Treat people as individuals, not as members of a group. That’s something we were taught in kindergarten. Obviously that doesn’t hold true in all circumstances, but it applies when dealing with race, religion, ethnicity, etc. A Twitter user who got into a cab in New York City on Friday night reminds everyone of how important it is to remember that simple lesson from our childhood.
After the attacks in Paris, New York City resident Alex Malloy hailed a cab. What happened when he got in the cab Malloy described as “the saddest moment I’ve experienced as apart [sic] of the human race.”
The 23-year-old Malloy says that the first words he heard upon getting into the cab were “thank you.” The cab driver was a Muslim. He told Malloy how, following the attacks in Paris, nobody wanted to ride in his cab. He said that Malloy was his first fare in over two hours.
In a moving post that he shared on both Twitter and Facebook, Malloy relates how the driver said to him,
Allah, my god, does not believe in this. People think I’m a part of this and I’m not.
Malloy says that both he and the man cried during the entire 25 minutes of the ride to Malloy’s apartment.
We all cried a little on Friday night, for various reasons. Some cried that a beautiful city like Paris was once again subject to something like this attack. Others cried over the typical, knee-jerk, tone-deaf response of many right-wing Americans, some of whom used it to attack all Muslims, others of whom chose to exploit the pain of Paris to promote their “more guns!” agenda here in the U.S.
But Alex Malloy brought home the fact that we should not be demonizing an entire religion, one that is practiced by over 1.5 billion people worldwide, because of the actions of a tiny minority of its followers. Nobody would dream of accusing all Christians of being supportive of an abortion clinic bomber. But that’s exactly what many — too many — Americans and other westerners do whenever an attack is carried out by an Islamic group.
Almost ten percent of the French population is Muslim, more than six million people. If you combine the people responsible for this attack with those who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attack in January, they account for somewhere around three millionths of one percent of French Muslims. Even if you take the total number of members of ISIS, al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and any other militant Islamic groups, and add to that number all of those groups’ sympathizers, you are still talking about a fraction of one percent of all Muslims on the planet. Because of that small group, many have chosen to demonize an entire religion. Alex Malloy’s story is a beacon of intelligence, empathy, and common sense.
Here is Alex Malloy’s moving commentary about his Friday night cab ride:
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Twitter
Amen.
all things in this world are connected in many small, almost invisible ways. the actions of some affect the treatment of others especially when the mob mentality demonizes a whole group for the actions of a few. we should be as Americans, and human beings in general remember that religion teaches love thy neighbor whether that phrase is in a Bible, a Torrah, or a Quran. so why is it that the self proclaimed True Christians (or muslims or any other radical extremist group that claim to be the best at their religion) forget that simple and all encompassing text? my heart breaks for all Muslim people NOT involved in terrorism who will be thrown into a political pit only to be held up as “one of them” they are our brothers and sisters in humanity, in citizenship of Earth, and we owe it to them and ourselves to aspire to a higher set of standards. and i say that to everyone no matter the name of their god.
Hilarious, try practicing what you preach.
Your comment is disgusting and shows how ignorant you are.
You’re obviously part of the problem.
herr otto…how soon you forget.
try buying a rope and a chair and putting it to use
That liberal tolerance.
And the citizens of the “West” are all responsible for the US’s mad ChickenHawks?
Religion isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
Ignorance and intolerance is the problem. Whether you are religious or not.
Religion is the source of intolerance and ignorance and promotes violence to achieve it’s goals.Religion is the problem.
So what would your solution be? To eradicate religion?
Secularism. Freedom of worship at home and in religious buildings. NOWHERE else.
yeah - that just screams tolerance and reason.
seems perfect to me. if you cant keep your intolerance out of the public face then it should be contained. by law if necessary
I will worship WHEREVER I PLEASE, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. IF YOU CAN’T STAND THIS, FIND SOMEPLACE ELSE, LIKE KOREA, TO LIVE.
