My Voice

For as long as I can remember, the world has tried to tell me who and what I should be; what clothes I should wear, how I should cut my hair, how I should speak (or remain silent) and, yet, for just as long I have rebelled. I may be a quiet person but I do not have a silent mind. I will not be told who I should be. I will wear what I want, cut my hair however I want, and say what I want. I will get tattoos, I may pierce my ears, I will cry when I am sad, I will call out injustice, I will speak when a woman is expected to remain silent, I will hold my head up high when I am expected to keep it down, I will fight for my dreams (even if they are not the dreams planned out for me) and I will be every bit of my true self. If you love me, you will stand behind me because you know I have what it takes to succeed and nothing will get in my way. Because you know that I deserve happiness and if this is what I want then that is what I deserve to have. Because you know I'm smart enough and honorable enough to know right from wrong and you can trust my judgment. Because you love me, you respect me, and you trust me. If you don't, you clearly don't know me.

An Islam hate page was recently brought to my attention by a share on my homepage. Though I am not Islamic, I have several friends who are and, though I disagree with many of the beliefs, I respect everyone's right to their own beliefs. My first thought was to send the page owner a nasty message but I quickly admitted to myself that that would do no good. If anything, it would only fuel the flame to their hatred. So, instead, I sent them the following message. I hope that my response will inspire all of you to take a similar path when you come across a page or individual spreading information you strongly disagree with. Violence and negativity will always get you nowhere but, sometimes, a little maturity and respect will get you a long way. This is the message I sent them...
"This page is horribly offensive to millions of people. Everyone has a right to their own beliefs. On top of your offensive page, you clearly do not even understand Islam. You seem to believe the extremists represent the religion as a whole and you could not be more wrong. I, myself, am not Islam but I have many friends who are. I have learned a great deal about the religion through my friends and from taking classes about it in college. Your page is terrible misrepresentation of Islam and religion in general. There are many things in many religions that I disagree with but creating pages that offend millions of people is NOT the way to solve the problem; all that does is create more hatred and tension. I am not a religious person - I am a spiritualist. I do not follow Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or any religion. However, I respect everyone's right to their own beliefs - whether I agree with them or not. If you believe someone believes wrongly then post about your own beliefs and perhaps you will find that you share more beliefs in common than you would have originally thought. Finding common ground is the best way to spread peace - not creating more ground in-between the sides by spreading hatred.
I highly doubt you'll listen but I ask that you please remove this page.
I thank you for reading my message - whether you've been cursing me out this whole time or not.
I am sorry that events in your life have caused you to have such a great distaste for Islam and religion in general; Unfortunately, your page is doing the same thing to religious people. They see your page and grow a hatred for atheists.
If you want people to listen - find common ground and work from there. Otherwise, your page will only attract like-minded people and chase away religious folk, therefore gaining you no ground at all.
To top it all off, the title of your page is also horribly offensive to those who suffer from actual mental diseases. They see images of these terrible people and "mental disease" used in such a hateful way that it offends them as well.
I would hope that this just didn't occur to you when you created your page. I hope that you find better ways to share your beliefs. Spread your ideals of a better world - not your hate of a specific group of people. Show the wrongs of specific beliefs and better alternatives to those beliefs instead of just the religion in general. Then not only will like-minded atheists listen to you but members of the religion you have grown to despise so much will listen, too. They will no-longer feel offended by having their religion slammed against them but may see the wrongs in those certain beliefs you disagree with or at least agree with you on the better alternatives.
I'm not sure if you've read this whole message but if you have then I thank you and I hope you take at least some of my advice to heart.
Namaste"