Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing.

There is an email message circulating, attributed to a Dr. Emanuel Tanay that makes parallels between the average German during the Nazi era and present-day Muslims. The email begins like this:

"A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen."

The email then goes on to compare the story of the Nazi regime to the Islam of today.

"We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill."

I certainly agree that it is the fanatics within Islam who commit these atrocities and they have appropriated the name of Islam to support their cause. However, he also goes on to claim that the majority of Muslims are silent and therefore somehow complicit with these actions. I strongly disagree with this claim. I have some very good friends in the Muslim community and they certainly speak out against violence. Yet there still seems to be alot of discrimination against them.

Long lists of violent acts committed by Japanese, Russians, Rawandans, Nazis and Muslims are given in great detail. Somehow the author doesn't mention the violent acts committed by Christians. In fact, the Nazis and Russians were predominantly Christians. Of the many global conflicts that were listed, somehow the author missed that Darfur is actually Muslims killing Muslims and Rawanda was Christian killing Christian (Rawanda is 56% Catholic, 26 % protestant and 11% Seventh Day Adventist). He also didn't mention that there are many more instances of Christians killing Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan than there are examples of Muslims killing Christians.

It also seems odd to me how much outrage there is over a suicide bomber and his victims and yet we don't seem to get as angry about the innocent men, women and children that are killed by predator drones, bombs, or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Somehow we don't get as upset by the fire bombing of Dresdan and Tokyo or the Atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as we do when others commit similar violent acts.

The goes on to state:

"History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence."

I would argue that Peace loving people of all faiths are equally to blame. As Canadians and Americans, our soldiers are occupying Muslim countries and they are killing people - many of them innocent women and children - in our name. If we don't speak out, we are also guilty. This is especially true of Christians as we are the followers of the Prince of Peace.

I hope and pray that people of all religions (and otherwise) will wake up and realize that killing is always an offense to God - regardless of the name or nation that tries to justify the action. Speak out and tell our leaders that violence is not an acceptable solution - especially when this violence is used to further corporate interests.