So much misinformation and aggressive negativity pushed by too many people who are only pretending to be something they are not.
One of the headline news stories on CNN the other day was about some Republican presidential candidate claiming that Obama is just “pretending to be a Christian.” (and headline news decided it best to make this ridiculous comment a headline news story)
I think most people, esp. white Christian American’s only “pretend” to be Christian… because the actions and words of most “we, the people…” are not exactly … in line with the teachings of Jesus.
And this negative comment on Obama “only pretending to be Christian” is after weeks and weeks of similar headlines … (years and years) of other white republican candidates pushing the absurd and ridiculous story that Obama is a secret Muslim…
Recently, there is an excessive amount of very aggressive, negative Muslim bashing in America.
The irony is that a majority of Americans, including 99% of the ones in America who are so aggressively bashing the Muslims don’t even know a Muslim; and probably have never even met one before.
And since I am a big white guy, Christian American who lives and works and employees lots of Muslims …. I would like to share in this blog entry my experience of what its like with these… Muslim’s.
Just for clarity, I am a proud Protestant Christian American and have lived and worked in Dubai, and all over the middle east for past 10+ years, and a majority of my 250+ employees are probably Muslim.
But ….I must state that both in business and in my personal life, I have been betrayed, let down, played and/or screwed by more Christian’s than I can count. And from my experience, the more outwardly Christian, the more cunning the “Christian” has proven to be.
In business, I have had several (many) Christian staff lie, cheat and/or steal from me; and play me …
It is impossible to fully explain the amount of disappointment and betrayal I have experienced with Christian clients, employees and or partners.
Not to mention my fond memories of being screwed by a few of my friends from the homeland …or the numerous stories i have with my Hindu brothers and sisters.
However, I cannot remember one time being betrayed, robbed and or let down by a Muslim … and I have travelled to many many Muslim countries; have a lot of Muslim clients, partners, and staff, etc. and maybe I have been disappointed once or twice, but so far I have NOT been betrayed, cheated or scammed by a Muslim.
Some readers might remember the time my truck got stuck in the desert last year, and I had a group of 10 Pakistani (all Muslim) construction workers helped me … and it took a good 4+ hours, but when I tried to pay them for their time and help …. they refused my considerable tip (I offered 100 aed about $30 to each of the 10 men) but the leader of the group said they helped me just because I was a human in need … and they all refused the money even though all of them could have surely used it. $30 is a lot of money to a Pakistani construction worker in Dubai. I tried to force them to accept, but the leader of the men refused.
I bet if they were Christian middle class Americans, they would have taken the money and then complained to each other my payment wasn’t enough…
And one of the more honourable young people I have met in my life was a young Muslim man in Libya in 2010 who drove Fabien and I back to our hotel at around mid-night … and although the young man was in a very beat up car, and surely could have used some cash …. He refused the money I offered, and even came into the hotel to give me the cash back when I left it on euros on the seat of the car as I got out. (this blog is in my travel folder Libya)
He told me “it was his honour” to drive us, and he did not want any money for it.
Don’t believe all the garbage you see on TV …. The horrific ISIS stories DO NOT reflect the beliefs of Muslims…
ISIS and Muslim bashing in America is all about middle east Geopolitics … a topic that is impossible to discuss.
Stop believing all the stuff on TV… and stop listening to all these people who are only pretending to be Christian.
… Jesus’ teachings were not about wasting ones time aggressively misleading, misinforming, bashing and speaking negatively of his brother and sisters as so many Christian’s in America are doing today.
Some of the most honourable clients, employees, friends and partners I have today or have had in the past are Muslims…these Muslim’s actions are much more Christian than many of the Christian’s that I know … who are just going through life only pretending to want to be like Jesus.
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Ending note: I purposefully made this entry black and white …
I am a proud Christian and I have many many Christian friends, clients, partners, etc who are honorable Christian’s.
The examples mentioned above are just used to highlight the point that Christian, non Christian … its often the same, people “just pretending” to be faithful. From my experience this is more often with Christian’s.
I intentionally emphasized/focused on negative experiences with other religions, but not with Muslims because it is the truth from my experience, and ideally gets the reader in America to reflect.