Yesterday, the extremist pastor of a tiny fringe group in Florida announced that he would cancel what had already become a wildly offensive but also wildly successful publicity stunt involving burning copies of the Koran. It's a relief that the world will not be exposed to endless news feeds of fringe extremists burning religious texts on the anniversary of September 11th. Muslim bashing and book burning is nothing new, but what was especially troubling about this stunt is that it showed just how far off base our national conversation about religious tolerance has slid...and just how much power the Right's anti-Muslim message has over the national media.
In the weeks after September 11th, 2001, there was a tremendous amount of understandable anxiety in the air. Not only was fear of another attack very real, but there was a real danger that the rage justly directed at al Qaeda could overflow into bigotry directed at Muslim Americans.
To be sure, there were instances of ugly rhetoric and inexcusable violence against the Muslim community, but our nation's leaders -- Democrat and Republican alike -- made it perfectly clear that attacking Muslims and their faith was inappropriate and unacceptable. Even as the unity and bipartisan patriotism that immediately followed the attacks evaporated, there were still some lines that politicians wouldn't cross. President Bush deserves all the criticism he got for ginning up fear to push through his destructive agenda, but even he remained steadfast in his belief that Muslim Americans were fully welcome in our civic life.
So much for uncrossable lines.
The month leading up to the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks has been dominated by a callow and opportunistic debate. This debate -- ostensibly about the rights of American Muslims to build a community center a few blocks from Ground Zero -- is really about the rights of Muslim Americans to be just that: both Muslim and American. And it's ultimately about the strength of our allegiance to one of the best, and sometimes the most difficult, of our American values: the conviction that this country belongs equally to all its citizens, not just those in the ethnic, religious, or political majority.
The campaign against the Park51 community center has succeeded in taking strains of extremist Islamophobia and making them mainstream. The "controversy" was concocted by virulently anti-Islamic blogger Pamela Geller and brought to national attention by mainstream conservatives, most notably Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, hoping to ride the scandal to November. Dozens of political leaders jumped on the anti-Islam bandwagon; the complete silence of many others spoke volumes.
It is this careful mainstreaming of Islamophobia that has allowed a small time, extremist Florida pastor's planned Koran-burning to become a national event with international implications. Terry Jones got his 15 minutes even though his Gainesville church has only 50 members. His anti-Islam and anti-gay crusading had previously isolated him as an extremist. But this week, his planned "Burn a Koran Day" drew international attention and pleas from President Obama, Sec. Robert Gates, and Gen. David Petraeus urging him to stand down lest he put our troops in danger and harm the war effort.
Some anti-Park51 crusaders, even Sarah Palin, denounced Jones' dangerous publicity stunt. But the fact is that his actions would attract little attention, and do little harm, if they weren't taking place in the context of widespread and loud Islamophobia encouraged and implicitly condoned by prominent political leaders. Leaders such as Palin could pretend to be tolerant by denouncing Jones' clear extremism, while all the while continuing to push subtler, more pervasive strains of Islamophobia. The suggestion, made by Palin, John Boehner, and by Jones himself that the Koran-burning event and the building of the Islamic Community Center had some moral equivalence is treacherous indeed, implying that somehow the practice of Islam is itself an offensive act. It's this sort of insidious notion -- passed off as a legitimate argument -- that creates the growing level of distrust of Muslims in our society.
While Jones' event has been called off, Pamela Geller still plans to insult the memory of Sept. 11 by holding an anti-Islam march near Ground Zero. Like Jones, she deserves to be marginalized and ignored. Yet instead, her rally has attracted prominent national figures including former UN Ambassador John Bolton and omnipresent blogger Andrew Breitbart -- and, of course, plenty of media attention.
The national leaders who have fueled this zealous mistrust of Muslims, and worked toward making Islamophobia a legitimate political position, have put our troops in harm's way, irreparably injured the war effort that many of them were eager to start, and twisted American values into something very ugly.
The few leaders who have uncompromisingly stood up against what is momentarily popular and for what is unquestionably right -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, General Petraeus, numerous religious leaders -- deserve praise. But it is disturbing that they are so few and far between.
To exploit the memory of the Sept. 11 attacks for political gain isn't just distasteful; it's destructive to the values that bring us together. Political differences are understandable, and democracy requires a thick skin. But assertions that a person, because of his or her religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, can't be fully American are corrosive to a fair and free society. When politicians sacrifice that principle, the vision of America they create is cynical and ultimately very harmful.
Follow Michael B. Keegan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peoplefor
Karen Armstrong: 9/11 and Compassion: We Need It Now More Than Ever
Jim Kenney: Why the Mosque Melee Actually Signals a New Era of Religious Tolerance
would ya call that mass violence?
Just how do Islamophobes want us to get rid of Muslims? Nukes? Death camps? Or are we to convert them at the point of a Predator drone? Convert them to what? To Christianity? or to eating Americanmade porkrinds at a colonized fastfood restaurant?
Outside of the paranoic blather about "shariah taking over America and cutting off your daughter's nose!" - we hear nothing from Islamaphobes about what it is they wish to accomplish - isolation of American Muslims in barbedwire protected ghettos (we can't deport them, they're American citizens!)? And overseas - how many more wars at what cost and with what strategic goal in mind?
And after the Muslims, who's next? Mormonism is the fastest growing religion in America - better get Glenn Beck off the air and burn the Book of Mormon? Or is it back to the Jews? - "next thing ya know, they'll wanna circumsize your daughter!"
The media needs to stop letting Islamophobes spew h8 without criticism.
