Dear Editor:
The Arab riots are about a lot more than a video. It’s about people’s basic human rights, including the right to choose lifestyle, career and who to live with.
It’s a fight by Muslim men to retain what they insist is their right to undisputed control over their families. Through the centuries, they have been using religion and claims about preservation of honour as a means to force their will on women and children.
The Islamist Muslims are concerned about the liberal lifestyles practiced by western societies, and they are afraid that Muslim women and children will persist in adopting those lifestyles.
Burning the American flag will change nothing. The real culprit is mass media, the evolution and proliferation of YouTube, Facebook, television, cell phones and all those tablets. People around the world are being connected like never before. There are no more secrets.
Sharia is nothing more than a religious moral code and just because Muslims commit to serve their God does not obligate anybody else to do the same.
It is everybody’s basic human right to choose whether or not they want to believe in a God. Fighting the Infidel is the wrong battle. Instead, they need to declare war on poverty, separate from their tyrannical culture of hate and suppression, and embrace a future that includes education and employment.
Andy Thomsen
Summerland