Are Muslims Trying Hard Enough?

I was just reading an article in Reuters about an outbreak of mob violence in Myanmar (Burma) between Muslims and Buddhists. It seems they have been having problems there for years between these two ethnic groups and things have gotten much worse with resent influxes of Muslim refugees from neighboring Bangladesh. The government there regards them as illegal immigrants but the Muslims are demanding citizenship and full rights. They have had to move troops into the area and declare a dawn to dusk curfew (which has had little effect so far).

All of this got me to thinking. Muslim communities around the world have historically been causing violent troubles -and it's not against any one culture, race or religion -it seems to be against whomever happens to be living nearby. We know about the problems in Europe and the United States -but what about around the rest of the world? China has had serious problems with Muslim communities in their Western Regions, where they make up a substantial part of the population. Russia has been dealing with terrorist bombings and attacks for years (even in Moscow itself). Hindus and Muslims in India have always had violent conflicts. Sudanese Muslims have been massacring thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of Christians in South Sudan for decades. We have also seen violence and ongoing troubles in Somalia, Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, Egypt and Iraq where Christian communities are regularly attacked with churches and homes burned and people murdered.

That is one hell of a lot of conflict for a religion that touts itself as "the religion of peace". Could it be that the entire world and all of these varying religions and cultures are all purposely persecuting the Muslims? Somehow I doubt it. The entire world can not be wrong! I think it is more of a case of the Islamic religious leaders making too little effort to teach tolerance and acceptance. I know there are "moderate" and "peace loving" Muslims (a phrase rapidly becoming an oxymoron) -but they seem to make very little effort to be heard or to confront the more radical members of their own religion.

What is the answer? I simply do not know -but I do know that nothing good is going to come of all this. Things will only get worse until the Islamic faith recognizes and admits this problem. They are going to have to sort his out and become more tolerant of others. They are going to have to try harder to just get along with people of other faiths. They are going to have to turn away from violence (and especially terrorism) or the world will remain a violent and dangerous place.

Live Long and Prosper...