Snap Judgements

For the past couple of days, I've been quietly watching and reading the news coverage of the mass shooting at Fort Hood. To say the least, I am horrified by what happened and feel a deep sense of sympathy for all of those who have been impacted by this senseless tragedy.

When the shooter's name was released, along with his religious preference, I knew that things were about to get interesting, with his Middle Eastern-sounding name and Muslim background. While I knew that some people would be nasty, I never thought imagined that the hate would be spread this far.

Since Friday, I've watched comments be added to online news stories and have listened to people around me, the majority of whom profess to be devout Christians, denigrate all Muslims. Comments such as, "The world would be a better place if we just took care of the Muslims by wiping that religion off of the face of this planet", completely and utterly blow my mind.

What little I know about Islam includes the thought that it is, for the most part, a peaceful religion. Yes, there are members out there who are fanatics and believe that senseless killings are necessary, but the religion, as an entirety, does not support radical violence.

So, who are some of the people making these horrific blanket statements? Many of them are self-professed Christians. I grew up in a Christian home and was taught to love my neighbor and to not judge. Apparently, these Christians choose to ignore those tenets of the religion.

This just makes me sad. I don't understand why people have to make such blanket statements and rush judgments about a person based upon his or her religion. For that matter, why is it that we have to think that one religion is better than another? Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all agreed to just respect one another and our beliefs, no matter what they might be?

The bottom line is this: more than a dozen people lost their lives in Texas one day last week. Instead of judging the accused shooter based upon his religion, why don't we, as a nation, spend our time and energy helping those who lost loved ones grieve and heal? I think it'd be a better use of time.