In opening this blog, I would like to conduct an experiment: go to a
bookstore’s website, Books A Million for example, and search under the word
“Muslim”. While there are some books promoting understanding, even some
translations of the Qur’an; you will probably be assailed by some of the
following titles: Muslim Mafia: Inside
the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America[1]; The Next Wave:
On the Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits[2]; Stop the
Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance[3]; A God Who Hates: The
Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of
Islam[4]; and American Jihad:
The Terrorists Living Among Us[5]. Now what kind of idea does that give to everyday citizens
whether Muslim or not? To put it bluntly, peaceful Muslims are prejudiced
against because of the actions of a vocal minority.
“Everybody
knows they are just trying to kill us…” This quote from one of the public
speakers at the County Commission meeting in the CNN special Unwelcome: Muslims
Next Door illustrates perfectly what I am talking about. While questions
regarding the openness to the public about the planned Mosque building in
Murfreesboro may be asked, the outcry from the public on the plans was simply
outrageous. Cathy Young approaches this subject in Fear of a Muslim America.
Here, she lays out the two sides of the debate: “Conservatives trumpet the
Muslim peril, while liberals warn of Islamophobia.”[6] Her points about Muslim extremism on American soil (both
the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and 2007 Pew poll statistics) do give some weight
to the conservative’s cause. Having said that though, there are instances where
right-wing anti-Muslim bigotry has become all too blatant. I believe the CNN
special presents such moments wonderfully. Young highlights the limitation of
property rights of Muslim groups as well as free speech limits that have gotten
much public attention. The CNN special Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door was also
produced illustrating the complaints of an “enormous building” being built by “people
who are of the same religion” that we are fighting in “Afghanistan… and Iraq”. Specifically,
Young utilizes as a case study the immense shift in perceptions about the
“Ground Zero Mosque” from an “I like what you’re doing”[7]
mentality to an all-out opposition movement. As we see in Murfreesboro, the
first part never even happened at a grassroots level. Rather, there was an
immediate public upwelling of, frankly, stupidity. What I find most interesting
– and convincing - in Young’s argument is an aspect that others have often
overlooked: the anti-Muslim rhetoric has painted all practicing Muslims in the
light of a murderous aggressor, grouping them in with the Ku Klux Klan, the
Nazis, and the Imperialist Japanese. While the outcry would be very similar if
the Ku Klux Klan built a memorial at Gettysburg or if neo-Nazis put up a sign
next to a Holocaust Museum, it would be for different reasons. The actions of
Klan members and/or the Nazis would be coordinated at a group level. Labeling
Muslims in with these groups would imply a similar level of group unity and
involvement in the terrorist attacks that is simply not the case in Islam
today. However, some of the literature I pointed out above may leave an
uneducated public with the feeling that such a group unity does exist amongst Muslims.
Returning
to the documentary now, I would just like to say that the fact that some of the
people interviewed were against the Mosque building because “They [the Muslim
community] worship another God than the one I profess to worship” and fears
that these Muslims, who have lived in the same town with these people for much
of their lives, would try to implement Shari’a law as opposed to Tennessee or
U.S. law? Simply put this is contrary to reality and disgraceful in general. To have such distrust for your fellow
human being is an atrocity in and of itself. Rather, the belief that “I think we all
should be free to practice our religion” is the American way. As one pro-Mosque
building advocate reminded us, it is according to any Americans First Amendment Right. That is certainly the way to a better future, a future that is necessary for America and the world.
[1] P.
David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry, Muslim Mafia:
Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America.
WorldNetDaily (WND Books), 2009.
[2]
Catherine Herridge, The Next Wave: On the
Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits. Crown Forum, Crown Publishing Group,
Random House Inc., 2011.
[3] Pamela
Geller, Stop the Islamization of America:
A Practical Guide to the Resistance. WND Books, 2011.
[4] Wafa
Sultan, A God Who Hates: The Courageous
Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam.
St. Martin’s Press, 2009.
[5]
Steven Emerson, American Jihad: The
Terrorists Living Among Us. Free Press, 2003.
[6]
http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/18/fear-of-a-muslim-america
[7]
Ibid.
No comments:
Post a Comment