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Islam and the Swastika
Islam is going the way of the swastika.
The swastika has a long history going back to around 10,000 BCE. In recent centuries its meaning has been “lucky” or “favorable” in sanskrit.
But those thousands of years of meaning were stamped out in just one decade by the the Nazi party. Since the late 1930’s the world has known it as a symbol of hatred and totalitarianism.
The same is happening right now to Islam.
Symbols and religions are similar in that they mean different things to different people. Millions of Muslims see Islam as a moderate religion of peace, and they can point to countless verses of beauty and tolerance in the Koran to support that claim.
Others see it as a written command and set of instructions for violently subjugating the world to Sharia Law. Sadly, these people can also find support for their claims in the text.
But these various opinions matter little compared to how the world sees Islam. And the meaning of Islam is currently being carved into the stone of the global consciousness in a way that will not be reversible for generations.
The stone etching is one of terror and hate.
From 9/11, to 7/7, to the Danish cartoonist threats, to ISIS beheading infants, to random events like the Canadian Parliament shooting, the world is receiving a consistent message that when civilians are in danger it’s probably a Muslim doing the damage.
So it doesn’t matter what Islam actually is. Just as with Christianity, feminism, the Tea Party, or any other idea, Islam is what people think it is.
Because of this Islam will soon mean violence, just as the swastika now means hatred.
Notes
It does actually matter what Islam is, i.e. what the text says, etc. My point is that so few people actually read the text that it matters much more what they think it means.