FRTM - Re: We made a terrible mistake tonight.
- From: "William Farrand" <whfarrand@xxxxxxx>
- To: <frtm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 06:01:27 -0600
Chris et al.
I'm sure that Earl can defend himself, but I thought that his speech
clarified what he was talking about. He was talking about how the view of that
religion by the 19 terrorists led to their actions on 9/11/01. It was in no
way "discriminatory" speech.
Look, we have a terrible problem facing the world today and the sooner that
people wake up to it, the better. There are people in the world who wake up
every day and go to bed every night trying to get Shari'ah law put into force
EVERYWHERE. This is the code that was in force when the Taliban ruled
Afghanistan and men couldn't shave their beards, women had to wear burkas and
if you were gay... you would have been executed. I could go on and on and on
about how antithetical Shari'ah law is to the values of America and the West.
If we can't talk about a problem we can never confront it. Shari'ah law
exists. People who are trying to put it into force in Western countries exist.
We can't put our collective heads in the sand and wish it away. We have to
confront it. If we don't confront it, the game is over and 2000 + years of
Western history, values and laws will be down the tubes.
We're not going to solve the problems of the world in our club, but I think
the club is also about informing people on important issues from time to time.
I'm hard pressed to think of a more important issue facing Western Civilization
than the rise of the forces that are trying to get Shari'ah law instituted
across the globe.
That's my 2 cents worth...
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: Ubot Dev Team<mailto:ubotdev@xxxxxxxxx>
To: frtm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:frtm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 11:42 PM
Subject: FRTM - We made a terrible mistake tonight.
Friends,
I'm not normally one to engage in drama, so forgive me, but something
was said tonight that I feel needs to be addressed. It's something
potentially damaging to our group as Toastmasters, and I think its
important that, as Toastmasters, we should hold ourselves to a higher
level of accountability than was demonstrated tonight.
I think that political rhetoric is entirely fair game, and that we
should all feel comfortable sharing our political beliefs, even if
said beliefs are controversial. However, I think there needs to be an
exception when it comes to discriminatory speech. We are surely
protected by the first amendment to say nearly anything we want about
anybody, but I think it is important to our club and to our status as
toastmasters that we never use hostility or discrimination in
approaching a people's race, culture, or religion.
One of our speakers tonight made comments about Muslims that broadly
painted the entirety of their religion as one that promotes terrorism.
While I realize that the mainstream media has done a lot to make these
kinds of ideas popular, these ideas are not only wrong, they are
offensive and divisive.
The world has a lot of Muslims in it, and the overwhelming majority of
them are peaceful people who just want to live their lives. Most of
them are not very different from ourselves, only having a few
different beliefs. Most of Islam does not condone committing violent
acts against other human beings. Violence is as much a sin in Islam as
it is in any other religion.
Many Muslims are US citizens, who pay taxes and contribute to the
community the same as anyone else would. Many Muslims fight in our
military. In fact, a great deal more Muslims have fought and died
protecting our freedoms than the relatively few who have committed
terrorist acts against us.
If we had a guest tonight who was of the Muslim faith, we could be
assured that he would not be returning. He would have felt isolated
and alone, and like we didn't accept him because of his religion. Is
that the kind of group we are? Is that how we should treat people?
I don't diminish the horrible acts that the extremist few have
committed. But if we are to judge an entire people on the acts of the
extremist few, then no religion, race, country, or culture is
innocent. I hope that in the future we can work harder to be a group
that embraces mutual respect.
Sincerely,
Chris Winstead
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