Well of course Sikhs aren't Muslims. Sikhism and Islam, though both are monotheistic religions, are very different. Since 9/11 (Islam's "publicity stunt"), people have associated turban wearers with Islam. It's an association born of ignorance of world religions and the history of the turban- which by the way, predates Islam by centuries. In response to 9/11, racists, "patriots", or should I just say "ignorant bigots", have carried out attacks on civilians who "look like terrorists". In other words, if you have dark skin, and maybe wear a turban- you're a terrorist and a threat. Not all Muslims wear turbans, and not all turban wearers are Muslims."Sikhs are not Muslims!"
But here's my main problem with the "Sikhs are not Muslims!" comment: it implies it's okay to kill Muslims.
Chances are the most people who try to point out that Sikhs are not Muslims, aren't advocating killing of Muslims, but one would come to that conclusion when considering the context of the scenario.
Granted, that Islam isn't exactly a tolerant religion, but that in no ways justifies killing the followers who by in large- don't carry out all the crap that's in the koran and the hadiths. Here's an example I think most of us would understand: look at Christians- their bibles are full of hate and violence, yet a majority of Christians aren't out there stoning people to death (literally and metaphorically- i.e. getting "really high") for adultery, nor are they killing those who deconvert and begin to preach other religions/gods. But it's quite disturbing to see a number of comments lean towards the direction that I'm afraid of.
Yes, as if we haven't seen enough of conspiracies, virtually every tragedy that occurs, you'll find that there are fairly significant and vocal bunch of nuts who will see patterns in EVERYTHING. I'm hearing accusations that the police were in on it, that the FBI has a hand in this, and the inconsistencies of witness reports renders the whole thing suspicious- though inconsistencies are expected in witness reports, we are not great record keepers (especially when you're being shot at). So, this is a false flag operation by the government to remove your 2nd amendment rights...If the government wanted to imprison the American people (haven't the government and corporations already done this?), they'd just send in the army who are far well equipped and trained to take out flag+bible toting hicks."False flag operations!11"
Though the murder rate in USA has dropped since 1990 (Bureau of Justice Statistics), media reports like these make you think that things are getting a hell of a lot worse. One needs to put everything in perspective- the media are by nature, sensationalist, I'm not saying that tragedies aren't worth the attention, but the way the media runs, you would think the world is about to come to an end. And the thing is, virtually every generation thought that the time they were living in were the end times, or things were getting worse.
From the latest reports (while writing the post), 7 dead at this shooting, 14,500 murders in the USA per year (2010/2011 figures)- those that died in that shooting are 0.05%, or 1 in 2,000 of the total 14,500, out of the population of 300,000,000. I know some people will look at this as me looking at humans as "mere numbers", I'm trying to make the point that it's incredibly rare to be a murder victim (though I'm sure loved ones of the victims will disagree with me on this- and I would agree that murder shouldn't be happening at all), but bear in mind that people can get paranoid, thinking that there's a psycho-serial killer at every street corner, or that they can't make the most of their lives like they once did- which I think is wrong.
It's a given that in a population of millions, hundreds of millions, that there will be a tiny fraction of loons out there who would go on murdering rampages if they could- and we should do whatever we can to ensure that they can't. I guess I can see myself advocating some kind of measures for gun control, perhaps more thorough background checks, but I guess I'm in on the conspiracy too then, a government paid shill...
My apologies for not writing a more "productive" post, I have my excuses of being sleep-deprived and impatient :/
