A Word From the Author

This blog was created to support my writing, which is why I steer clear of political and religious discussions. I figure that people drop by to find out more about my writing, or writing in general, or that Google mis-directed them here when they ran a search for Snookie.

Sure, I have political and religious convictions, and if I see you at a convention some time and you buy me a drink, maybe we’ll talk about them. But I’m kind of a private person and don’t think anyone visiting here is interested in hearing my views about such things anyway. I don’t claim to be a religious or political expert.

Sometimes I hear from people who assume that because of my obvious interest in the ancient Middle-East I must be an expert in the modern Middle-East, and they want to know what I think about this or that. In light of recent events, I’ve heard from people wanting me to justify an opinion they assume I have, or don’t have, about an entire religion and region.

So just this once, I’ll say something.

I am no fan of extremism in any flavor. The only violence I like is that dealt against deserving villains on the book page or in the cinema.

I am appalled by the attacks against American embassies but I do NOT blame the Middle-East as a region, or Islam as a religion. It is a sad fact of life that there are always angry people out there. Sometimes they are lone nuts, and sometimes they cluster together around a belief and use it to justify terrible actions.

In an ideal world we would be mature enough to realize that just because someone doing awful things looks similar to someone who isn’t that they are NOT the same. I would hope that we know there are many interpretations of religious teachings. When someone uses those teachings to bully, exclude, hurt, or kill, it does NOT mean that other people who read that religious literature interpret it the same way.

Unfortunately, we are often distracted by the angry loud people because they have frightened and hurt and killed. I believe it is perfectly fine to be angry at them, just as long as the THEM we’re talking about refers solely to those who did the ugly things, not everyone remotely connected to them by ethnicity and culture.

So there you have it. I now return to my regularly scheduled work writing about heroes in ancient Arabia.