Hop, Skip, Jump!

I've noticed many comments on Blog and news aggregator sites (such as Yahoo News) that use what may be called the "Hot, Skip, and Jump" to employ a historical fact to denigrate Muslims. To be fair, it is probably just ignorance, but I doubt many people bother to search for the West's view of Islam throughout history.

An example of the "Hot, Skip, and Jump" technique is when people blame the fact that Blacks were held in slavery a few hundred years ago to explain the lack of value millions of Black place on education. People ignore the history in between the end of slavery and today. During and immediately following the end of slavery, Blacks risked their lives in their quest for education. However, a simple historical line graph does not show that the closer we come to the time of slavery the desire for education becomes lower and lower. In fact, such a chart shows the exact opposite. By hopping over history, people think they have proven something.

In the case of Muslims and Western views, people 'hop' all the way back to the 12th Century and write comments about the Muslim invasion of the West. That is one hell of a 'hop'! Being curious, I began to ask myself questions. First on the list was, Was why do I have no memory of hate, fear, or prejudice against Muslims from my teenage years?"  In 1970 Muslims only accounted for 0.49% of the U.S. population and today they make up 3% of the population(Source). More significant is the fact that the movies portrayed Muslims in adventure stories that were exciting. Like all groups, there were 'good guys' and 'bad guys.' Bagdad looked like an exotic and exciting place. Most important of all, there were no news stories about Muslim terrorists. The media did not report that anyone was using the Koran to justify murder and a holy war against the West. Also, millions of Muslim refugees were not fleeing to Western nations. So what is missing as we hop over history?

A little research revealed some interesting facts about the West and Muslims. During both world wars, the West worked hard to enhance relationships with Muslims. 

As reported in the May15,2016 issue of Foreign Policy magazine: "Before the continent started banning hijab, European aristocrats used to change their names to Abdullah and Muhammad, and going to the local mosque was the latest trend."  

During the 1920s and 1930s, the governments of Great Britain, France, and Germany built Mosques. After World War I, people were looking to this religion of peace in the way some people in the 1960s looked at Buddhism. 

So we see the 'hop, skip, and jump across centuries of history to 'prove' that Muslims always invaded and terrorized the West. 

Certainly, we learn from history and hopefully apply the new knowledge when addressing the challenges of today and tomorrow. But searching for selective pieces of history, the Koran, the Bile, or Jewish teachings to prove something only proves how desperate and uncertain we are of our beliefs.