Once you allow this same privilege to ALL religions, fine by me - but that could mean a whole lot of people in the street then! And no need to SHOUT online, unless you think that it helps bringing your point across. In my country (Trinidad and Tobago) we live in harmony and everyone partakes in each other’s religious celebrations (Hindus, Christians, Moslems, even a few Buddhists) but I wonder if it could work in countries with 1 majority religion. Maybe I am wrong.
Is your one-way ticket to Korea booked yet? (and I am assuming NORTH Korea here)
Go there or China and try that and tell us how your declaration works out.. if you ever get to tell the tale.
In a perfect world yes I would eradicate religion. But we do not live in a perfect world so the best we can hope for is to educate people,keep religion out of the shared public view and classrooms, make churches and religious entities pay taxes and take away their bully pulpits among other things.
So we should eradicate religion because of your own fear and ignorance. That sounds great.
Reading comprehension not your strong point eh? Fear and ignorance is what religion spreads and propagates. While I would eradicate religion in my perfect world,I also acknowledge that we do not live in a perfect world and we cannot simply just eradicate it from this world we do share. you asked what my solutions would be and I gave some of them.
Nice little dig on my reading comprehension, thanks for that. You are trying to “sweeten” your stance of fear and ignorance by saying you would eradicate religion in your “perfect world.” Which basically means your solution is to eradicate religion. That line of thinking is just as dangerous as some of those you would like to condemn. I’m not a very religious person in the fact that I don’t have an organized faith. But I am very tolerant of those that do and I think the problem isn’t religion but the fact that people want to persecute others because of their faith or lack of faith. Whether you are religious, faithful, atheist or agnostic, the fact is you can either be tolerant or intolerant of others.
The real problem isn’t that people are religious. The real problem is that people use their religion as a mask. You want to know what ISIS is about? It’s not religion - they use religion to gather support. ISIS is about controlling oil trade routes in Syria and Iraq. They are Sunni Muslims, just like Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive countries in the Middle East. The Muslim Religion is just being used as a tool to divide Muslim people from their own self interests. When one Muslim bombs the west, the west bombs all the Muslims. That creates the foundation for revolution and sets one Muslim against the other.
So in my perfect world if you eradicate greed you eradicate the problem. But America needs cheap oil, and we may choose that over one of our founding principals. Freedom of Religion.
Nice try yourself.By claiming I would eradicate religion out of fear and intolerance based on these discussions is laughable at best.I do not fear religion and I have no problem with people being religious as long as they keep it out of other people lives,which unfortunately the vast majority of them do not.My wish to eradicate religion is based on the fact that religion has done humanity more harm through out history that it ever has good. Religion is so easily corruptible that it allows groups like ISIS ,the KKK, The roman catholic church,the rest of the worlds religious factions. and many politicians to use it to mask their true intentions. These groups get their “power and wealth” because people are religious and are willing to accept their lies in order to feel better about themselves.So yes, part of the real problem is that people are religious gullible sheep and are willing to buy into what ever those groups are offering. I do however agree with you that greed is also a big part of the problem as well,but as I see it greed and religion go hand in hand.
Religion, more often than not, is just the racist’s excuse. What role did Christianity seriously play in the racist attacks against black people in the South during the early through mid 20th century? Many of them might’ve cited religion as some sort of cloak as if to say they totally wouldn’t do this except for their religion, to try to give some air of decency to it, but the reality was that it had nothing to do with it.
You mean besides the fact that they were done by a Christian Organization who used religion and the bible to commit those atrocities against those they deemed inferior? Again Religion is the root cause of hatred and intolerance,which spawns racism and is the problem,not just an excuse.
Points well taken. But, good luck trying to get America the Violent to release its grip on its guns, or America the Bigoted to change its warped point of view
I completely disagree w/this blogger. Silence = shared guilt period.
Not sure what you’re referring to, who’s silent about what?
The golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Greed, intolerance, fear-mongering, hatred, self righteousness - these are the in-qualities that rot the fabric of society.
