Muslims having reasons to fear the West

Before we let our primary emotions take over and rule the world, because we in the West fear that Muslims take over and rule the world, we may calm down and have a look at facts.

So far one Dutch person died through a Muslim terrorist, one through a Dutch terrorist, eight through Moluccan terrorist actions, 193 through a Russian/ Ukraine Buk missile, large numbers through German Nazi terror in 1940-1945.

Not to diminish violence committed by Muslims, but for a balanced opinion it may be wise to also see where Muslims are the victims. Wikipedia enlists 37 countries where violence against Muslims took place, varying from individual harassment to the murder of millions, such as in the USSR.

And let us not forget the contributions of western powers. With support of France, UK and USA, Israelis have killed about 100,000 Palestinian Muslims. Because of the deliberate divide-and-rule policy of Colonial Britain in the late 1940s, about a million Muslims and Hindus died in the violence that followed. The Dutch were co-responsible for the death of 8,000 Muslim men in Bosnia in 1995.

Perhaps Muslims have more reason to fear the West then the West have reason to fear Muslims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Muslims 

Bosnian burial

Iraqi girl seeing her parents killed by American soldiers

Statements I never forgot

Some statements I heard, I never forgot:

It’s better to commit suicide than to apply for a subsidy in Kerala.

~ Matappan, wage laborer

Once you have come over, Australia is not far away at all.

~ My relative in Queensland

My country is underpopulated.

~ Farmer in western Japan

We sit on terraces, drink one coffee and discuss politics.

~ Heard in Greece, 1964

America is the best country to live in.

~ A personal friend in the US, 1985

In my country make sure you stay away from the hotheads.

~ Syrian refugee

Life is like walking in the mountains: always up and down.

(La vita e come camminare nella montagna: sempre su and giù.)

~ Innkeeper in Italian Alps

My burka is my protection.

~ Muslim woman in the first class Bombay-Delhi train

Never walk alone in Johannesburg, unless you are extremely street wise.

~ Local colleague

To protect your heart, you’d better not see Lima behind the hills

~ Peruvian Consultant

You come for the environment, but economy ranks first.

~ Delegate of the Chinese governmental environmental office

We can prepare you mentally for floods but cannot prevent those floods.

~ UK Environment Agency

You can cut me in pieces and put me in your suitcase, but get me out of this prison.

~ Unemployed academician in Rajasthan

If adapting to effects of climate change raises enough foreign funds, we will surely adapt.

~ Vietnamese professor

The future of humanity: ranking of risks

The ranking of risks creates the awareness that helps the timely design and implementation of necessary policies. Urges from civil society are needed to compel governmental and inter-governmental bodies to make such rankings and adjust present-day policies to reduce such risks in order to safeguard the survival of humanity.

• For humans the risk of suddenly losing their lives is largest in their house and in the traffic.
• Sudden loss of lives through warfare and disasters is relatively small and goes on diminishing.
• Sudden loss of lives through terrorism is even smaller.
• By far the largest risk for humans to lose their lives comes from slow-onset killers.
• The largest slow onset risk for humans to lose their lives comes from diseases. 
• The second largest slow onset risk of losing their lives comes from poverty, either directly or through the loss of resistance against diseases.
• Whatever economic growth or stabilization, the lack of redistributing the costs of dismissals and bankruptcies contributes slow-onset deaths.
• In the longer run, economic growth brings more environmental degradation resulting in larger numbers of slow onset deaths.
• If scarcity grows, larger numbers of rapid onset deaths will follow.

Main forms of environmental degradation:

• Depletion of ocean fish stock.
• Depletion of forest reserves.
• Depletion of ground water stock.
• Increasing acreage needed for cattle feed to produce meat.
• Poisoning of humans, cattle, vegetation, soil, water and air.
• Diseases arising from monocultures and industrial dairy farming.
• Effects of global warming.

