Not All Like That
This is something that I changed my mind about only relatively recently. Only a few years ago, my reaction to fundamentalist Muslims and their actions was “It is such a pity that a small percentage of crazy fundies poisons our perception of an entire religion!”
It isn’t any longer.
Dan Savage had an awesome post about NALT Christians - which applies equally well (much better, in fact!) to NALT Muslims. NALT stands for “Not All Like That”, the phrase you hear from liberal Muslims/Christians/etc. when you point out the actions of their conservative coreligionists: “But we’re not all like that!” Dan’s point is: “Yes, NALTs, we know. Don’t tell us. TELL THEM!”
The piece is about homophobia/Christianity in particular, but it applies equally well to many other things (emph. mine):
I'm tired of reading letters from buttsore "good" Christians whining to me about the "power and attention" given to the "a small minority" who hate, demonize, and dehumanize gays and lesbians, as if the reach, influence, and impact of conservative Christian bigots were a figment of my imagination. […]
It's easy to be complacent when you're straight, to throw up your hands and say, "Oh, just stop giving them so much attention-it's making all the good Christians look bad and feel sad." But we're not the ones who gave "them" so much power. Conservative Christians seized power because moderate and liberal Christians ceded it-moderate and liberal Christians ceded both power and their reputations to conservative "Christian" haters.
I'm sorry, JLGAHF, but that "small minority" is very powerful, and we have to pay attention to them and fight back against their lies. Our rights, our families, and our lives depend on it. And if you're upset that all Christians everywhere are increasingly viewed as anti-gay, your beef is with conservative, right-wing, sex-phobic, and homophobic "Christians" who claim to speak for all Christians everywhere, not with me.
As for my response to LR, JLGAHF, it was clearly addressed to a Christian who believes that being Christian requires her to deny the basic human dignity and equality of gay and lesbian and bi and trans people. It wasn't addressed to all Christians everywhere. It was addressed to her, and to her brand of Christianity. I didn't go out of my way to point out that not all Christians agree with her. But neither did she. And it's telling that you would take issue not with LR, but with me. Telling and typical. I hate to sound like a broken record, but one more time:
I'm sick of tolerant, accepting Christians whispering to me that "we're not all like that." If you want to change the growing perception that "good Christian" means "anti-gay"-a perception that is leading many people to stop identifying themselves as Christian because they don't want to be lumped in with the haters-stop whispering to me and start screaming at them. Until there are moderate and "welcoming" Christian groups that are just as big, well-funded, aggressive, and loud as the conservative Christian organizations, "welcoming" Christians are in no position to complain about the perception that all Christians are anti-gay. Your co-religionists have invested decades and millions of dollars in creating that perception. You let it happen. […]
Just substitute Muslim for Christian everywhere, and the piece becomes even much better. All these moderate Muslims who lament on how Islam gets demonized in the public perception - don’t tell us! Speak the fuck up against the crazy fundies who are responsible! And until you do that - until you start investing resources, money and time to fight the bigots who “stole your religion”, until you publicly and unambiguously condemn them and act against them - until that happens, sorry, guys, but we all aren’t going to buy this NALT stuff any longer!
To all the NALT people everywhere, I have the same questions that Dan asked: we believe that your personal position is what you say it is, but: what is the position of the people in power in your organization? What is the position of the vocal people in your organization? Of the spiritual leaders? Do you agree with it? If not - what are you, personally, doing against it? How are you trying to change it?
Until we see some real action from moderate Muslims against the fundamentalists, I will assume that they all simply play the old and tried Good Cop/Bad Cop routine on us. How do you know that you’re being played the Good Cop/Bad Cop thing? Look closely. On whom is the good cop working? With whom is he arguing? Is it really with the bad cop? Or with you? That’s your clue.
It isn’t any longer.
Dan Savage had an awesome post about NALT Christians - which applies equally well (much better, in fact!) to NALT Muslims. NALT stands for “Not All Like That”, the phrase you hear from liberal Muslims/Christians/etc. when you point out the actions of their conservative coreligionists: “But we’re not all like that!” Dan’s point is: “Yes, NALTs, we know. Don’t tell us. TELL THEM!”
The piece is about homophobia/Christianity in particular, but it applies equally well to many other things (emph. mine):
I'm tired of reading letters from buttsore "good" Christians whining to me about the "power and attention" given to the "a small minority" who hate, demonize, and dehumanize gays and lesbians, as if the reach, influence, and impact of conservative Christian bigots were a figment of my imagination. […]
It's easy to be complacent when you're straight, to throw up your hands and say, "Oh, just stop giving them so much attention-it's making all the good Christians look bad and feel sad." But we're not the ones who gave "them" so much power. Conservative Christians seized power because moderate and liberal Christians ceded it-moderate and liberal Christians ceded both power and their reputations to conservative "Christian" haters.
I'm sorry, JLGAHF, but that "small minority" is very powerful, and we have to pay attention to them and fight back against their lies. Our rights, our families, and our lives depend on it. And if you're upset that all Christians everywhere are increasingly viewed as anti-gay, your beef is with conservative, right-wing, sex-phobic, and homophobic "Christians" who claim to speak for all Christians everywhere, not with me.
As for my response to LR, JLGAHF, it was clearly addressed to a Christian who believes that being Christian requires her to deny the basic human dignity and equality of gay and lesbian and bi and trans people. It wasn't addressed to all Christians everywhere. It was addressed to her, and to her brand of Christianity. I didn't go out of my way to point out that not all Christians agree with her. But neither did she. And it's telling that you would take issue not with LR, but with me. Telling and typical. I hate to sound like a broken record, but one more time:
I'm sick of tolerant, accepting Christians whispering to me that "we're not all like that." If you want to change the growing perception that "good Christian" means "anti-gay"-a perception that is leading many people to stop identifying themselves as Christian because they don't want to be lumped in with the haters-stop whispering to me and start screaming at them. Until there are moderate and "welcoming" Christian groups that are just as big, well-funded, aggressive, and loud as the conservative Christian organizations, "welcoming" Christians are in no position to complain about the perception that all Christians are anti-gay. Your co-religionists have invested decades and millions of dollars in creating that perception. You let it happen. […]
Just substitute Muslim for Christian everywhere, and the piece becomes even much better. All these moderate Muslims who lament on how Islam gets demonized in the public perception - don’t tell us! Speak the fuck up against the crazy fundies who are responsible! And until you do that - until you start investing resources, money and time to fight the bigots who “stole your religion”, until you publicly and unambiguously condemn them and act against them - until that happens, sorry, guys, but we all aren’t going to buy this NALT stuff any longer!
To all the NALT people everywhere, I have the same questions that Dan asked: we believe that your personal position is what you say it is, but: what is the position of the people in power in your organization? What is the position of the vocal people in your organization? Of the spiritual leaders? Do you agree with it? If not - what are you, personally, doing against it? How are you trying to change it?
Until we see some real action from moderate Muslims against the fundamentalists, I will assume that they all simply play the old and tried Good Cop/Bad Cop routine on us. How do you know that you’re being played the Good Cop/Bad Cop thing? Look closely. On whom is the good cop working? With whom is he arguing? Is it really with the bad cop? Or with you? That’s your clue.