Skew perception, stereotype away, enough already

...attempt by militants to underscore their disaffection with Western, but largely US, policies toward the treatment of Muslim nations. Where this widespread campaign has been effective is in the inaccurate stereotyping, through association, of Islam as a religion of savagery and hatred. It drives me crazy.

Just as the stereotypical gay person leads either a hedonistic life pumped full of drugs, clubs, fumes, promiscuous sex and disease, or swans around with a pronounced lisp, a bitchy, two-faced personality, an insistent need to prescribe fashion tips to the clueless and a Moschino handbag dangling from a limp wrist - both hilariously inaccurate and yet sad, tragically pervasive generalisations - the words muslim and islam are becoming readily equated with terrorism, vile fundamentalism, warmongering and genocide.

It is no individual's fault that he should be subjected to a bombardment of images and information that are meant to convey a particular idea, or ethic, but it is entirely dependent upon how that person chooses, or is conditioned, to process information that governs the result; the opinions that that person forms. I do not wish to offend anybody, and if you've managed to read this far, it probably doesn't apply to you, but it is an ineluctable fact that the average person is lazy as hell, and happy to be spoonfed their opinions by third parties. This is especially the case when it concerns topics that the hapless soul has no real first-hand experience of.

Governments know this well enough, and many censure the media to reflect only that which they deem appropriate. It's an effective way to lobby a population toward quorum with regard to particular issues, often so perfectly executed that it will determine the outcome of a vote or election. Adept, terrifying puppeteering.

I grew up in a Muslim country, albeit a very mixed and moderate one, Malaysia. I have visited some orthodox muslim countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Morocco, though I am, for all intents, a European. While the prominent actions of so called 'islamic militants' have thrust the apparent hatred of the west, amongst Muslim nations, into the limelight, curiously little has been done to profile the fact that most people in these countries, have little against the west, let alone America.

Yes, like many people, including more Britons than I can think of, and a surprising proportion of the [non-redneck] U.S. population, disgust at America's frequent application of double standards in world politics does tend to grate. It doesn't, however, mean that you're going to be attacked for holidaying in a muslim country. On the contrary, as a European I have often been asked whether or not I was an American, and not because the parties were trying to work out whether to eviscerate me or not, but because they were really excited that I might be from the country that most dominates the continually emerging culture of the world's youth.

From Berber, to Bahasa, to Arabic, I've heard comments along the lines that it is a tragedy to be lumped into a group that includes the mean-spirited fools who coax desperate individuals toward desperate actions - walking oxymorons by any definition of Islam. Do people even stop to investigate or ponder the nature of the religion that is geographically the most widespread, and also the fastest growing?

Is it old news or a surprise to learn that the holy Qur'an and Bible share many books, prophets and parables in common, from Adam and Eve, to Genesis and Jesus; that according to the Qur'an, Christians and Jews, reverentially called Ahl al-kitab - people of the book - all worship the same God; that they should be permitted to do so as they wish simply because of this divine commonality? I've even heard Allah referred to in the same manner as a pagan God, such as the biblical Baal, when the name al-Lah simply means the God. Hello, language barrier. Quickly, destroy the pagan French, what is this "Dieu" that some of them kneel before?!

So once again, a thousand and one deaths, ostensibly in the name of religion. In 1967, U.N. resolution 242 called for the withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territories that constitute the area of the former British mandate. Israel, backed by U.S. interests, has failed to comply. Creep forward a couple of years at a time, and there are repeated examples of the U.S. turning a blind eye toward certain situations, only to be galvanised into action when, on other fronts, it discovers that it is not being cooperated with. Why so many such instances have involved Arab countries is, at best, rather curious, and at worst, an entirely plausible set of reasons for which vendettas rage, people die, bombs fall, and my cereal gets left uneaten.