This Simple Guide to Not Being a Bigot Is Getting Shared Like Crazy
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A meme cautioning against religious generalization is going viral on the popular Facebook page "Being Liberal" and starting a dialog about how easy it is not avoid discrimination.
The meme juxtaposes drawings of "good" and "evil" people affiliated with various religions and belief systems, citing civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a "good" Christian and Nazi Adolf Hitler as an "evil" one. It also labels another civil rights leader, Malcolm X, as a "good" Muslim and terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden as an "evil" one, and wraps up by saying there have been "good" and "evil" people without religious associations as well — Bill Gates earns the "good" label, and communist dictator Josef Stalin gets placed in the "bad" category.
The meme makes the fairly obvious point that good and bad people exist independent of creed, and that it's wrong to discriminate against someone based on their religious beliefs (or lack thereof).
"There are ethical people who live without religion, and evil people who live without religion," the meme states. "Religion does not always correlate with ethics. Get over it."
Within an hour of being posted, the image received more than 5,000 reactions and more than 2,000 shares. Various Facebook users also cheered on the sentiment behind the meme.
Facebook.com/beingliberal - facebook.com
Of course, not everyone was eager to co-sign the meme, and a contentious debate regarding the merits of atheism versus religious faithfulness raged on in the comments section, which you can read here.
Muslims in particular have faced immense discrimination in the months following the terrorist attacks in Paris that took place last year.
After the Islamic State (also known as ISIL and ISIS) claimed responsibility for the Paris terror attacks in November, the hashtag #NotInMyName started trending on social media to enable people to criticize the actions of ISIS and remind others that the extremist group does not represent the vast majority of Muslims.
The nonprofit organization Active Change Foundation launched the #NotInMyName Twitter campaign in fall 2014 following the the Islamic State's killing of aid worker David Haines and kidnapping of humanitarian Alan Henning, who was subsequently murdered.
"The murder of an innocent man has no justification in any religion or walk of life," founder Hanif Qadir told the Mirror in September 2014. "These terrorists ISIS are not true Muslims, they do not practice the true teachings of Islam; peace, mercy and compassion and they are the enemy of all mankind.”
Watch the #NotInMyName YouTuve video below:
