If you have ever tried to tell friends and family about the dangers of Islam (and I certainly HOPE you have!) you've probably run into what seems to be a brick wall, at least occasionally. People seem to deliberately refuse to understand what you mean. Why?In an article at Political Islam, Bill Warner has a great list of what's getting in the way of people really listening to you. He says, "Once you understand the doctrine of political Islam, there is a question that naturally arises. Why doesn't everyone know about this? ...It is not only that we don't know, we have also developed a systemic social theory of why we will not learn."
Those of us who want to reach the people who do not yet know what we know (and I should think that includes all of us) better clearly understand what this brick wall is made of, so we can fashion ways over or around it.
I think Warner's list is good. Probably a few more things could be added to it.
His list is (he explains each in more detail in the article):
1. Inertia
2. What will we have to do?
3. I know this Muslim and he is nice.
4. Afraid of being called a bigot.
5. Islam cannot be worse than Christianity, so why learn?
6. It's too hard; non-Muslims cannot learn Islam.
7. Fear.
I would add that you sometimes see a look in someone's eyes that says, "I think you're one of those nutballs who gets obsessed with some obscure paranoid threat, and I don't know if I should encourage this by listening."
6 comments:
I would also add that my own strong feeling on the subject sometimes turns people off. I have been trying to be more casual in my "presentation" and it's going over much better.
1) The american people have no idea that the Quran is considered the uncreated word of a perfect god
2) The american people have no idea that the Quran is an Rx for all life
3) The american people have no idea what the ruling authorities in Islam tell everyone the Quran requires
4) The american people want football on sunday, and we are a bunch of crows in the highway picking at the body of a freshly killed puppy.
We might be able to convince a few people by this retail approach, but we don't have the sledgehammer needed.
It will take THEM, again. And maybe AGAIN
So Epa, do you think a one-on-one attempt to talk to people is pointless?
I've been thinking about your comment, Epa, that people would need a catastrophic event to open their ears.
I think such an event might make people more willing to find an answer, but some gentle education now could really change how they understand the event when it happens, and could drastically alter WHO they'll listen to (hint: not presidents and PMs saying "Islam is a religion of peace").
In other words, I think the one-on-one "retail" work is worth doing now, even if I don't convert anyone into a zealot like me.
It can open their minds to the right message when the time comes. It can give them the ability to see and really recognize what they're seeing and why it is happening and who and what to vote for. It could help prevent some of the bullshit handwringing we saw so widespread after 911, and make more effective collective action more possible. What do you think?
You are right, I didn't subscribe.
No I don't believe retail will work.
I don't believe retail can stop either.
The event may not be catastrophic which crystallizes the threat.
It might be some arrogant practice related demand like the Minneapolis airport taxi-alchohol brouhaha backed by the MB, or the Swift Ramadan fast thing....
IF
it gets some coverage
There has to be some organization which can run to the site of the attention getting incident and command some kind of media focus without looking like a bunch of paranoid crazies.
Musing before coffee
If there are two thousand of us, say, who know the danger posed by Islamic principles, don't you think we would have a greater effect as an organization which can run to the site of the attention-getting incident if there were ten thousand of us?
So do I.
And how do we get those greater numbers without a catastrophic event? Simple: The same way any other group increases its numbers. By talking one-on-one with people we know, lecturing to groups, and writing for publication.
If you're not very good at one-on-one conversions, you can get better at it, and/or you can find other ways to help convert people into a paranoid crazies, I mean sensible, jihad-informed citizen warriors.
At least, that's what I think.
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