It is unlike me to make a sweeping statement like this, and it is very unlike me to write such a dramatic headline purely to attract an audience, but this one simply has to be explored.  It is, in fact, a subject quite close to my heart.  Want to see the evidence to support the claim in the title?  Read on ….

Muslims are behind all the terrorist attacks

Absolutely true – not one series of 24 went by without Jack Bauer holding an Islamic terrorist captive and torturing him until he unveiled a plot to blow up CTU, only to lead Jack into a trap that would end the show with him faking his own death.  Hey, if the Bauer is hunting them, it must be true.  Plus, they all seem to grow beards and wear creepy dark clothes… keep away from that man on the train, will ya?

Laws are being changed because of them

France has passed a law which means religious symbols are not to be displayed in public.  This means a Muslim woman is no longer permitted to wear a hijab in public, all because they are being pressured into wearing it against their will.  That’s right folks – thousands upon thousands of intelligent, capable women following Islam are literally being forced to cover themselves by tyrants of husbands and have absolutely no say in it.  They are paralysed and gagged, like caged birds – if only the Suffragettes were available now to starve themselves and protest against this preposterous insanity.

They exist in packs

Have you ever come across a Muslim who isn’t calling another Muslim ‘Brother’ or ‘Sister’?  Some of them even have their children calling family friends ‘Aunty’ or ‘Uncle’.  Where is the sense in confusing the poor children into thinking everyone is like family?  This clearly has nothing to do with a sense of community or solidarity amongst friends.  No Sir Ree Bob – the Muslims exist in packs, which obviously means they must be up to something …

A pastor is thinking of burning their holy book

The almighty Terry Jones  hath spoken and therefore the world must believe.  It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pastor Jones is well versed in Aramaic and has read the book in question cover to cover, which is what lead him to believe “Islam is of the Devil”.  It is this depth of research he conducted that allowed him to draw this particular conclusion. To say he was misinformed and an extremist himself would be blasphemy.

Ok, so perhaps this isn’t entirely true

If you have not noted the sarcasm in this post, I urge to re-read it in the guise of Chandler Bing– could you be more…..

In a world where a sensational headline is far more attractive than the monotony of the day, it is easy to become swept up in the consumption of information, without actually sitting back and addressing the evidence being presented.  On a daily basis, we are bombarded (pardon the pun) with headlines, news stories, blogs and articles all trying to sell us something, whether it is an idea, the perspective of someone famous or the newspaper itself.  It is no wonder a one-time sensationalist idea can rapidly grow into a belief held by many.

To bring this to a more personal level, it is simple phrases built through social conditioning that eventually grow to become beliefs without our having any concrete evidence to support them.  They are beliefs like:

• I’ll never be good at this
• I’m too fat
• I don’t deserve it
• People don’t like me

Hidden scripts run through our minds and encourage us to live by these beliefs, rendering our experiences unsatisfactory and limiting our abilities.  How much more would we achieve if we simply opened our minds to the possibility of what could be, not relying on the supposed reality of what is? 

The purpose of the tagline ‘take you wherever you go’ is to remind us to remain true to ourselves, which also means questioning what we see, not just believing what is presented at face value.  Did your mum over ask ‘if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you follow?’  She was right. 

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