It's time some journalists put the screws to Mr. Gingrich.
"The name Cordoba was chosen carefully to reflect a period of time during which Islam played a monumental role in the enrichment of human civilization and knowledge. A thousand years ago Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted and created a prosperous center of intellectual, spiritual, cultural and commercial life in Cordoba, Spain."
Who you gonna believe Newt Gingrich and Pamela Geller or the people building the center?
Peace/Shalom/Salaams
Faved.
Peace/Shalom to all.
Is George W. Bush a secret Muslim?
Former President George W. Bush came under attack Monday from Fox News, which accused him of having ties to the Islamic world and of perhaps being a secret Muslim. While the former president has stayed out of the limelight since leaving office, critics contend that his silence only proves their theories correct.
The fervor began when Fox’s morning show “Fox and Friends” reported that Bush’s family had close ties to the Islamic world, particularly with Saudi Arabia.
“I just learned that, get this, George Bush senior actually led a whole bunch of countries to war to protect Saudi Arabia when he was president. Of course the Bushes have always been close to big oil,” Fox Newsmodel Gretchen Carlson reported Monday. “Was the young George W. Bush indoctrinated into the Islamic faith during that time? Some people are asking this question. By ‘some people’ I mean the people on this show, our scriptwriters and the folks who issue our talking points each morning.”
Carlson’s co-host Steve Doocy joined in the echo chamber, asserting that this information “raises questions” about where the younger Bush’s loyalties lie. (continued…)
http://www.thechicagodope.com/2010/09/06/is-george-w-bush-a-secret-muslim/
How can anyone make a mild criticism of Islam when they know liberals and Muslims will crash down on them like they watch Fox all day; and how can they make a mild criticism of Christianity a conservative Christians will let rip? So, what you get is polarisation and a drift towards freedom of expression for energetic, totally committed people only. people willing to throw their anger around.
And let's not forget the atheists so often prone to offering wild insults because (as they know) they are right.
Islam is comprised of over a billion people. I don't imagine they're any more homogeneous than the wide varieties of Christian cults and synods, many of whom believe that the others are hell bound. I was raised as a conservative protestant, but that doesn't make me liable for the OKC bombing just because the perp was (nominally) a Christian.
We don't include Ku Klux Klan events in the Community Calendar --- why should we cover a Koran-burning?
At some point, the news media has to think this through. As it is, this Jones preacher clown is attempting to commit extortion --- "I won't burn the Koran (and put our troops at risk) if you won't build your mosque!" --- at that point, the news media should turn their backs and let law enforcement take over.
We are occupying multiple countries right now and indiscriminately blowing up civilians, not because those individual countries pose a threat to us but rather because we believe we have the right to blow up their stuff for something that a small group of criminals did 9 years ago. BTW we haven't caught the criminals responsible AND we would do better in by actually living our values.
We keep asserting our right to "surgical strikes" and other means of mechanized killing because of "their barbarism."
From the founder of Cordoba caliphate community Center, Imam Rauf
"The recent and controversial call by Dr. Rowan Williams... for incorporation of Sharia law into British law will not be the last utterance in favor of Islamic law. Nor should it be.
The addition of Sharia law to "the law of the land", in this case British law, complements... existing legal frameworks. It is time for Britain to integrate aspects of Islamic law."--Imam Rauf
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2008/03/archbishop_of_canterbury_was_r.html
Imam Rauf--founder and sponsor of Sharia Index. Issuing country's compliance with Shariah law.
http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/shariah-index-project
Imam Rauf's support for Shariah law in Muslim and Western countries in incontrovertible.
Shariah--- wrong for the West. Shariah Promoting center -wrong for Ground Zero.
Do Christians have the right to promote and convert others to their religion? Which religions should be granted that right? Do they have to set up think tanks to observe how communities live within their values?
I bet Occam123 is a believer in the "free market." Religion is supposed to operate in the free marketplace of ideas.
How is it different that Christians want their religious views to be the law of the land with the 10 commandments on the courthouse lawn and going to the extreme, in such areas as abortion, etc. and with those who are willing to blow people up because of their religious views? Some huge number of Americans believe we should live to some degree under "Christian Law."
I don't see Sharia have having a chance against our marketplace--the barrage of vapid consumerism and over-sexualized worship of youth which so many in our community find seductive. They truly have more to fear from us than we ever will have of them.
Glad to hear it. Let's then make sure Shariah, Islamic and Christian creationism is satirized and debunked in this market place of ideas.
Since Muslims are unable to produce their own Voltaire, we'll help out.
Not in Muslims countries.
Actually, quite the contrary. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf believes that all Muslims must adhere to the laws of the land in which they reside, including in America. This is a basic tenet of Islam. He has repeatedly stated that America is already one of the most “Shariah compliant” countries in the world because of America’s adherence to our Bill of Rights and because we allow members of all religions, including Muslims and Jews, to practice their faith freely. In other words, Imam Feisal believes that Muslims practice Shariah when they fast, pray, give to charity and uphold the commandments to protect life, liberty, dignity, the pursuit of happiness and the right to freedom of worship.
of the Quran, were in effect condoning it. How far will people go
to get elected in November? Is this just the beginning of some
very nasty political games?
Even Stephen Hawking would admit he could be in error.
That may be true, BUT I remember both Bush and Cheney using the term "Islamic" extremist, radical, terrorists, etc. with almost inexhaustible incidence during their terms in office. If their intent wasn't to stir up fear and loathing of all things "Islamic" they should have been more careful with their terminology.