It is very clear the perpetrator of the terrorist attack on Orlando, probably had multiple levels of twisted reasoning behind the attack. Fueled by a dangerous allegiance to ISIS. It is clear the utmost goal of the attack though is to instill fear in those that have been attack, to place fear in the hearts of the American public (and others around the world) that you are not safe anywhere. Part of the goal of this fear is to get us to turn on our fellow Americans, most specifically those in the Muslim community. Even though like every community of faith, it is made up almost entirely by people of peace who would not do a thing to harm another human, let alone take their life. However their goal is to turn Americans against fellow Americans, to make us alienate, and segregate the Muslim community in our country. For the very reason that an alienated community is one that is much easier to radicalize then one that is an integrated part of the community, one that is treated equally, and like any other part of society at large. It is this alienation and segregation of the Muslim community in much of Europe that is causing them to have such massive issues with home grown terrorism, and that is how they win.
The idea of banning a whole religion from entering the
country is not only absurdly xenophobic, but the fact is that all the recent
terrorist attacks since 9/11 have been carried out by American born citizens,
and in the same token citizens who have not visited the countries the terrorist organizations are
operating out of. Which is exactly how
ISIS wants it, they want them to stay in the countries they are citizens
of especially if they are citizens of Western countries. They don’t even want
the would be terrorist to contact them for permission. In their recent “press releases”
in the last few years they have said just that, all they want them to do is to
make a public pledge that what they are doing is for ISIS, so that ISIS can
claim the attack. They also don’t want them attacking the military or hardened government targets, they
want them to attack soft civilian targets, and in doing so to kill as many
people as possible. The point being to
instill as much fear into the public as possible.
Now it is also clear that this target was selected specifically
because it would be an attack on the LGBT community, and in the attack it
picked a target that was supposed to be a safe place for a community that often
doesn’t have a lot of safe places to begin with. So this attack takes the goal of the typical
terrorist attack two fold, not only dose it instill fear in the general public
and create a distrust of the Muslim community, in those that are not a part of
it. It also attempts to turn one minority against another, to turn the LGBT
community against the Muslim community with in the U.S. Most of all though it tries to instill in the
LGBT community that they are not safe anywhere. The goal being to make
us retreat in fear, to try to hide in the wood work, to stop living our lives
out loud, really to get us to go back into the closet, lest we be the victims
of another such attack.
We however can’t do that, because doing that would mean that
the terrorist win, that they have gotten what they wanted, they have gotten us
to cower in fear. Instead we have to not
only continue to live our lives, but we have to live them even louder. To keep
fighting for the rights that we are fighting for, and to be even louder about
it. We win if we push even harder for
the goals that we have as a community for the equality that we as a community
deserve, and to keep fighting to win over the hearts and minds of more
people. To live our lives even louder means to keep going out, to keep gathering in celebrations, and in protest. To continue to live with the resolve that no
one, and nothing can cause us to go back into the closet, or to shy away from
the public spot light.
It may seem tempting to do the opposite, after all it seems
like the safe path, the easy path, to just step ever so slightly back into the
shadows. However as a community we did
not get this far by doing that, we got this far by stepping out of the shadows,
by stepping into the public square and stealing the spot light. By making a
commotion until those around us where forced to listen, and forced to take
action to change the status quo. To step back into
the shadows in response to this attack would not only play into the hands the terrorist, but into the hands of those that also want to not only
keep the status quo we are in, in much of the country, where we are still second class
citizens. It also plays into the hands of the ones who want to turn the hands back on the gains we have
made. We also can’t let them win by
turning against the Muslim community, as there are many in the LGBT community who also belong to the Muslim community too.
There are those out there who would want you to think the Muslim
community is somehow uniquely anti-gay. However we know this is not true, we have
seen many examples of how other major religions are just as anti-gay, in the
wake of this attack. We have seen where they are taking joy in the fact that so many LGBT
people lost their lives and wound up seriously wounded. From pastors on You Tube to preachers on
national TV, there is no shortage of hatred out there. However just as we don’t
paint all Christians with the same broad brush, we should resist the urge to do
the same with the Muslim community. Just
look at the efforts the leaders of the Muslim community have gone through to publicly condemn
the attack, you never see that when a Christian attacks the LGBT community. You also never see the efforts they have put forth to help the community in Orlando with the after
math of the attack, coming out of the leaders of much of the Christian community. Sure there are some
bad apples, but there are bad apples in every group, in every religion. Yet we don’t go around distrusting, every one
of every faith, and we don’t call for them to be singled out for special levels
of scrutiny. As such we should not do
that now ether.
We have a long history as a community of not backing down,
and we need to use this as an example to show that we are not going to back
down, that we are going to do the opposite.
That we are going to be even bolder, that we are going to be even
louder, that we are going to be even more visible. We are going to do this because this is what we do
best. When others think they have beaten us down as a community, when they
think that they have filled us with fear, when they think that we are going to
back down we show them they are wrong.
Now is a time to tap into that proud history and show the terrorist that
they are wrong, to show them that we are not scared of them, but that the opposite
is true. Show them that we laugh in their face, that we do what is what they don’t want
instead. For this is what takes the power
away from them and gives it to us, we have the power to make them look stupid
to show them the power that we possess. So
lets show them what we are made of!
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