My friend in the Netherlands, Marieke, who owns one of my Anna's first puppy bitches (another story), wrote me a few days ago, kindly extending her condolences to me about the killings of the soldiers at Ft. Hood, in Killeen, Texas. She cited what a crazy Muslim had done. It hit a nerve, because it's not only Muslims that can be "crazy" and start shooting people, it's anyone who is a fanatic about anything - exercise, diet, politics, animal rights, education, saving money, drinking, religion, dogs, cats, Save the Wales; it's all inter-related. I wrote this to her in reply because it's something I've spent many, many hours thinking about and discussing with Darryl.
Thanks, Marieke, it was tragic and horrible and I suffer with the families over the loss of their loved ones. But it’s really not about his Muslim religion per se, it’s about fanaticism in any form. He’s being characterized as an Islamic fundamentalist and fanatical Muslim. Think about the definition of the word “fanatic” –
a person motivated by irrational enthusiasm (as for a cause); "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject"--Winston Churchill
marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea; "rabid isolationist" wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Fanaticism is an emotion of being filled with excessive, uncritical zeal, particularly for an extreme religious or political cause or in some cases sports, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanatic
A person who is zealously enthusiastic for some cause, especially in religion; Fanatical; Showing evidence of possession by a god or demon ...en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fanatic
fanaticism - excessive intolerance of opposing views wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
fanatically - in a passionately fanatic manner; "he followed the teachings of his guru fanatically" wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Fanatics - A fan, aficionado, or supporter is someone who has an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking and enthusiasm for a sporting club, person (usually a celebrity), group of persons, company, product, activity, work of art, idea, or trend. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanatics_(aficionado)
fanatically - In a fanatical manner; with extreme, irrational zeal or enthusiasm en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fanatically
fanaticism - The characteristic or practice of being a fanaticen.wiktionary.org/wiki/fanaticism
Rigorous believer.arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/Portals/7/Language%20Arts/Smith/The%20Chosen%20Vocabulary.doc
You can see that all the definitions have one thing in common – it is irrational, crazy, uncontrolled, obsessive, and rabid closed-minded belief in something – anything – and that makes a person very, very dangerous, no matter what they are fanatical about.
Consider the people you’ve met in your life that are fanatics and how they perceive reality. A fanatic vegan will go nuts if you even say the word “hamburger,” let alone think you can eat one with them in the room, no, same city! They will lecture, cajole, and even threaten you to believe as they do, no matter you may believe we are omnivores, not herbivores (we can’t digest cellulose, you knew that). That’s dangerous. A fanatical Zionist is a Jew who believes in the State of Israel for Jews only, preferably sabras (native-born Israelis), and any other race, religion, or political system is blasphemy and the West Bank and Gaza will never be returned to the Palestinians and all Palestinians, Americans, and anyone else who believes differently should be killed as heathens who don’t follow God’s (their god’s) way of faith. The Hasidim are a prime example; tell me they don’t isolate themselves from the rest of European society and look down on everyone else; they do here, by golly.
Fanatics about exercise can kill themselves doing too much of it.
Fanatics about their weight can become anorexic or bulimic.
Fanatics about dogs will ruin their lives doing things for them and collecting them beyond their ability to care for them.
Fanatical patriotism can lead to genocide, and put someone like Adolph Hitler and the Nazi’s in charge of what was a rational 1930’s Germany. It lead George Bush to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and caused (still does) the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children and old people and boys and civilians in these countries and displaced millions to this day; it’s one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in history.
Fanatical homosexuals believe they are better than anyone else, just like the heterosexual, and flaunt their differences.
Fanatical hunters and exploiters of natural resources believe in their god-given right to kill anything they want to, for whatever reason, and care not if they make a species extinct: Sumatran tigers, Irish Elk, the American Passenger Pigeon, and many other species, not to mention those on the brink of extinction.
Fanatical Mormons believe, and practice, child-bride marriage and polygamy because that is the way to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. They believe Jesus Christ was a Native American for god’s sake!
