Muslim perspective from an American living in Europe

 My high school friend Will is an artist who paints                                  with a serene spirit. He speaks with perspective                                about Muslims.


Le Salève dans le matin- by Will Linthicum

Living in Meinier, Switzerland, Will has a much closer perspective
perspective about living andn working side by side with Muslims than many Americans, who are living in the USA experience. 

Here is what Will wrote to our classmates who are his colleagues from Dundalk, Maryland "Dundalk High School Class of 1963" (DHS).

Thank you Will for sharing your artistic talent for spreading serenity in the world through your paintings.

Dear classmates, writes Will;

Thanks for the warm thoughts and kind words (about my art). 

Yes, I have been fortunate to have lived here (in Switzerland) this long and to have had these opportunities (to create art).

We have friends in Brussels (Belgium). They are safe (following the March 2016 airport and metro terrorist attack). 

This morning I saw a post by an old DHS friend who lives in Dundalk. A smart and educated guy, his post was hateful toward Muslims. The number of likes and comments were disturbing. I choose not to get political in the public forum of Facebook, so I share this with my classmates:

The art department head at the International School of Geneva who is my colleague during the residency is Dr. Momar Seck. 

He is a wonderful artist and very kind and giving person, Momar is a native of Senegal. He spends his vacation time going back and building a school in a poor village near his hometown. Last year he took a group of students for two weeks as a community service project. Dr. Seck is nationally renowned as a conceptual artist, having recently been featured at the Havana Biennial. He is respected and beloved by his students and colleagues. He is a devout muslim. As Americans get caught up in the narrow scope of their local lives, I wish more of them could have the friendships with muslim persons that I have. On Sunday, my daughter had her good friend, Sera, at the house to work on their biology project. Sera is Turkish and muslim. Her mother attended university in the USA and worked at an advertising agency in New York. We have had dinners together and shared stories and wine. We feel seamlessly attached to our Muslim friends here in Geneva, as we also do with Jewish, Roman Catholic and Protestant friends. I don’t expect my Jewish friends to control the inequities in Israel. I don’t expect my Roman Catholic friends to stop the child abuse committed by clergy. I don’t hold my Protestant friends responsible for the absurd politics of the religious right. Why would any rational person expect good Muslim people to control Muslim criminals?

William W. LInthicum

Russia is increasing tensions without accountability for MH17

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is furious because a Russian fighter jet was shot down by Turkey, an attack approved by NATO, when the pilot was warned about crossing an international boundary into Turkish air space.  In a huge over response to an incident that clearly could've been avoided, Putin is sending an arsenal of weapons into the region where the disputed aircraft was flying.  In fact, Putin's power move over this terrible incident is causing some to consider whether or not the Russian President even intends to incite an unthinkable world war.  

NATO

Meanwhile, no one seems to be holding President Putin accountable for the Russian downing of an innocent passenger airplane, taken down while flying over the Ukraine. In fact, the downing of MH17 was far more serious an act against innocents than the deliberate attack on the Russian fighter jet.  

Unfortunately, it's okay for Putin to ignore what his own nation does to innocent air travelers, but the proverb of "what goes around comes around" apparently doesn't apply to Russia.  In fact, the BBCNews reports the innocent Malaysian airliner was shot down in rebel-held eastern Ukraine at the height of the conflict between government troops and the pro-Russian separatists.  The government in Ukraine and several Western officials have said the missile was brought from Russia and launched from the rebel-held part of Ukraine. But Russian officials have again rejected these accusations. Regardless of what caused the jet to be shot down, the fact is, Russia's President Putin hasn't been held accountable for how the Russian military was involved.

In The New York Times,  NEIL MacFARQUHAR and STEVEN ERLANGER report on increasing tensions caused by the NATO attack on the Russian jet.

A United States military spokesman, Col. Steven Warren, confirmed that Turkish pilots had warned the Russian pilot 10 times, but that the Russian jet ignored the warnings. Colonel Warren, speaking from Baghdad to reporters in Washington, also said American officials were analyzing radar track data to determine the precise location of the jet when it was shot down.

At an emergency NATO meeting, Turkish officials played recordings of the warnings Turkish F-16 pilots had issued to the Russian aircraft. The Russian pilots did not reply. The Turkish account of the episode was described by several diplomats, who asked not to be identified because they were discussing a closed-door session at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.

It seems obvious, President Putin has been doing a lot to increase tensions in Central Europe, just because he can. He took over the Crimea, just because he could. Moreover, he wants to take over the Ukraine whenever he has the chance to do so, when he thinks nobody is looking. Now, Putin apparently wants to prop up Syria, where President Assad is loosing his war and committing genocide against his own people.  All the while, Putin has been engaged in serial murders of his opponents, while claiming some "other guy" killed his critics, even using deadly deadly polonium to poison Alexander Litvinenko in England.

President Putin is untrustworthy, to say the least. Nevertheless, he's politically savvy. In the 2016 Presidential election year, President Putin will do everything in his clandestine power to disrupt the American elections and cause turmoil in the world.

Meanwhile, no one is being held accountable for the innocent loss of hundreds of lives on the Malaysian MH17; but Putin might be on the brink of causing a world war because Turkey and NATO attacked a fighter jet that had no business flying, where it was bound to be challenged. 

It's evident Putin has a plan because he's been on a strategic trajectory to reach a terribly ambitious goal.  

Although innocent people can only speculate about what Putin's goal is or will be, regarding the crescendo he's creating, the fact is, Russian people will suffer as a result because, frankly, the worthless Russian ruble will be unable to sustain whatever ambitions he's pursuing.