Was just reading a ST commentary a moment ago and had this sudden burst of thought. Are misperceptions and stereotypes so ingrained in all of us?
The article was about how the British PM claimed that: 'We know that these people act in the name of Islam' right after the London bombings. This implied that the culprit for the horrendous attacks were Muslims, even before any investigations were carried out. Let's stop short for a moment now. Let me say the prerequisite disclaimer first. This is not meant to bash anybody, but just a honest view of the current state of the world. How many of you all after hearing about the bombings, straightaway think about Muslim/Arab/Al Qaeda terrorists? Raise your hands please.
It sadens me to say this but the world is really dividing into two. Us and the terrorists. The image of a terrorist has been ingrained in all of us now. We have a stereotypical view of the world. But surely you can't blame us for thinking that way when they are the ones who do all these high profile attacks on innocent civilians. Seriously, the liberal Muslims have not done much to discourage the extremists! It's always the good guys who are more quiet and the baddies are more vocal. I am a follower of Thomas Friedman. I believe to end this war of us against them requires some of 'us', mainly liberal Muslims, to condemn the terrorists. A simple analogy would be when someone you dunno criticizes us, surely you would feel more pissed off compared to when a closer friend or family criticizes you.
Of coz we also have a role to play to. We can stop relying so much on Arab oil. This will stop them from having leverage on us. When they can't sell as much oil to us, they will finally be forced to listen to us and take the terrorism problem seriously. End poverty by giving appropriate aid is also important. Of course what I say so far is pretty much trivialized. But it's the gist of what we should do now to save the world.
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