If we want to affect change it is pretty simple. Don’t ask what we can get out of any situation, ask what we can bring to it. Start with those around us. Our family, our job, our community. Keep our heads up and look at others in the eyes. Not with contempt - but with understanding that that we are all on this planet together with the ability to help each other and rise above the pettiness.
The path to fulfillment is one of willingness to practice humility - even if we aren’t particularly humble.
Muslim cab driver thanks you for taking his cab since other people won’t, because racism. Muslim (or any other) cab driver still won’t pick up black person (especially above 96th) because racism.
I’m not so certain that this is actually a true story, though. I live in NYC, and you don’t pass up an open cab. That’s not often a luxury even racists can afford here, especially on a chilly and windy day.
Thank You Kat for pointing out the obvious to some people who refuse to notice the obvious.
well i see you dont pay attention to stories that have been posted over the years of cabs that wont go in certain areas or pick up certain people. im certain your not a bigot but i would bet you are
I agree. It’s a fake story for sure, designed to fit the narrative that republicans are anti-immigrant. For those that really follow the story, it is easy to see that that republicans (and others) are only anti-illegal immigrant. I’ve not seen a single case of anti-legal immigration. And, it defies logic to use taxpayer money to put American citizens at risk by bringing in tens of thousands of unvetted refugees that very likely have terrorists in their numbers.
Everyone’s a problem.
PA terror promotion takes many forms. Nationalistically, the PA actively elevates violence as a valid and heroic means to achieve political goals, while religiously, fighting and killing Jews has been presented repeatedly by PA religious and academic leaders as Allah’s will. On the social level, Palestinian leaders and society honor even the most loathsome of murderers portraying them as heroes and role models: Dalal Mughrabi, who led a bus hijacking in which 37 were killed, has schools, summer camps, and many other events and places baring her name to immortalize and glorify her and her terror attack.
The success of the PA’s promotion of violence is readily evident: A majority of Palestinians support killing and suicide terror against civilian Jews and Israelis. A poll conducted after the murder of eight teenagers who were studying in a Jerusalem high school in 2008, found that 84% of Palestinians supported the murder [NY Times, March 19, 2008, citing the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research].
It seems the PA’s terror promotion is approved of by the majority of their people. Must Muslims support Sharia Law. Sharia Law in not compatible with Western values.
It’s the same with immigration. Everybody seem to think that illegal immigration just comes from Mexico, when in fact comes from South, Central, Asia and Mid east. Racists put illegals in one category and that is Mexicans.
Terrorism works best on reactionaries.
Terrorism is designed to appeal to the reactionaries. 😉
And, you didn’t just attack right-wing Americans in the very article you write telling everyone to be mindful of Muslims feelings? Really? That’s promoting acceptance of all people? Try practicing what you preach first.
do you know how to read and understand english? im betting you dont. try again get your parents to explain it to you if you have a hard time with the words
“Treat people as individuals, not as members of a group” is the very first line in the article. “Others cried over the typical knee-jerk, tone-deaf response of many right-wing Americans (highlighted, by the way) . . .” is also stated in the article. Sorry, I read that as criticizing people who are “right-wing” and that completely belies the basic point of the article. Don’t tell people to be tolerant and then slam one segment of the population. And, I’m neither right-wing nor left-wing; just thought that was quite a contradiction.
And, don’t tell me I can’t read and write English when your comment is neither capitalized nor punctuated correctly. Basic English is that you capitalize the first word of a sentence and I’m and don’t have apostrophes in them. You may disagree with my comment but your statement that I don’t know English shows your ignorance, not mine.
Good article but what it fails to address that is different between Muslims and Christians is the silent approval a wide majority of Muslims give to jihadists. That is the problem and an indisputable fact that has been confirmed time and again.
Fake. No one in NYC turns down a cab ride.
Re: stoning for gathering sticks on the sabbath
The stoning was for taking advantage of those who were not gathering sticks because they were observing the sabbath. They would have easy pickings and the obedient would then go to gather and all would be gone. It is comparable to “scabs” who cross a picket line, profiting personally but undermining the livelihood of the entire work force. Such opportunism is a serious crime.