iraq/syria Isis- hypocrisy on facebook

[Neverendingnappies]

I know, I know. Its facebook, the root of all evil. I should just delete, block and unfriend.

but I cant and I want to vent.

I have quite a few american friends on facebook. some of them are friends made via work ( work for a large us based multinational) and some are "internet" friends I have made through the years and with whom I have shared some fairly harrowing life experiences. They were there for me and supported me in one of the darkest times of my life and I love them for it.

So anyway, alot of them are Christians of the happy clappy born again variety. I am not. I am almost belligerently athiest. but I have always accepted their faith brought them happiness so good for them iyswim.

I have had political discussions with these people and they all have that isolationist worldview that is so prevelant amongst the people of the US.

so now ISIS are threatening Christians in northern Iraq and my facebook feed is suddenly filed with wails of protests that that big bad evil islamist Obama (he is a secret muslim you know, and a communist.) wont send in troops to save the persecuted christians. Please wont somebody think of the poor Christians!

these are the same people who were really quite happy to leave the kurds to die at the hands of Saddam Hussains chemical warfare on the basis that America is not the worlds policeman and they didnt want to get involved in another countries civil war.

And the Palestinians dont even rate a mention. I am not sure some are even aware of what is going on in gaza.

It is driving me crazy. I want to point out the hypocrisy. I want to wail and post pictures of traumatised muslim children and ask them if they are also worth saving?

I know I am being unreasonable. I just really needed to get that off my chest.

It's interesting because just the opposite seems to be happening on this website - plenty of threads about evil Israel, not much about the terrible things going on in Iraq & Syria.

Soooo. Just say what you think.

Except that tens of thousands of kurds and a decent chunk of palestinians are christian. Many of the Palestinians living in syria are/were christian. The kurds have always accepted anyone and christians fleeing violence have often fled to kurdistan. So they shouldn't have been ignoring them due to their lack of Christianity.

I'm afraid we are all very much victims of the media. Even today with some much use of the internet, if all the news on television is about one item, we end up sharing that point of view.

Television everywhere is a very poor source of information, but television in the US is appallingly one-sided in its information.

They have a different world view to you. (You'll be safe on Mumsnet so it's a good place to vent!)

I have US friends who were quite supportive of the IRA back in the day. I don't bring up Noraid when they now slag off supporters of terrorism, but I do think of it every bloody time! They would consider me as unreasonable as I consider them so I let it lie. I think it might be a little dangerous to only communicate with people who share the same views.

I realise that their views are largely the result of the murdoch press and I don't blame them personally.

I know they are sweet lovely people and there is no way that I can point out their cherry picking of sufficently worthy victims without offending them and I don't want to do that.

I would just like them to see that someobes humanity makes them worthy of rescue, not just their faith.

I wouldn't blame them tbh, from what I've seen of the news broadcasts in America, it's not surprising they look at things in a way that doesn't make much sense to us.

You seem to have as little compassion for the persecuted Christians as you perceive these fb friends do for the Palestinians.

Please won't somebody think of the poor Christians

Its not just christians being persecuted but Yazidis and Muslims who belong to the wrong sect. I feel that there should be more military intervention in both Syria and Iraq.

I despair

denny I have enormous compassion for the persecuted christians. my point was that going by the comments I was seeing on facebook they are the only ones in need. I was being flippant with my "wont someone think of the Christians" because their comments reminded me of Mrs Lovejoy. Apologies if that offended you.

I feel better about it today. these are kind and compassionate people and I just have to put it down to a blinkered media that is trying to sell a angle they think their viewers can relate to.

Because its Iraq. Previous interventions to that country have been based on lies. At huge expense of American lives, not to mention local civilians...

I don't think it is hypocritical. they are upset about an awful situation. unless they were pro killing people who weren't Christian but it doesn't sound that way.

I think it's easier for them to relate to that story as they too could be persecuted solely for being Christian. it has hit closer to home. I have to admit these groups who are so Hell bent on destroying anything that isn't the same as them make me very nervous.

And somewhere in America, someone not dissimilar to you is writing a thread on an American mumsnet style forum which is the mirror image of yours, saying how everyone in Europe goes on and on about Gaza whilst ISIS beheading Christian children and raping Yazidi women has been hardly reported. That in Europe the big bad Americans and Jews Zionists are vilified as "evil" and it's perfectly ok to make huge assumptions and sweeping generalisations about racist "Yanks" and have a laugh about those deluded "rednecks" without a hint of irony.

If these people on Facebook annoy you so much, simply stop reading what they write or unfriend them, they simply have a different opinion and worldview to you, which is hardly a thought crime. You are not better than them and they are not better than you. Get over yourself.

I am completely with you OP.

Interestingly I have seen a couple of my Jewish friends posting their sympathies to members of the 60 odd Israel Defence Forces killed since the Gaza situation escalated, but woe betide you if you have any sympathy for the children of Gaza.

FFS why can't people see all deaths as unacceptable? I find it so astonishing to see peoples opinions split so clearly along religious lines too. And I say that as a Christian.

I don't know what to think about it, but I have just seen a lot of similar stuff as my mum was asking me to help her block it on FB.

So I have just seen that they are crucifying Christians, burying hundreds of Christian children alive, taking hundreds of Christian women as sex slaves. And this all seems confirmed by reputable sources. There is also the treatment of Mandeans, who could end up being wiped out apart from the few who went to places like Sweden as refugees in the past twenty years.

And people do seem uncomfortable mentioning it on here, compared to Gaza. Is Gaza worse, better, the same, totally different? I don't even think we should be making a comparison. But I too worry that people are minimising particular atrocities based on political opinion.