An anti-Islam group in the Dallas, Texas, suburb of Irving publicized the names and addresses of over 60 Muslims and Muslim “sympathizers” on its Facebook page. The Bureau of American Islamic Relations’ post targets those who spoke out against a controversial Irving City Council vote on Islamic tribunals. In March, the council backed a state bill that would limit Muslim influence. Mayor Beth Van Duyne accused Irving’s Muslim community of using Sharia law to bypass state and federal legislation to mediate disputes through an Islamic tribunal. The Islamic Center of Irving issued a statement that denies the existence of a Sharia court but confirms the existence of a tribunal. BAIR describes itself on its Facebook page as an “organization that stands in opposition (on all levels)” to Islamic groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
No matter how hard I try to understand the current atmosphere of rampant Islamophobia, I find myself unable to grasp how an American could see nothing UN-American about hating someone simply because they happen not to be Christian. In a nation that was founded by those seeking religious freedom, there are far too many strident voices raised against those whose only “crime” is to be Muslim. The entire concept that is America is predicated upon diversity, the idea and the reality that this country is a vast melting pot, a place called home by people of many different races, creeds, and colors. Yes, Caucasians may (or may not) still be a (slim) majority, but that fact is apropos of nothing. Being part of the majority doesn’t connote upon one the right to determine who gets to be a full partner in the grand idea that is America.
There’s nothing remotely American about hating those who are different. More specifically, being anti-Islam means being anti-American. Whether it’s talking about closing mosques, registering Muslims, or comparing Muslims to rabid dogs, hatred isn’t an American value. Nor is posting the names and addresses of Muslims on Facebook in a clear attempt to frighten and intimidate.
BAIR also protested outside of Irving’s mosque Saturday, where they toted shotguns and held signs that stated, “Stop the Islamization of America” and “The solution to Islamic terrorism.”
BAIR spokesman David Wright said they were also protesting Syrian refugees coming to America and that he believes that people are scared.
“They’re scared to say anything about it,” he told Fox 4 News. They’re scared to come out to a place like this and stand in front of a mosque and protest Islam.
“People should recognize that we are peaceful and we are a group of self defense minded people. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Except that Wright’s reasoning is total, unadulterated, self-serving bullshit. Being scared in this case stems from not only a lack of information but a lack of understanding and a refusal to even try to understand Islam and Muslims. It might make sense to be scared about something when there’s a legitimate, imminent threat…but that’s hardly the case with Syrian refugees or American Muslims. Syrians are fleeing a civil war that began in 2011. They’re fleeing the murderous oppression of ISIS/ISIL. All told, some FOUR MILLION Syrian citizens have been displaced and forced to flee their homeland. All the vast majority of the refugees are looking for is a safe place to land where they can rebuild their lives and live in peace.
In this case, Wright and his fellow knuckle-draggers are celebrating their ignorance. They hate and fear what they can’t be bothered to understand. If they’d take the time to walk a mile in the shoes of those they (baselessly) despise, they might just find the objects of their derision to be people who, like them, want to live in safety and security. They want to live their lives authentically without having to fear for their safety or that of their loved ones.
“The Islamization of America” is a canard invented by those with an agenda. Sharia and “Islamic tribunals” are no more likely to come to America than BAIR is to overdose on compassion and consideration for the plight of others less fortunate than themselves.
Racism is evil because its ultimate logic is genocide…. If one says that I am not good enough to live next door to him; if one says that I am not good enough to eat at a lunch counter, or to have a good, decent job, or to go to school with him merely because of my race, he is saying consciously or unconsciously that I do not deserve to exist.
Replace “race” with “religion” and the message remains the same. If one is willing to discount someone because of who they are and/or how they worship, it’s a short distance to dehumanizing and ultimately eliminating them. One need only look to WWII to be reminded of what happens when one group dehumanizes another.
As for “Islamic terrorism,” that’s a smoke screen that completely ignores the truth that the real terrorist threat we face isn’t from rabid, wild-eyed Islamofascists, but from White Christian males. Ah, but it’s SO much easier to hate and demonize those who look and worship differently…because everything Wright and his merry band of low-information knuckle draggers needs to know about Islam and terrorism they learned on 9/11, right?
It’s just too bad that everything they learned is wrong and that they’re too stubborn and intellectually stifled to be bothered with the truth. Publishing the names and addresses of Muslims is about as mean-spirited, hateful, and low class as it gets.
Late last month, Lawrence Downes reported on a poll in a red state with this caveat:
“It’s just one poll in one Southern state, North Carolina, by one polling outfit (Public Policy Polling, or PPP) with Democratic Party ties, asking questions of a few hundred Republican primary voters.”
“But still,” Downes continued, these were the results: 72 percent believed a Muslim should not be allowed to be president of the United States, and 40 percent believed that Islam should be illegal in this country.
If you believe in karma as I do, the fine, upstanding patriots at BAIR will discover that their hatred and ignorance may well come back to haunt them. I can only hope they learn their lesson and develop a modicum of compassion before that day comes. I suspect my gentle reader will understand that I’m not holding my breath on this count.
As for the rest of America, the rampant hatred, willful ignorance, and religious discrimination is something no compassionate, educated person could claim to be proud of. Surely we’re not so stupid that we’d believe Muslims to be such a dire threat that we’d make their faith illegal? Right??
Yeah, about that….