Main effects of global warming:

• Sea level rise.
• Decay of coral reefs and coral islands through warmer seawater
• Wet areas getting wetter.
• Dry areas getting drier.
• Rapid onset weather events growing in incidence and magnitude.
• Migration of species.
• New diseases or increase of existing diseases.

Larger dangers than terrorism

It is logical that the media spend time on terrorist attacks. But they will also know that the more attention they give to that subject, the more consternation in society will arise and the more the terrorists will be happy because they want to create consternation.

Moreover, they will have less time for attention to larger numbers of deaths through the traffic, diseases, violent repression, poverty and disasters. In comparison with their numbers, the number of terror victims is very small. On the day that you extensively pay attention to 32 deaths by terrorist attacks in Brussels, over 30,000 people dying by HIV, over 30,000 by lung cancer, approximately 30,000 by diarrhea and 30,000 by diabetes. In the Syrian war violence about 170 people in Syria are dying on an average day over the last five years, nearly six times as much as in Brussels on 23 March.

Of course, terrorist attacks distinguish themselves by willfulness of the offenders, but willfulness also brings casualties in other ways, and in much larger numbers. Think of the thousands of horrible deaths through hunger because of oppression and exploitation, while entrepreneurs, bankers and politicians are pocketing the money. Or think of the thousands in Homs or Gaza who die gruesomely through willfully thrown bombs from aircraft of Asad or Netanyahu. And don’t forget the people who die from torture in the dungeons of dictatorial regimes. Much of all that suffering arises from willfulness of offenders.

Terrorist attacks have also the aspect of unexpectedness that many fear so much. But it is equally unexpected for a biker to be killed by a lorry that wants to pass you in a narrow residential street and crush your head under a wheel. That happened to a woman living next to me. And like her, more than 200 people die in the European traffic each day and worldwide about 4,000 people each day, also unexpectedly and gruesomely.

To be clear, I do not campaign for ignoring terrorists and their attacks, but for a balanced distribution of media attention to all victims and directly or indirectly responsible people. In that way, we help seeing a terrorist attack in its true proportions and redress over-emotional reactions.

Moreover, we preclude that time and again there is a call for measures that we will regret later on, while less time is left to discuss measures against much larger forms of suffering and the people responsible for that suffering.

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More than 28,000 photos of deaths in government custody that were smuggled out of Syria:

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/16/syria-stories-behind-photos-killed-detainees

The deeper layer of reunion

Finding back dear relatives, lost lovers, old friends or former schoolmates can create much emotion. Or is it more a reflection of something in ourselves and perhaps even stemming from early childhood? Could be, could very well be.

As fetuses and infants we think our environment is paradise and we are one-and-the-same with our mother: the unconsciously perceived symbiosis. But we were doomed to lose that paradise. We became conscious of the outside reality and learned about practicalities.

Yet, deep down we long back, one way or the other, not only to enter paradise again but even reunite with it: full symbiosis. That feeling may be evoked when we reunite with other people, and feel joy, get deep satisfaction or be moved to tears.

Beating around the people

Money is not the problem, nor is dynamite, genetic manipulation, politics, drugs or the word nigger. An economy based on money can be use to create income equality, while barter can be misused by crooks. Dynamite in warfare kills people but can used for the construction of railways in the mountains and reduce car traffic. Genetic manipulation can be ecologically disastrous but sensible genetic manipulation can help feed a growing population. Political systems can be seas of corruption but also organize peaceful society. Drugs can make for criminality but also work out in healing ways. The word nigger can be changed into African American but still signify discrimination.

All such attempts of problem solving are, in fact, the fighting of symptoms. The real causes are to be found in people, human beings, actors, stakeholders. If we want to stop economic exploitation, war killings, ecological destruction, political corruption, drugs criminality or race discrimination, we have to go and deal with people, in direct ways. We need to study their psychological makeup and learn how to reduce derailed behaviors.

And we learn about human behaviors best by understanding our own behavior first of all. Than we stop beating around the bush and work on a better world.