Introduction

If you wish to merely view the short film scroll to the bottom, and enjoy! If you want some of my reasoning for selecting it today, read on.

Statement

I happened upon this short film on Facebook the other day and I wanted to share it on Saturday, but I’ve been slacking on this blog. In light of today’s events in Orlando, it bears sharing.

It’s exhaustive to have to have to constantly remind people that there over a billion Muslims in the world and a prerequisite of the faith is not fundamentalism, which is the largest danger.

Other faiths, ethnicities, and races have perpetrate horrid acts in the past, sometimes as the will of a majority rather than a minority. It does not mean we should shut out the world.

The sole comment I got to this video on Facebook reconfirmed my commitment to sharing it. Furthermore, inspired some pseudo-poetry on my part.

I refuse to judge…

Americans by the Ku Klux Klan,
Germans based on Nazis,
Muslims based on Al Qaeda or Isis,
Christians by the Crusaders.

I refuse to judge.

I refuse to live in fear of…

Americans,
Germans,
Muslims,
Christians.

I refuse to live in fear.

If you choose to live in fear
you truly fear to live.

And that’s the bottom line: it’s choice, this exclusionary fear. You can read here how closely the events of 9/11 affected me. Not that I’ve been immune since; I’ve breathed a sigh of relief, trembled and cried when friends and family “checked in as safe” on Facebook. But again it’s a choice.

I am not a Muslim, but I have met some. I identify with the group that was targeted in this latest heinous act of terrorism, but I choose not to generalize. In his groundbreaking documentary on the Holocaust, Night and Fog, Alain Resnais asks: “Who is responsible then?” In answering this question lately we, as a society, have a tendency to be far too inclusionary in assigning blame. The blame is not to be split a billion ways. The sole blame for the act lies with one man and one extremist organization. A list of enablers is a bit longer but features many more “home grown” culprits.

It’s also important to note that this attack and the thwarted one in Los Angeles comes during the month of Ramadan. Plotting this sort of act contrary to the teachings of Mohammed during the holiest of months shows you how far afield this sort of action is from the core of the faith.