Of course, most U.S. Muslims don't shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine. As soon as Muslims give us a foolproof way to identify their jihadis from their moderates, we'll go back to allowing them to serve. You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you're right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it's used, and we'll welcome you back with open arms. This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism.
One Christian blows up a federal office building. Or shoots an doctor who, among other things, happens to perform abortions. Or sets off bombs during the Atlanta Olympics and at abortion clinics. Or shoots up a Jewish day care center in Los Angeles. All these things happen...and no one says a thing about the religious affiliation of these criminals. A Muslim kills 13 in a shooting spree at Ft. Hood, and you had to know that it wasn't a question of if, but when someone on the Far Right would call for Muslims to be barred from serving in the US military. While I understand the consternation felt by Fischer and his ilk, it would seem that this tragedy has been turned into just another opportunity to marginalize and discriminate against Muslims. Yet another opportunity for racists masquerading as Christians to try to make their hatred and ignorance sound like basic common sense. And doesn't it just figure that this would emanate from someone affiliated with the American Family Association, which it to Christianity what Benito Mussolini was to fascism....
I find it interesting that Christians can engage in acts of terrorism without a word being said about the "need" to control Fundamentalist Christians. Let a Muslim engage in a similar act, though, and you can bet that someone on the Far Right who professes to be a "Christian" will demand that Muslims be forcibly kept under lock and key. It's certainly a whole lot easier, I suppose. Most Christians look like you and me. Muslims, as we all know, are swarthy, bearded sorts who look evil and different. It's easy to know who the terrorists are, especially when you start from the assumption that they look different than you and me.
If people like Fischer had their way, the only people in this country who would be allowed full and free access to constitutionally-guaranteed rights would be White Fundamentalist Christians who believe with all their heart that God is a Republican. The actions of one Muslim with issues is used to damn all Muslims...and yet Christians are never held to the same standard. If this isn't the very definition of racism and hypocrisy (and the very antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ), then I couldn't tell you what racism is. No reasonable person would condone the murderous actions of Nidal Hassan...any more than any reasonable person would condone the murderous actions of Paul Hill, Eric Rudolph, Scott Roeder, and Timothy McVeigh.
Neither 9.11 nor Ft. Hood was about Islam. True, the perpetrators may have felt they were doing God's work...but so did (White Christian) murderers like Paul Hill and Scott Roeder. It should go without saying that greater vigilance is called for in the wake of the Ft. Hood tragedy, just as it was after 9.11, Oklahoma City, and the murder of Dr. George Tiller. That this need for greater vigilance is translated as an opportunity to oppress a class of people who, like most Christians, are peaceful, well-adjusted, and non-violent is despicable...and yet so predictable.
If Bryan Fischer is a Christian, then I'm the Queen of England. It's Fischer and people like him who have taken a perfectly good religion and turned it into a vehicle to serve and support their ignorance, fear, and hatred. It's not Christianity I fear; it's "Christians" like Fischer- theocrats who want nothing more than to force their ignorant, hate-filled version of Christianity down the throats of all Americans. What this has to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ is beyond me.
WE DESERVE BETTER. And we deserve elected politicians who will stand up to this hatred...instead of pandering to and indulging it.
