Not So Funny "Jokes"

In the past two weeks I have received several emails with jokes that made my stomach turn. I wonder if people know that they are spreading hate when they decide to forward these emails or if they have been so desensitized that they don’t see the underlying messages in them. Just think of how much hate a person has to have in them to think up a joke about American women walking around naked to get Muslims to commit suicide. Are we so ignorant that we can complain about people hating us and not realize we are shoving hate down their throats every day with the click of a button? Have we all forgotten that in America there is Freedom of Religion? Have we all reverted back to burning women on the cross because they might be a witch? Do people feel so threatened by differences that they would rather someone die than be their neighbor?
Just because a group of people that are Muslim commit terrorist acts doesn’t mean that ALL Muslims are terrorists. There are Christians that commit terrorist acts in the name of God; does that mean all Christians are terrorists? How is it that we’ve allowed ourselves to become so hateful toward a group of people that most of us know very little about? Why do American’s feel it is their right to judge the rest of the world and decide how they should live? One would think that over the 400 years we’ve been a country, we would have learned a little something about tolerance, acceptance, equality and humility. But here I am, on August 22, 2008, feeling sick in my stomach because of a hateful email that was sent to me by someone I love that didn’t see the underlying message that was being shared. Think of the Muslim children in our public schools that hear these jokes, how exactly are they supposed to feel about us?
It’s just a joke you might tell yourself. But aren’t jokes supposed to be funny? Does saying hateful things in the form of a joke make it okay to say them? What is so funny about a joke created from hate? Hate hijacked and crashed 4 planes on September 11th killing 2,974 Americans. Hate killed Martin Luther King Jr. Hate killed 22 students at Virginia Tech. Hate killed five little Amish girls as they sat in their classroom.
So tell me again what is so funny about hate?