Opposite Ends of the Belief Bench One subject darkly clouded with confusion is religion, and the idea that they are all the same. Mahatma Gandhi, an important Hindu teacher states, “The soul of religion is one, but it is encased in a multitude of forms.” Two of the most popular religions in the United States, Christianity and Islam, are facing this problem. I grew up Christian so the subject of religion is very important to me. After 9/11 the American public was on high alert for terrorists, and they still are today. Just recently a US Ambassador to Libya was killed along with two Navy Seals by an Islamic terrorist group. Some people may ask why do they attack, what motivates them it is what they believe. When your Sacred text, the Koran in this case, has verses that say, “And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]”, it is seen clearly why there are terrorist attacks ( Koran 2:191-193). Americans live in a culture where acceptance is the goal. Everything is acceptable because everyone has their own opinion. No one can refute that opinion because the refusal itself could be seen as offensive and the offender will likely get sued. As a result, most people keep their thoughts to themselves, creating the opposite of the desired environment. Instead of freedom of speech we have freedom to speak as long as you do not mind being chewed up by the media. The point is, it is important to keep subjects with different beliefs, distinct. Otherwise you end up with a culture like ours where a while ago, there was an uproar on whether or not to put an Islamic place of worship, a mosque, near Ground Zero. In an attempt to calm the people the media spread around the rumor that all religions have the same core beliefs, so it wouldn’t be any different...
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