Anti-Muslim Bigotry Is Alive And Well
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Religion, The War On Terrorism
Recently, radio talk show host Jerry Klein suggested that Muslims should be easily identifiable. How? Well, with some sort of crescent-shaped symbol stamped on their passports, driver’s license or birth certificates. Or they could have the option of wearing an armband or getting a tattoo with the crescent on it. The choice would be up to them.
So what’s the catch? Well, Klein only said it to expose anti-Mulsim bigotry. And oh…did he ever.
The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be “off his rocker.” The second congratulated him and added: “Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country … they are here to kill us.”Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver’s licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. “What good is identifying them?” he asked. “You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans.”
Klein’s response to this…
“For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people’s bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver’s license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It’s beyond disgusting.“Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen … We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous.”
This is the ignornace we have to fight. This is why we need to elevate the conversation. We can get there, but it’s going to take some doing. The one thing we can’t be afraid of is fighting anti-Muslim bias and bigotry at ever turn.
Does Islam have flaws? Of course, but nearly every major world religion has gone through periods where untold numbers of innocents have been slaughtered in the name of God. And subsequently, all of those religions have gone through reformations where those who would kill to spread the “good word” were pushed out or died off.
I guess my point here is the enemy is not Islam and never will be. Apparently, though, we need to collectively convince America that this is the case too.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 and is filed under Religion, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Great post, and Jerry Klein is a brave man indeed for exposing the “true American”.
No doubt the blogsties will attach the “anti-Semite” label.
December 3rd, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Anti-Muslim bigotry may be alive and well, but the victims of Islamic terror are not. Why don’t we keep things in perspective…
December 4th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Of course my point of view is that religion in general is a far bigger sponsor of bigotry, hatred, and war than any other source, nay, than all other sources combined. But then again, I’m one of those whacko atheists ;)
December 4th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
sleipner … it’s not really religion, it’s dogmatic adherence to any ideology. Certainly, the ideology of communism and its subsets (all athiest, mind you) led to vastly more deaths in the 20th century than any religion did.
Religion doesn’t “sponsor” bigotry, hatred and war — some people just use religion as an excuse.
December 4th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Thank you Alan for making that small point.
How can anyone possibly draw such an overreaching conclusion from a couple of callers to a talk radio show?
Of course Americans are suspicious of Muslims but that doesn’t mean we are bigots. Holy cow, who’s flying airplanes into buildings, rioting over cartoons, killing thousands of innocents with suicide bombs, worshipping death over life and etc, etc, etc.???? We’re supposed to ignore all that?? Where are all the so-called moderate Muslims? They need to speak up. You can’t hear them for all the bombs exploding.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Of course, a big part of the problem is that Islamic supremacists, thanks to their far superior funding and organization, their knack for using new communication technology to mobilize globally, and perhaps above all their sheer aggressiveness in getting their message out, have been able to dominate the Muslim side of the discourse. It’s gotten to the point where the supremacists can plausibly claim to represent all of Islam and all Muslims everywhere, not because of the merits of their ideas but simply because no other Muslim faction has demonstrated both the inclination and the werewithal to seriously threaten that dominance.
December 4th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Have to agree with sleipner here…. with one small caveat: it’s not “religions” that’s the major problem, it’s the “adherents” of those “religions” - in other words…. people.
Until everyone in this world GETS IT that every other individual is entitled (oy, I HATE that word, but it’s the only one that fits here….) to hisser own beliefs, we’ll always have these “religious” problems.
I’m an atheist. I don’t need some “overarching god figure” to give meaning to my life. My life goes as it goes (and has been a good life going on 6 decades now), and when it ends, my disparate atoms will disperse into the energy pool. What should anyone need more than that? I live my life with as little harm to others as can be managed, and while I don’t ascribe to any religious ethic, I also don’t think my way is the only way….
To quote perhaps my favorite author of all time: “There is no ONE TRUE WAY.”
December 5th, 2006 at 12:29 am
I’m not Muslim and I don’t need to convince anyone of anything. How the hell do I know it’s not a problem with Islam? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. That’s for the Muslims to hash out. As far as convincing Americans, it would go a long way to hear some Imams critique Hamas for being a terrorist organization and the Sudanese gov’t for being genocidal — rather than purposefully trying to get thrown off a US airliners to make some politically correct point.
December 16th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
The genocide of Christians by the Muslim world was well under way in the Ottoman Empire in the 1890’s. This had been going on for centuries. The Koran was finalized in written form in 656 AD while the war against Christians and Jews of Islam was well under way. The Koran was written under the authority of the Caliphs.
The Koran commands Muslims to do everything Muslims were doing from 622 AD to 656 AD against Christians and Jews, which was conquest, enslavement, and genocide. That is frozen into the Koran.
When Muslims react to the Koran in urine or Danish Cartoons, they are saying that the Koran in 656 AD and Muhammed’s war on Christians and Jews is locked into Islam and is its essence.
Islam dates its calendar from 622 AD when they had a state, not from the birth of Muhammed or his death or his first prophecy. The Koran was finalized in written form in 656 AD by the rulers of Islam to justify what they had done, were doing and wanted to do to Christians and Jews. They were conquering the Eastern Roman Empire which was Christian and Jewish. That was intentionally frozen into the Koran by the committee appointed by the Caliphs. This is unlike any other religion.
No Muslim nation has not engaged in enslavement and genocide of Christians and Jews at some point. Christians and Jews starting in 1890 have been eliminated in every Muslim country including Turkey. Constantinople was 50 percent Christian in 1914. The secular Young Turks organized the genocide of the Christians, which started before WWI.
No majority Muslim country doesn’t discriminate against minorities to the point of eventual genocide. This is true in all of history, in every continent and among people of every race.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
As a prime example of Anti-muslim redereict, I know some Americans who pronounce this:
Mohammed is a false prophet. He was a man of violence, war, invasion, sex, and women; So don’t believe in him. The Islam is irreligion; so it’s impiety. The Moslem is chameleon-like, changes color; so don’t trust him. The Moslem is guilty, until he’s proven innocent; so watch out for him. …..Elfady
These people spent 30 years living around muslims. In Egypt and Irac. They came to America to get away from the evil muslims. They say they are Christain, but I am too and I don’t know how a Christian can believe that. Yet muslim and christian relations has become their life, how can I deny the validity of their claims. I’m not about to say I hate muslims. I need more information.