Arguments for the Ignorant

Asalaamu Alaikam,

I've been thinking about this post for some time now, and although it is still not fully thought through, I still feel the need to post. Call it "therapy," if you like, because I think that is what it is.

A few days ago, I found myself on the receiving end of an ignorant rant, made by an ignorant person, arguing with nothing more than ignorance. They regurgitated the Fox News/Jerry Falwell rhetoric regarding Islam being a "religion that oppresses women," and how I cover my "entire body, and pray 15 times a day." These statements only showed too clearly how ignorant they are, and to drive the point home (and to illustrate their limited vocabulary), it was heavily peppered with very harsh curse words.

Usually, this sort of thing just makes my blood boil for a bit, and then I simmer down, forgetting about it rather quickly. In this case, however, I cannot do this, and I am still left with a sick feeling every time I think about it. Why, you ask? Why am I letting this get to me so much? Why can I not just let it go? Well, I will tell you why.

I am deeply bothered by this because the individual who said the horrible, nasty things (I've only given a small sampling of what they said in their ignorant tirade), is not some stranger, or chance encounter. This person is a person with whom I am related to by marriage (believe me when I say that I thank Allah that it is ONLY by marriage!!). This person knows me as well as they have ever attempted to know me (I say "attempted" because, to be quite honest, ever since they married into my family, they have NEVER made ANY attempt to get to know me. At all.).

For years, I tried to get along with them, and I searched for some way to get them to like me, if even just a little bit. Nothing worked. Gifts given to the children (yeah, they ended up having kids with my family member that they married. Poor lil kids!) were ignored, and they could not even acknowledge to my face the receipt of the gifts (I actually handed them a gift, and they walked away, without saying a SINGLE WORD to me).

Not that one gives gifts for acknowledgment, but one of the things that I gave them was something that I actually crocheted. Just a word would have been nice, you know?

Anyways....

I am sickened and disgusted by this person's ignorant behavior. The fact that they have a VERY checkered past, adds further irritation to the fact that they somehow think of themselves as being "better" than me or my family. Bringing my religion into it, just made it even worse.

What an ignorant idiot, arguing an argument for the ignorant.

Wa alaikam asalaam,