No Extremism is Good

This year's Arab American Festival, normally held in early June in Dearborn, has been cancelled. The main reason is increased costs of liability insurance due to religious tensions; extremist evangelical groups have routinely protested at the event and there were apparently fears that such could lead to conflicts serious enough to threaten the safety of attendees and vendors.

This is not a good thing. It demonstrates the precise lack of tolerance which Christians are routinely accused of, although mainstream Christianity is certainly not at fault. Still, it will be used against Christianity, and it allows for an interesting parallel. Isn't the whole of Islam held responsible for the acts of extremist Muslims?

We will admit to being wary of Islam. There doesn't appear to be a central authority within it towards whom we can look for to determine exactly what Islam teaches; that in itself makes the creed difficult to comprehend. Still, it really can't be argued that your typical Muslim in the United States anyway supports violence against the US. Don't bother about throwing the Boston Marathon bombers in our face: we said typical Muslims, not extremist ones. Extremist in the manner of the group who brought the pig's head to last year's festivities.

We don't have to agree with everyone in order to get along; even an old school conservative ought to be able to see that. We certainly aren't against a church evangelizing; if you don't believe that your faith is the one true faith, part of which must mean encouraging others to join you, then how deep can your faith be? Yet surely enticing folks to join you won't happen, or at the very least isn't likely to happen, with an in-your-face approach. Why ought a serious Muslim defect to you if your initial approach is to deride his belief system in a most hateful manner?

Again, this is not good. Especially as Christianity itself is under attack in America today, it can only hurt its own cause when things like this cancellation take place. Yes, again, this isn't the fault of mainstream Christendom. Yet that won't matter to the ones who wish to remove its influence from modern American society. The Terry Joneses of the world need to be more aware of that.