Hallowed Ground - Part 2

Image courtesy MadyanWallpapers.com

I woke up this morning to reports of hate crimes against Muslims here in America.  On every channel was the story of the Muslim cab driver who was stabbed in the neck by a loser college kid in New York.  Meanwhile a mosque was vandalized in Madera, CA and a drunken man urinated outside a Queens mosque.  While the latter mosque was charitable enough to offer the drunk their assistance, and refute claims his attack was anti-Islamic, it is not hard to see a troubling trend at play here.

There is a dehumanization of the Islamic community happening here in the United States, that is being sanctioned by leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties.  The Republicans do it as part of a pattern of exploiting fear, ignorance and outright bigotry for short-term political gain - from Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law, to the erroneous anchor babies canard (peep the link to see why this is BS), to the widespread Republican belief that President Obama is a Muslim, to the fact-allergic allegations of the birthers, to death panels, death taxes and all manner of other obfuscations & outright lies. 

Democrats are hardly immune from twisting the facts to further their political interests. But the GOP has made a practice of playing on the fears of the ignorant to generate support for an otherwise lackluster policy platform.  And by refusing to stand up for the First Amendment in the case of Park 51, Democratic leaders from Harry Reid to Howard Dean have presented their party as little more than a spineless lapdog to GOP messaging.  I give kudos to the many brave leaders on both sides of the aisle who have stood up for the rights of all Americans.  Part of the problem currently, is that so few Americans have any substantive experience with Muslims or knowledge of Islam, so it is easy to play on the natural fears & uncertainties bred by the current conflict with the radical fringe of that faith.

The radical fringe of our own society is today fueling the flames of Islamophobia and their actions are being sanctioned by supposedly mainstream leaders.  It has got to stop.  Here are some reflections on my experiences growing up in the Middle East, and why we as Americans of all religious & cultural stripes must to stand together against the hate.

"Hallowed Ground - Part 2":