The Syrian Refugee crisis has created dramatic divisions amongst Americans and amongst millions of Europeans across the EU. On the one side, we have people who don’t want anymore Muslims let into their countries; and on the other side, you have people who feel that these refugees are in need and deserve help. On both sides we are witnessing the inevitable results of fear. Fear is one of the most debilitating and toxic psychological states and has consequently clouded both sides of this debate, and has prevented any hope for a thoughtful or rational dialogue.
The most common cause of hatred is fear, mixed with a dash of powerlessness. Hatred of people groups is almost always fear driven. Muslim children throughout the world are taught to fear the Jews, the Zionists, the little Satan. Surrounded by her enemies, Israel still stands, attributed to Israel’s manipulation of global powers, and due to her protection by the Great Satan, America. The hatred of Israelis is palpable throughout Arabia, Africa, Persia, and the Near East. All because of lies ingrained in the minds of children. There is no reasoning with them.
Hatred of Muslims is also derived from fear. The Islamist reign of terror has stretched across the globe in its’ attempt to spread Islamic Orthodoxy and to establish Islamic Caliphates. Many Muslim immigrants have fled the tyrannical rule of Sharia Law and the civil wars between Sunni and Shi’ite throughout the Muslim World. Westerners witness the chaos, the beheadings, the crucifixions, the burnings, the drownings, and 7 year old children parading the severed heads of their victims down city streets, and they are afraid. Many citizens of the Western World do not trust their governments to deal with this violence. In The United States, we’re equally depressed by our government’s role in the creation of most of these terrorist threats. We armed AQ, we armed ISIS, we armed Saddam Hussein. With no government to trust in dealing with these threats, fear plus powerlessness becomes a blanket of hatred – irrational and applied absolutely toward all Muslims.
Frightened by fear, others in the Western World have swung wide upon that pendulum’s swing, arguing that there are no reasons for fear in the first place, arguing that anyone in need should be helped, regardless of the cultural dissonance and persuasion of those seeking refuge. Terrified of those they see as bigots, they abandon all reason and merely come to the rescue and aid of those they feel are being treated harshly.
In the end, everyone comes out looking like fools. We’ve got half the people across social media trying as hard as they can to demonstrate just how little they know about the Bible, trying to use it to justify one position or the other. We’ve got people who are against an open borders Hispanic migration, demanding we bring in 100,000 Middle Eastern refugees. This is what happens when governments do nothing. Everyone becomes powerless. Everyone freaks out. They all get mixed up in hate or cowardly abandon reason in order to resist the hate they see around them in favor of appeasement.
I would offer advice, but you cannot reason with fear. You cannot reason with those captured by hate and you cannot reason with those desperately clinging to appeasement. What I will say, is this: The world is being forced to deal with a global revival of Islamic Orthodoxy and it has proved itself ill-equipped to do so. Those who have embraced the Marxist-attitude that need is a claim upon the obligation of others are half the problem. Those embracing hatred of all Muslims are the other half of the problem. Check yourself. Hatred is a result of fear. Do not be afraid. Be rational, objective, and deliberate. Demand a better government, one that leaves us less susceptible to terror here at home and one which no longer finances it abroad.
