Why? What would Bush have to gain from such actions? Or do you believe that he is just a sadistic maniac?
It is embarassing that even a small group of Americans have these views. It is part of the price we pay for a true diversity of viewpoints. On the other hand, up to 9/10/2001, I was glad to watch as people of Muslim faith increased in number and integrated into US society, not unlike the Amish, Catholics, Unitarians, and Jews of previous decades. Then some rich and middle-class Saudis decided to crash airplanes and kill people - and not for political or "class warfare" reasons, but for basically religious ones (the infidel stepped on "sacred" Saudi ground - conveniently forgetting that it was while defending that sacred ground from an atheist dictator). I'm not sure what the 9/11 attacks were supposed to accomplish, but improving the status of Muslim Americans was not one of the end results.
I'll base it on the fact that the Muslim who does some woodwork for us is here because his house in Serbia was torched, his store in Serbia was looted and torched, and he is barely hanging on here. I think he'd take some wacko phone calls and "tension" and maybe a few EEOC cases in place of near genocide. Maybe I am wrong. I'll take American redneck's talking the talk now and again to people actually walking the walk.
Oh, bullshit. Our papers are filled with lots of hate but the bigotry is being overrated by you guys. There are institutionalized problems and instituationalize racism in this country but the vast, vast majority of Americans don't waste time on being aggressively bigoted and violent about it. Cite some stats that it is growing. I am also interested in whatever stats you have to show that it is "high", whatever that means. Cite some stats that show that Muslim economic welfare is sinking in this country. I think it is about as nutty to compare anti-Muslim hatred to institutionalized, governmenal agression as these callers are.
I get it. People are stupid about torture, therefore the racists will take control of the country. While you are at it, they will kill all the fat people too.
I'm basing that statement on the rise of nationalist parties in European countries such as France, Austria, Denmark and others. I have a couple of friends from that part of the world who are very Islamophobic, despite being otherwise intelligent and erudite people. They wouldn't advocate crescent tattoos or anything like that, but they're strongly opposed to any further Muslim immigration. And I wonder, if the intelligent ones have such an attitude, what could you expect from your average Johann Six-Pack? I just don't see the same thing in the US, at least where I live. Maybe it's because I live in Minnesota and we're a little bit better about that sort of thing than the rest of the country. From my experiences, Americans are more tolerant than people give them credit for. In almost nine years as an immigrant in this country, I've never experienced any discrimination. But again, that could be a regional thing. To answer "Belgian Guy", yes I have lived in Europe, though it was in the part of Europe that fell on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, so I suppose it doesn't much help my credibility in talking about Western Europe. I'm not trying to lump the region as a whole - there are countries that have been better and worse about this.
For the same reason he has hundreds of innocent arabs interred in guantanamo now. For the same reason he's torturing now, it would just be worse, if he could.
The fringe is chalk full obviously, but there are a lot of people with this sentiment who are considered the Republican base.
They may be part of the Republican base, but the last time I checked there is nothing in the Republican platform about tattooing crescents, sending Muslims home or anything remotely similar to that. When that happens (and it won't), then we have a cause for concern.
This assumes that no one in our current government or power structure believes these things, which is a hugely optimistic assumption. You CANNOT dismiss this sort of ignorance out of hand, you have to condemn it, whenever and wherever it happens. History has taught us this over and over again.
Sure you can dismiss such things. Do you believe that ELF is representitive of a large swath of the democratic party base? Do all democrats want to burn down ski lodges or raid lumber operations? No. Because they are wackjobs. But I would love to see some proof that anyone in power believes that tatooing cresents on people is acceptable.
What's the reason in your opinion? OR do you think that we wouldn't see these practices in an expanded way if he had the political ability to do it? PS ditto civil liberties
So your excuse is that people aren't aggressively acting out? Racism and bigotry are not bad only when they involve organized action. People spouting their hate and ignorance, even on occasion, is bad enough that it needs to be addressed. People passing such beliefs on to their children or spreading the cancer of hate in their communities is bad enough to warrant attention. From the Boston Globe in 2005 Pitt Law 2006 Report June 2006 Feel free to check out some comments on this very topic at the Free Republic site as well. Nazism didn't start out as institutionalized governmental aggression, but eventually the German government was made up of men who supported the Nazi cause. Right now I'm not so much concerned that the US government is full of people who would institute such heinous actions, but that there are a decent number of people who would support such individuals.
That's not what I asked. If Bush had a freer hand here politically, would these practices be expanded and if so why?
No they wouldn't be expanded because the people that need to be detained already are. A freer political climate would not effect that. Why do you believe it would expand? Does Bush just enjoy imprisioning and torturing people for shits and giggles?