In U.S., Fear and Distrust of Muslims Runs Deep How can anyone, for one second advocate such actions (I'm referring to the dimwits who called in supporting the idea)? The article is more or less right, it is about education. America is just full of flat out ignorant people (not necessarily dominated by them, but there are a lot). Teaching people is a first step, but "book smarts" only get you so far. Some people will never get it and will continue to spout such lunacy, but there are others who could change. How? Introduce them to Muslims. Let them interact with, work with, play with, hang out with people of the Islamic faith and they will see that it is not a population of people, but an evil few that are worth being worried about. And frankly, every race, culture, and religion in the world has these people. Whenever someone criticizes the US some people are quick to jump up and say that America isn't completely made up of total morons. Well guess what? Islam isn't completely made of fanatical killers.
Anti-Muslim sentiment in the US is nothing compared to Western Europe at the moment. There are some people here who hold those views, but not nearly enough to be a cause for concern. Let people believe what they want to believe as long as they're not harming anyone.
Sure, America is a free country. You can believe all muslims are out to kill us, or the blacks eat white babies. What's fightening though, is that these people are filled with ignorance and hate which only leads to more serious, scary actions like hate crimes & violence. Its really tough nowadays to divide harmless klan moron, and nutty loons like Tim McVeigh or Eric Rudolph.
1/4 of our nation are complete and utter douchebags, no matter what. Accept that fact and you will be free.
Dude, you're talking about people that go out of their way to call in to talk radio. It's a pretty self-selecting group--if you're not in favor of tattooing a crescent on the forehead of every Muslim in the US, you're probably just going to dismiss the people calling in as nutcases instead of actually calling in to disagree.
Some days I'm just ashamed to be human and wish I'd been born a panda in captivity who doesn't have to do anything but eat bamboo, watch porn and breed.
Have to agree with the normally 3/4 witted dfb on this one. Almost as amazing is that some of you guys think its post worthy or worth making broad statements about. Also in the news today, someone in a fortune 500 company said something really inappropriate in the breakroom.
See, here's the thing. You can dismiss what was said all you want, and the people who called in only represent a sample of the population; but if you remember your statistics and read about the constant hate, fear and bigotry (try picking up a newspaper in the US and not seeing a story on about one of those three on any given day) you'll see that it isn't just a few select people. Anti-Muslim sentiment is high and seems to be growing, and it is completely out of ignorance. I'm willing to bet there were Germans who sat around watching the Nazi party spouting their hate, fear and bigotry and just said "eh, they're just a few nut cases."
The difference is that I don't see these racists building the Autobahn and guaranteeing jobs to impovershed Americans. There was alot more to the Nazis than just hating the impure ones. It's absolutely right to maginalize such misinformed losers
True, but make no mistake, just because the lunatics aren't as organized doesn't mean they're not in positions of power. I agree that, by in large, they're not likely to take over the country, but who's to say what the future holds. Another terrorist attack and the anti-Muslim sentiment could skyrocket to the point where the talked about identification and internment might actually happen.
I'm not saying this statement isn't true, but what are you basing this on? Have you ever been to Europe and experienced it first hand, or are you just repeating what some media outlet feeds you?
I disagree. Sure, it might not be all *that* many people who want to round up all the Muslims, make 'em wear cresents, and ship 'em off to concentration camps. But it's enough. 6 in 10 people feel torture (TORTURE!!) is justified on "terrorists". 4 in 10 don't feel that people held in Guantanamo deserve legal rights - and 2 in 10 think they should be held indefinitely (that's "life in prison, no trial, no charges", for those scoring at home). And just check out the Freeper responses to those kinds of poll numbers ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1738082/posts ). Sure, another "self-selecting" sample, but not a tiny (enough) one. And Matt - yeah, Bush isn't doing this stuff. But these people are "the base". They exert a disproportionate amount of influence on Republican primaries. If this kind of thinking grows, it could be very very dangerous. The "lite" versions of it are already far too prominent. It needs to be highlighted and discredited whenever it pops up.
I worry less about things like that happening than about the effect on integration and communication between Muslim Americans and the broader American public. If such talk becomes more widespread, frequent, and open, it could threaten the assimilation of new Muslim immigrants, and alienate the ones already here. It is worth noting, and dwelling on, this fact--the London subway bombings were carried out by second-generation British Muslims. The Madrid bombing were, I believe (not sure) also carried out by Muslims born and raised in Europe, if not in Spain itself. The riots in France were carried out by Muslims born and raised in France. And there is widespread evidence, at least anecdotally, that Muslims throughout Western Europe live in a kind of psychological segregation, unassimilated from the broader culture that they live IN but are not OF. However--NONE of the 9/11 terrorists were born and raised in the USA. They were ALL from foreign countries. That's a big difference. We have yet to suffer a single terrorist attack committed by jihadists born and raised in our own country. That's something that idiots like Dennis Prager either haven't considered or don't want to. So while I'm not scared that we're on the verge of instituting punative official policies against a dispised minority, I do worry that public sentiment could threaten the delicate, ongoing process by which a relatively new cultural group gets assimilated and integrated into American life and culture. Just my two cents.
I suggest anyone interested in a real life case study of this should pick up this weeks copy of the New Yorker as it has a great story about somali refugees in a small town in Maine. Originally the refugee's problems were with the perception of the natives in the town. It turns out that the biggest problem is not with Americans but with friction between the different somali tribes. Good reading and unfortunately there is no link right now.
Where my wife works the staff is largely West African, and there are many cultural problems. Turns out it's almost impossible for a person from Sierra Leone to supervise other people from Sierra Leone if they don't want to listen to him/her. They simply don't acknowledge the authority of one of their own in certain cases. So yes, immigrant communities do often bring their cultural baggage with them. Most units in the home my wife runs work great, but there is one floor where the staff has absolutely zero respect for their supervisor because of her status within the community at large. And it's affecting patient care, BIG TIME. It's the single biggest issue my wife has had as DON of that place.
If the war in Iraq was going well, and this president was a somewhat comptent lunatic rather than an incompetent one, I think right now we'd be a lot closer to the nightmare you're describing. No, not Nazi Germany. But if this administration had some political capital, Guantanamo would be brimming with "suspects". We would see something approaching internment camps, and a proliferation of secret trials, secret renditions, and more routine torture by Americans.