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To be "tolerant of intolerance" is to
be a co-conspirator with evil actors.
The human being was created to be
and do better.
Dare the self-respecting person be "tolerant of intolerance." Far too long and much too often people who call themselves good, religious or honorable, tolerate intolerance. "Go-along to get-along" is a mantra that is sometimes used by those who describe their behavior and demonstrate that they are co-conspirators with ruthless and evil actors.
A case in point that speaks to tolerant of intolerance: On January 7, 2015 two masked Islamist gunman Said Kourachi and Cerif Kouachi, brothers in their 30s, armed with AK-47s and shouting "Allahu Akbar" stormed the offices of a French satirical news magazine and killed 12 people, including the editor and two police offices. Too long the people of France, like the people of America, have prized themselves and even celebrated being tolerant of intolerance.
Such practice is like "sowing to the wind and reaping rhe whirlwind." While discernment and selectivity are necessary in addressing intolerance, let there be neither doubt or hesitation when attempting to deny freedom is the matter of concern. Even if it is about expressing one's opinon about Prophet Muhammad, Jesus or God. Intolerance must not be tolerated or celebrated. To the contrary, it must be, if necessary, aggressively confronted, strangled and defeated, especially the kind of intolerance, fostered by those who maintain that Muhammad, unlike other deities, or supposed to be deities, is beyond the personal expression about him, which led to Islamist terrorists killing 12 people at Charlie Habdo Magazine in Paris. Henceforth, lovers of freedom, must confront adversaries such as these men not after some horrible atrocities have been committed but before they are committed, by defending freedom of speech in every area of life, without exception. This means not being unwilling to grant equal freedom of expression esp., in religious matters.
Featuring cartoons of Muhammad is not a danger to anyone. It is a danger to disallow expression about Muhammad by anyone who chooses to do so. If Muhammad is who his true adherents claim him to be, like music, he needs not defense, only rendition.
As an African American I know the cost of intolerance. When I was a boy, in Alabama, there were times when I had to walk six miles one-way, to school, passing or being passed by a school bus that picked-up only white children. So-called "good white folk," many of them confessing to be Christians, were tolerant of the intolerance causing such to be. They even applauded the fact that black children would not be allowed to ride on that school bus. They were tolerant of intolerance. When I think about this, and I could recount more than a few similar experiences, including my experiences when, after the arrest of Rosa Parks for having refused to give her bus seat to a white man, I with Martin Luther King, Jr., and sixteen other persons founded the Montgomery Improvement Association to direct a boycott of buses. King was elected president and I was elected secretary of the organization that directed the bus boycott. I know God was with me then and now. I do not object to anyone expressing any opinion about my God. My God needs no defenders. Indeed, He is capable of defending Himself and hman beings. He has declared "vengeance is mine." Nearly everyone who were permitted to ride that white only school bus has transitioned to another world where race does not divide people. Since then, I have lived nearly fourscore years and counting. Yes, there is a God somehwere. This is my testimony and I proudly declare it.
Martin Luther DKing, Jr., in his "Letter from Birminhgham Jail," addressing religious leaders who were tolerant of intolerance writes:
I must make two honest cofessions to you,
my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must
confess that over the last few years I have been
greatly disappointed with the white moderate.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion
that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride
toward freedom is not the White Citizen Councillor
or the Ku Klu Klanner but the white moderate... ."
ALTHOUGH TOLERANCE HAS A PLACE, EVEN WHEN IT INTERFACES INTOLERANCE THE SELF-RESPECTING PERSON SHOULD BE CAREFUL ABOUT HOW AND WHEN, IF EVER, HE TOLERATES INTOLERANCE. THE REDEEMED, HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO NOT BE TOLERANT OF INTOLERANCE, ESEPCIALLY WHEN IT IS ABOUT RELIGION, RACE SUPERIORITY OR TRADITION. "OUT OF ONE BLOOD GOD MADE ALL PEOPLE TO DWELL UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH."
Who 's afraid of being tolerarant of intolerance. Not I! Neither are surviving editors of Charlie Habdo Magazine who one week after the assassination of 10 of their coworkers and two police officers published the satirical news magazine that featured Muhammad on the cover. In doing this they declared to the world that being tolerant of intolerance is unacceptable. They have the overwhelming support of French people and most people around the world.
This is not a time for silence or fear. This is a time to speak and declare that people who cherish freedom will protect and defend freedom of expresison. In this endeavor may we heed the wisdom of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who during World War II said, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Jesus demonstrated that "Love is stronger than fear." Sometimes it is appropriate to administer tough love.
Copyright 2015 by Uriah J. Fields
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As for what you have written and Martin Luther King wrote, the real danger is those who just go along with intolerance, either through fear or ignorance. I recall the 1964 quadrennial conference of the Methodist Church in Lincoln Nebraska, where the all white Mississippi delegation was confronted by members of the Mississippi Free Democratic Party. These naïve young people, whose beliefs were finally challenged, feared going home to their intolerant parents after their enlightenment at the conference.
It takes courage to stand up to intolerance and many do not have the backbone to do it. Those of us that do, like you and I, have to take leadership. Like you, I want readers to not just to read your fine article, but to comment thoughtfully about it.
Ron
PS. You are far healthier than those bus riders because you walked that 6 miles to school every day. If only fearful parents would let their kids walk to school today we would see much less obesity and disease in later life. And those kids would be much tougher and tolerant, as well, having experienced life in the street and not in the SUV with mommy dear.