Growing up in a small town with few Jews, I was a sensitive about my minority status. The half-dozen Jews in my elementary school were not all friends but we were all very much aware that we had something in common. We were a tiny minority, and most of our classmates had no idea what Jews were.
There wasn't much anti-Semitism but pretty much everyone reacted with horror when they discovered that we did not accept Jesus Christ as Lord. Of course, we Jews went out of our way to avoid the subject. To this day, I know more Christmas carols than most Christians I know. I never missed a tree trimming party and never, ever, wanted to stand out as different. (American kids invariably want to "fit in").
The occasional burst of anti-Semitism, when it came ("CHRIST-KILLER!") was unbearable but thankfully rare. (Besides, we had it easy compared to the black kids).
I recalled all this as I have watched Fox News, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and other media outlets broadcasting anti-Muslim hate non-stop for going on a month now. And not just the right-wing media but mainstream Republican, and some Democratic, politicians.
Muslim bashing is everywhere you look and listen, with Muslims being called terrorists virtually nonstop. Terrorist and un-American.
I cannot imagine what that feels like for a Muslim kid in the United States.
I cannot imagine how hurt and humiliated I would have felt if people like me were called America's enemy. Or if the synagogue I attended was labeled a haven for evil.
I think I would have looked at every one of my friends and classmates and wondered: does he hate me for being a Jew, what do her parents say about my parents? I know I would have felt lonely and miserable.
The only other ethnic group recently subjected to the right-wing media's nonstop hate campaign is the Hispanic community but, even there, there is at least the half-hearted distinction between "legals" and "illegals." For Muslims, no distinction exists. They are all bad (much as all Jews were bad in other countries I could name in the 20th century).
I would hate to be a Muslim parent today. I mean, what does a parent say when a child asks, "why do they all hate us."
In my opinion, we, as a culture, have reached a new low.
Follow MJ Rosenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjmediamatters
I never really had a chance to thank all the people who went out of their way to be kind to Asians. It's not like you know it's happening when it's happening, but looking back, it made life easier. "Thanks."
Thanks for writing this MJ. It's a reminder that we all have to "pay it forward."
We, as a culture, are speaking our minds, talking and debating, speaking with muslim in this case and about the issues involved in this case. Muslim themselves are not one *they*, one homogenous mass. That is the first mistake you make. The first thing to learn, Rosey, is to see the individual and acknowledge him/her. Listen and hear, understand the issues.No one is closing Mosques, or defacing them in NYC. There is an issue about the specific site, and people differ on that specific issue, muslim included.
The issues of muslim attacking the WTC, The Pentagon, people the world over, including other muslim, defacing and destruction of others' religious sites, a.o. Buddhist Temples in Afghanistan and Synagogues the world over, intolerance of others' religion, even carrying of the Bible and the continued fallout thereof is an issue. It is an issue for muslim first, but we are also allowed to speak of it and have opinions about it. Nothing to be ashamed of so far.
if you want to know who the biggest perpetrators of war in the past 60 years were, it was us (USA). Who gave Saddam weapons to fight Iran? US. Who trained Bin Laden? US. Who gave stinger missiles that were eventually used against us by Afghani's? US. Who helped keep in place a sadistic dictator worse than the Ayotollah in Iran, the Shah of Iran? US. Who supported the use of terror and even described the actual use of terror as a real means to affect foreign policy in South America? US (during Reagan's time...just look it up).
If you count all of the wars, the "collateral damage" we so conviniently label our actions by, we have killed more innocent people than any muslim extremist in the past 60 years.
Do you believe that the Bible says to spread the teachings of Christianity everywhere? Will it include the part telling me it is ok to beat my wife with a stick, so long as it is no larger than my thumb, we cannot eat shellfish, we should stone an adulterer (goodbye Gingrich) among other bs. The radicals of either faith can twist the true message of either book, like you have done.
The things that are taught by MAINSTREAM Islam are not even close to what you espouse. That makes YOU a LIER. Yoi listen to too much bullsheet, read the whole book, matter of fact read both books, completetly!
