Politics and Religion: Be Gone With You

I write today while in a serious state of stress. This particular stressful state stems from a gradually increasing anger and frustration with the goings-on in Egypt, the

I'm telling you. It's driving me crazy!

Arab/Islamic regions, and the world in general that have anything to do with religion and/or politics. And too frequently the two have been mixing to give me a double dose of stress.

I’ve reached my saturation level. I cannot take it anymore.

I cannot go on hearing about Muslims involved in terror attacks.

I cannot go on hearing about backlashes to these attacks that involve intolerance towards everything that is Muslim and Islam.

I cannot go on hearing about things such as a rogue group of Muslim scholars instigating economic boycotts against Christian citizens living in an “Islamic” state (Egypt in this case) because these scholars are upset with certain actions of that country’s Church.

I cannot go on hearing about Muslim scholars supporting the physical abuse of wives who “abstain from giving sex to their husbands”.

I cannot go on hearing about bans of religious freedoms in countries that I had once assumed were all about religious and personal freedoms.

I cannot go on hearing about corruption in almost every single Arab government we have.

I cannot go on hearing about the lack of democracy in my region of the world; about the lack of support to basic human rights; and experiencing this on a day-to-day basis.

I cannot go on hearing about countries waging wars on other countries based on unfounded suspicions or delusions of bringing democracy to them by the “edge of the sword”, as we say in the Arab world. I cannot go on hearing about the death and destruction this has brought to those countries.

I cannot go on hearing about people’s extreme interpretations of their religions that result in varying forms of abuse of other individuals (of the same religion or other religions).

I can’t do it anymore.

So I am crawling into a hole that I will dig for myself. In this hole, I will close my eyes and ears off to anything related to politics and religion. I will shut my mouth and restrain my tongue from discussing them.

I have discovered that I do not have the stamina or the necessary level of mental strength or health to deal with it all.

I fully realize that there is still much good in this world. I fully support those people out there who have the stamina and the necessary level of mental strength to face it all, fight injustice, demand equalities and democracy, and find ways to create enough awareness in this world that will allow people to tolerate each other no matter what they believe.

But I am not one of those people. I know this now.

I will not resort to becoming a useless member of society nevertheless.

I will focus on being good at the jobs that I do. I will try to raise my children to be productive members of society and I dream that my children grow up to have free minds and spirits.

But I’m done with reading about politics and religion. And I’m done talking about them.

I’m done.