THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R)
Alabama’s governor incorrectly said one of the perpetrators of the attacks in Paris last November was a Syrian refugee during his State of the State Address on Tuesday…. “When 130 people were slaughtered, in Paris at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, among those killers was a refugee from a terrorist nation,” Governor Robert Bentley said. Bentley was referring to the discovery of what appeared to be a Syrian passport at the scene of November’s ISIS attack on the Bataclan theater. Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection Nikos Toskas said the passport holder registered as an asylum seeker at the Greek island Leros on October 3. But what Bentley gets wrong is that the passport is a fake. Shortly after news emerged that a Syrian passport was found, French authorities confirmed it was counterfeit, and a prominent EU official soon after announced that all the identified attackers were EU nationals who held passports from European countries.
Let it never be said that Republicans allow inconvenient things like truth and facts to get in the way of their agenda and preferred narrative. Despite refusing to engage in a few short minutes of the sort of fact-checking that wouldn’t challenge a second-grader, Gov. Bentley is heavily invested in pounding the drums of Islamophobia: “RADICAL ISLAM!!” “TERRORISM!!!” “SYRIAN REFUGEES!!!” “SHARIA!!!!!”
There’s no disputing that the attacks in Paris were horrific…but that hardly justifies the fear-mongering and Islamophobia being peddled by Gov. Bentley about people primarily concerned with finding safety and stability for their families, a place far away from the savage war and unimaginable brutality that’s been visited upon their homeland for the past five years. Instead of displaying the modicum of compassion one might reasonably expect from a self-professed Christian, Gov. Bentley has chosen to demagogue Syrian refugees, recasting them as terrorists-in-waiting looking to infiltrate the Homeland as they await the order to strike and kill innocent Americans. What the Governor doesn’t realize- or simply refuses to acknowledge- is that to even be granted refugee status in this country, a Syrian national must survive a rigorous 18-to-24-month screening process.
Hmm…I wonder if the American White supremacists who pose a far larger and more immediate terrorist threat could survive the same process? More to the point, I wonder if Gov. Bentley would ever accept the truth that Americans pose a far greater threat to the Homeland than a few random Syrian refugees??
Because…”ISLAM!!” “JIHAD!!!” “SHARIA!!!!” OMG…ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS KILL CHRISTIANS!!!!!
Methinks perhaps that Governor Demagogue is carrying the silliness a wee bit too far, don’tchathink?
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Alabama chapter requested a meeting with Bentley and labeled his comments as insensitive.
“Governor Bentley’s labeling of an entire Muslim-majority nation as ‘terrorist’ effectively equates Islam with terror and promotes prejudice,” CAIR-Alabama’s Executive Director Khaula Hadeed said in a statement. “The use of inflammatory language that marginalizes an entire community reduces one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent human history to the status of a political football. We find such terminology insensitive and inappropriate.”
That Governor Bentley would attempt to exploit the most grievous humanitarian disaster of the 21st century for political gain is as reprehensible as it is callous and inhuman…especially for a leader known for proudly proclaiming his Christian bona fides. The truth is that it’s easier for the Governor to attempt to demonize an entire minority community (ISLAM!! JIHAD!!! SHARIA!!!! OMG…ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS KILL CHRISTIANS!!!!!) than it is to show a modicum of Christian compassion. I’d submit that in Gov. Bentley’s case, “Christian compassion” is something of an oxymoron, a phrase only employed on Sunday mornings when good, God-fearing White folks gather in churches to congratulate themselves on their piety and Christ-like devotion to (White, Christian, Conservative) Mankind.
Bentley’s argument is based on a faked Syrian passport, not that the truth seems to interfere with his dogged pursuit of the “SYRIAN TERRORISTS WANT TO COME TO AMERICA SO THEY CAN KILL US!!!” talking point that’s led over half of America’s governors to demand a halt to accepting Syrian refugees.
Right…NEVER let the truth get in the way of good propaganda or an opportunity to pander to the ignorant, fearful, and easily manipulable. Fear-mongering is its own reward.