Not all Muslim youth act out "this way"
RAED THE HOLY QUR'AN, I know by your statements you have not!
Peace/Salaams/Shalom
Christian fundamentalists proselytize their religion and demonize all who do not accept their god. And in recent decades aggressively started attempting to write their views of god into laws that affect many who do not share those beliefs. I don't laugh at that because that is just dangerous!
Peace/Salaams/Shalom
Hard thing to shake......
Extending on Newt's reasoning,,,,in view of his ethnicity and ancestry (white citizen of Georgia) he should never step on the hallowed ground of Morehouse College (Martin Luther King's alma mater). I'm sure he won't be missed if he doesn't.
"I have watched Fox News, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and other media outlets broadcasting anti-Muslim hate non-stop for going on a month now."
Obviously an hysterical comment designed to inflame the uninformed. Really? Non stop hate? 24/7?
Then says:
"Muslim bashing is everywhere you look and listen, with Muslims being called terrorists virtually nonstop. Terrorist and un-American."
Another comment completed unsupported by reality. Actually detached from reality.
But then I looked at the authors profile and saw he was from Media Matters and it all made sense.
Have a nice day.
Please point me to where in the article the author states "turn on Fox news 3 or 4 times a day." Because I can't find it.
What I did find is this:
"I have watched Fox News, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and other media outlets broadcasting anti-Muslim hate non-stop for going on a month now."
Which is simply untrue. It is also nonsense.
By the way I am all for the Victoria Secret models interviews on Fox. All for it.
Have a nice day.
Have a nice day, yourself. Must be quite a treat to be insulated from the day-to-day goings on amongst your conservative peers.
I took your comments to heart and reviewed my position on this issue.
Then I turned on Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network and they were not bashing Muslims. (I think it was Fox News - that's the channel with the smoking hot anchor babes - right?)
Then I walked around my block and listened really hard for the non stop Muslim bashing - but I heard nothing. Just the normal sounds of a lovely summer day.
So based on those to "field tests", I would say the author's premise is wrong.
By the way, I treat every day as a treat whether I am being insulated by my "conservative peers" or talking to all my progressive buddies on the HP. Like you.
Have a nice day.
However, I have so many friends who have lived in Muslim countries, and they all report that the crap we hear from the Christian rightt her is NOTHING compared to the things they heard on TV against Christian, Jews and Westerners in general when they lived in those countries.
I once was a rather high level member and associate at one of the more tolerant Protestant churches and I still heard one of the Christ Killer things come out of the mouth of a fellow member near Easter. My big mouth just had to open up and point out that Christ's life and death FOLLOWED GOD'S DESIGN, AND IT WAS GOD'S WILL, SO THAT MAD GOD AT FAULT, NO ONE ELSE. The person who had said the Christ Killer thing was stunned, but finally said, yes, he guessed that was true and that he would never say it again.
After having read the Koran, and three books written by highly recognized Islamic scholars to understand the cultural, historic, and true Arabic meaning of it, I'm sorry, but I find the religion and its' commands to follow the laws of Islam, which in so many ways are in direct conflict with a freedom-based society and Constitution, just not compatible with modern, free thought and freedom-based laws as we are in this country. It demonized everyone but Muslims.
What a wonderful oxymoron!
"I agree that the bashing shouldn't take place, and the far right wing Chistians are a threat to civil society."
So "bashing shouldn't take place" and "far right wing Christians are a threat to civil society".
No bashing...but let me bash Christians.
I wish more liberals had a sense of humor and understood irony because this posting is hilarious.
Thank you very much for this.
Have a nice day.
I am a doctor(Muslim),have three children,live in the south,and my children have already been called terrorists.It is appalling to hear that,it is also very sad when all the class students are invited to the birthday party except my child(the only Muslim in the classroom).
Salaam/Shalom
As a kid I used to wonder why so many white folks seemed to hate blacks. (i'm black) it seemed so irrational since I had not done anything to them and it seemed they had everything & owned everything. But still I would go to school and get railed on by some of them.
Fox just seems to be a 24 hour broadcast of all that irrational white rage I used to experience as a child.
To any muslim kid out there I would say stay strong.