Where is the social justice outcry against Islam after the shooting at a gay bar in Florida? Facebook is clearly struggling to fill my feed this week.
When Christians from Westboro Baptist Church hold signs, it's national news. They are called racists and bigots. They are rightly ostracized and shunned. But no one goes out of their way to make a distinction between Westboro and other Christians. When a Christian does something racist or bigoted or wrong, social media doesn't fill up with stories explaining how that one person is an outlier. When a Catholic priest molests a boy, all Catholic priests are suspects. And Catholics who support priests are deluded deniers. And so on.
But when a Muslim kills 50 people at a gay night club, he's an outlier. An anomaly. The fact that he was a Muslim, and that he killed gay people--what a coincidence. Islam isn't the issue, and Islamic teachings aren't the issue. The killer's actions do not represent Muslim beliefs regarding gays in any way--he was just committing an act of terror because he was connected to ISIS.
No, no, no. The real issue is guns. Instead of asking why the silent majority of Muslims are not rising up to condemn a shooting at a gay night club, gun owners everywhere are implicated by a president who has no problem with guns when they protect him but clearly doesn't mind making it harder for everyone else to own them. Islam is the religion of peace. Guns are the religion of violence.
If a guy wearing a red baseball cap had killed 50 people at a gay night club, my Facebook feed would have exploded with stories about how Trump supporters are bigots who hate gays. When a Muslim does it, there's room for stories about how Westboro Baptist Church says that "God sent the shooter" to Florida. A Muslim kills 50 people, yet someone has time to write about a bunch of sign-holders from Kansas, and ISIS is named as the scapegoat? And then it becomes leverage for gun control?
Jesus. That's all I keep thinking. Jesus.
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