel dirty just thinking about the words "allahu akbar" (I'm so sorry if I spelt that wrong) and it SHOULDN'T be that way, but those words have become something of a 'symbol' (I use that word VERY lightly) to ISIS or ISIL or whatever the fuck they are.  And I may not be Islamic, or have the right to say these things, but I'm pretty sure those words were not meant to be used like that.

Not all Muslims are terrorists.  Are there to hurt people.  My Islamic friends are often the most peaceful people I know.  They don't condone the actions that have happened around the world.  I doubt that most Muslims do.  I saw a statistic somewhere that said there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, 0.03% of these Muslims are terrorists.  If all Muslims wanted everyone dead, we would all be dead.  And did you know that Muslim terror attacks only take up 2% of the world's terrorist plots and actions?

I've heard countless stories of unprovoked attacks on Muslim people (women especially) and I ask "what if you had been attacked simply because of what you wore?  Or the faith you choose (or choose not) to follow?".  You could argue the point that that is exactly what happens when these terrorists attack, but then I have to know, what makes you any better than them?  No, you're not using bombs.  BUT.  You are attacking someone simply because of faith.  Is that not exactly what they are doing?  You are spreading terror into the PEACEFUL parts of the Muslim community.

I have a friend that is strictly atheist and he's not shy about telling people what's wrong with religion.  That doesn't bother me.  I'm Christian but sometimes I agree with him.  BUT what does bother me, is that he says that without religion, we wouldn't have terrorists.  I'm not trying to pick a fight with him.  I know he could probably argue circles around me, I'm talking from the heart spontaneously and he's probably got years of arguments planned out.  So, what am I saying?  I'm saying that I think that's wrong.  We would still have wars and terrorists.  They just wouldn't be carried out in the name of God.  They'd be carried out in the name of freedom or whatever.  So maybe it isn't the religions we should get rid of, maybe we just need to be more tolerant to different ways of life.  That's not really the right way of saying it, but I can't really explain.  Religion can give people something to believe in.  Something to hope in.  So.  This is a quote from a TV programme but I figured it was appropriate, "If you think too hard on anything, you can poke holes in it.  Sometimes you just have to believe and hope" (I may have paraphrased quite a bit - you get the idea).

From reading this, you could say that I have a warped perception of what's been going on, or maybe I'm just downright wrong.  But, this is the way I see it.  Not particularly sophisticated.  Probably not accurate.  But.  From my heavy heart.

Shenaya xx

P.S.  World War I and World War II both started like this.  Am I the only one scared?