Islam Dunk: Anti-Muslim Bias in the US

All of the 9/11 attackers were Muslim. Iran is virtually all Muslim, albeit of the Shiite side of the faith, and their vitriol against America is legendary. The Taliban are Muslim. Pakistan’s angry, anti-American citizenry are mostly Muslim. A vast majority of Muslims have hostile feelings toward America’s ally Israel as well. Most Americans don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about Muslims, and there are a whole lot of Muslims who believe that the United States (and many of its Western allies) have declared war on Islam. “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that a … poll showing that more than 4 in 10 Americans admit to anti-Muslim prejudice demonstrates the need for increased educational outreach efforts by U.S. Muslims.

“The survey by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, called ‘Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam,’ also shows that almost two-thirds of Americans say they have little or no knowledge of Islam. Respondents who did not personally know a Muslim exhibited a greater level of bias.” PRNewswire.com, January 21^st. Try and build a mosque or a Muslim religious center, whether in Brooklyn, New York or Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and watch the angry backlash. Politicians are running on campaigns that clearly run afoul of the First Amendment proscription against state-imposed religion and religious control claiming that America is a Christian nation.

Texas handgun instructor, Crockett Keller, produced a video ad for his business saying: “If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner in chief [a clear reference to President Obama], please do not take this class. You've already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you this class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller.” The ad has gone viral on the Web.

“Keller, who runs a store in Mason that sells, among other things, guns, did not return calls ... [from the LA Times]. But in an interview with the Associated Press he defended the ad, saying he was inspired to make it after being ‘flabbergasted’ by neighbors who left the state to campaign for President Obama and his own concern about training Muslims.. .‘I got to thinking, 'Hmm, I'm arming the enemy,'’ Keller said. The ad stopped airing [at the end of October]…

“A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety told The Times it was investigating ... whether to revoke or suspend Keller's license to teach concealed-handgun courses… ‘Conduct by an instructor that denied service to individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion would place that instructor’s certification by the department at risk of suspension or revocation,’ the department said in a statement released to The Times.” Los Angeles Times, November 1^st

Mixing pictures from the 2006 Abu Ghraib prison scandal [above], where American soldiers were photographically linked to humiliating captured insurgents (again, Muslims)… not to mention the controversial water-boarding (a practice the US used as the basis of torture convictions against the Japanese following WWII)… with widely-circulated (in the Islamic world) photographs of collateral damage (read: killed and injured civilians) from military strikes, on the ground and especially through drones, only exacerbates the anti-American feelings.

The aggregation of all of the above makes us quick to turn on anyone who may in fact be a Muslim. Most Americans are uncomfortable around Muslims (when we know) and are uneasy in the presence of Muslim clothing, particularly as applied to women. We have troops stationed all over the Middle East and have been actively engaged in combat in the Muslim world for over a decade. Folks here think we are liberators, that we cleaned up Iraq for democracy and gave the Iraqi people a wonderful government. They haven’t viewed the casualty lists of civilian losses. They may not be aware that Iraq, majority being Shiite, has now tilted strongly into the Iranian camp. And they might have a very different notion if Muslim forces had occupied the United States in order to impose their view of proper government on us.

Forget about whether we are right or wrong. Forget about the tensions that have escalated between the factions and look just at the pragmatics. If you wanted to recruit angry young men and women who have no jobs, no prospects and little to lose, into fanatical anti-Western Islamist terrorists, exactly how would you use all of the above information and imagery to generate sufficient anger to convince these gullible young people that they should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause? Easy, huh? And do you really believe that a small farmer or shopkeeper, born into an Islamic world where he or she is both pious and charitable under Muslim dictates, really wants to wage war against the United States… versus just being left alone to live?

I was the step-son of a U.S. Foreign Service officer living in Beirut in the early 1960, a young boy in a strange land. I remember the kindness and hospitality of locals, many Muslims, who treated me as well as I have ever been treated in my life. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, locals were crying and mourning in the streets. To me, this is the clearest evidence that Muslims and those of Western and other faiths truly can get along without hatred and war. Except for the radical extremists who make life miserable for everyone, we need to start dealing with people of all faiths and ethnicities simply as human beings… and stop creating new material that terrorists will definitely use to generate more recruits. Hey, Mr. Keller, how many terrorists do you think you helped recruit anyway?

I’m Peter Dekom, and from where I sit the Golden Rule seems like a pretty good idea.