Maybe we should take another look

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, December 26, 2004

There has to be more to these suicide bombings than us thinking they’re just a bunch of evil, backward, fanatics and must be stopped at any cost. We think Muslims are backward because they believe their women should be seen and not heard. But wasn’t it just a hundred years ago that we had the same set of values? Or did America one day see the light and now the rest of the world must follow our example, or else?

In the 1970s, we had a welfare system that said a woman can receive financial aid on the condition she is unmarried. A Republican president passed that law. Twenty years later a Democratic president reformed welfare. Whatever light we were seeing must have been missing a photon or two. We hear about the 18-year-old girl who blew herself up in the name of Allah. No American would ever blow themselves up for their God.

Before we judge Muslims, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to look at ourselves. We men tend to joke with the usual reply, “I’ll have to ask my wife,” whenever confronted with a proposal. But aren’t we really just passing responsibility over to our counterparts? Judges, who just so happen to be the proud sons of American mothers, decide our laws. Whenever a mother says the word “child” in front of a judge, he hands her the house and father’s lifetime wages. Go to any title company and discover that deadbeat dads own 90 percent of all title liens.

I’m not saying that Muslims are justified in their beliefs, I’m just asking everyone to look at all sides of the issue.

RAY WRIGHT

Snohomish