Divided New York City: An Invitation for Terrorists

Those who love New York City and celebrate its diversity seem to be less concerned about the political divide within the city. Unfortunately, protesters of all kinds make this city their destination of choice to make their opinion known. Perhaps protesters should hold their protest campaigns in Washington D.C., where law makers, and representatives of our nation can hear their voices and possibly do something about it. Another fact about these protests is that many of these protesters have been imported from all over the United States to interrupt our lives in New York City.

What should worry the average New Yorker is not individual protest campaigns (we are used to protests), but rather the fall out from these campaigns and how the media presents them. The recent protest held on Saturday, June 10th turned into something that made no sense whatsoever. Millions of people have left Muslim countries to make the United States their home of choice, escaping Sharia law in the process. Despite this, the recent “Saturday’s anti-Shariah ACT for America rally”  which served the purpose of refuting a place for Sharia law in the United States, was counter protested and labeled as anti-Muslim. This counter protest is plainly ignorant as to what Sharia law truly is. The media intentionally reported this as a clash between pro-Muslims and anti-Muslim protesters. Again, this is irresponsible journalism at the cost of our security and unity as a city and as a country.

It is a shame that even though the participants of the anti-Sharia ACT for America rally verbally communicated that their protest is not against Muslims, they were labeled as bigots and hate mongers anyway. Many of the participants verbalized their love for Muslims while protesting against the Sharia law. America is divided and these kinds of protests, and anti-protests only serve to fuel the ill-will of Muslim extremists who want to see America in desolation. Freedom of expression and tolerance of others does not mean that we need to take everything on the road, especially sensitive subjects that we are less informed about and can never come to agree upon, such as in the case of Sharia law. If the Muslim world cannot come to a consensus on the interpretation of the Qur’an, Hadith, and Sunnah, which formed Sharia law, then how is Western society, which is only just beginning to understand Islamic practices expected to understand such a complex code of law?

Posted in Blog.