Fanatical gun owners use the NRA to beat politicians into submission over their use of assault rifles (!!) to go deer hunting, so we can’t ban them from our streets and killing teenagers!!! Remember Columbine High School? The Branch Davidians and David Koresh in Waco? This guy? He didn’t use his military-issued guns, you know, he went out and bought them at a gun store in Killeen – all legally.
Fanatical Muslims like Osama bin Laden killed thousands to make us close the US Air Force base in Saudi Arabia that had been built to guard them from Sadam Hussein during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Heathens, blasphemers, and unbelievers are fair game to kill and must be removed from the “holy ground” that has Mecca and Medina on its soil.
Fanatical Christians tried to occupy Jerusalem during the Crusades and killed thousands to do so; Saladin practiced clemency to his European prisoners, not so the “good Christians” of the Knights Templar and friends.
Fanatical anti-abortion “pro-lifers” have blown up women’s reproductive clinics in the American Southeast, killed both innocent people and abortion providers all over the US, and harassed and threatened judges, their families, and politicians for supporting a woman’s right to choose. Heck, now the Catholic Bishop of Rhode Island is telling Sen. Kennedy he shouldn't take communion because he doesn't put the teachings and rules of the Catholic Church against abortion before his legal duty to uphold the Constitution and laws of the US? Come on, let's get real! Are we moving towards a theocracy? The very thing we condemn the Taliban, al Queda, and Saudi arabia for?
Fanatical anti-gay Christian groups picket the funerals of American troops and tell the bereaved parents and family of the dead servicemen that this is God’s revenge for the US allowing gays to live at all within our borders; in their belief system, the King James Bible is the only valid religious text, must be taken literally, and must be followed fanatically, so it’s OK to kill gays, lesbians, and trans-gender people if they can’t be “cured” of their sexual sins.
Fanatical animal-rights groups blow up buildings, vandalize laboratories, and break into research facilities to free thousands of mice, rats, cats, ferrets, dogs, monkeys – anything on the premises – in the belief they have the moral obligation to protect these animals from pain, suffering, and death, and fail to realize none of them can survive in the wild. They want ALL domesticated animals to become extinct and, ultimately, mankind itself, so the birds and the bees can live in harmony and without being “exploited” by humans. Without lab animals, thousands more humans would die of dread diseases and genetic anomalies but, to the AR people, that’s OK, too – kill the humans is their motto.
Timothy McVeigh was a fanatical anti-government Freeman, a US Army Veteran, NRA member, and native-born American, who blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on April 19, 1995, because he believed – totally – that his act would trigger a grass-roots revolution in this country to overthrow the legal US government and return this country to its “roots” of gun ownership, no taxes of any kind, and free-will living by the Constitution, whatever that means. The explosion killed 168 people and 450 were injured. Nineteen of the victims were small children in the day care center on the ground floor of the building. He was not Muslim, but a fanatic nonetheless.
Fanatics, in any form are, by definition, dangerous; they are not rational, thinking human beings. They don’t care about anything – literally – except for what they are fanatical about. Jeez, look at the football hooligans in England! They are fanatics about their teams and will kill each over it!
I don’t want to pick on any particular item that people are fanatics about, these just sprang to mind; I’m sure I can think of hundreds more (think Scrooge, Captain Ahab, Marie Antoinette) Anyway, I just want everybody, everywhere, to see we’re all fundamentally the same, with the same hopes, fears, confusion, pain, loneliness, love, happiness, and desires that everyone else has; we all bleed red blood, all our brains die after having no oxygen for 6 minutes, we all cry, we all make urine and feces, we all need water and food to survive more than a few days, we all die in the end – no matter what, no matter how we lived or how we die.
It’s up to us to choose how we live before we die and if we left this world a better place, not only for our children, but ALL the children and just plain people, too. Oh, and whippets!! Sorry I went on so long, this is a subject close to my heart.
Safe journeys,
Glenda
PS – I was born and raised Jewish, lived in Israel for 4 years, converted to the Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches by turns, married a Catholic, and consider myself a secular humanist.
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