The MYTH of Islamophobia
Not once, since the Cordoba House Mosque controversy started - not ONCE have I heard the Imam or any of the mosque's planners, etc. say they would be willing to move the mosque elsewhere. No - they are SET on it being 2 blocks from Ground Zero.
People actions speak MUCH louder than words and this action says it all - the mosque is a provocation. An excuse for those who will be deluged with protests, attacks on the building, attacks on people worshipping there to say "SEE!! Americans are anti-muslim." And that's bulls**t.
If it was about a place of worship, moving it would a simple, easy to discuss matter. A matter openly on the table. But no, they're adamant. And frankly, they're bullies. Muslims have the right to worship in peace just like anyone else. Since the planners won't discuss moving it - peaceful worship is obviously not the driving force here, is it?
This is a very sensitive issue to people who lost loved ones on 9/11. Period. It's not Islamophobia or Muslim-hate. It's just plain stupid. It's asking to be attacked, maligned and perhaps harmed or killed. It's inviting trouble. Rather intolerant of the Cordoba House promoters, don'tcha think?
I drive past the mosque mentioned in this article at least 5 times a week. And notice how quick they are to say this is a "hate crime." A call for pity. Yes, what that guy did was very wrong and even sacrilegious... but do you even know about the drunks who use local church yards or temple doorways as urinals? It's bad but it happens. And it happens a lot more to other places of worship than it does to mosques. If they blame anyone they should blame their intractable brethren down at Cordoba House for being so bullheaded to either not care what ripple-effect their actions were going to have on other Muslims in the NYC area or - this is exactly what they wanted - a public stage to play victim on.
I drive past the mosque mentioned in this article at least 5 times a week. And notice how quick they are to say this is a "hate crime." A call for pity. Yes, what that guy did was very wrong and even sacrilegious... but do you even know about the drunks who use local church yards or temple doorways as urinals? It's bad but it happens. And it happens a lot more to other places of worship than it does to mosques. If they blame anyone they should blame their intractable brethren down at Cordoba House for being so bullheaded to either not care what ripple-effect their actions were going to have on other Muslims in the NYC area or - this is exactly what they wanted - a public stage to play victim on.
Americans don't like troublemakers. Whether you're Muslim, a visitor from another planet, an immigrant from Antarctica - none of that matters. We want peace and we want you to have it, too. So stop the crocodile tears, the 'chewing the scenery' and rending your garments in distress. It's lost on the people of this city. We went through hell 9 years ago. We want peace. We want you to have it to.
Move the mosque elsewhere.
THE ISLAMOPHOBIA MYTH
by Jonah Goldberg
Michael Enright, a 21-year-old film student, drunkenly entered a cab Tuesday night. He asked the driver if he was Muslim, and when the answer came back in the affirmative, Enright attacked the driver with a knife. He's being charged with attempted murder and hate crimes.
It's unavoidable that many will cite this as proof of the national wave of "Islamophobia," touted by Time magazine and other media outlets. We'll have to wait for the facts, but even if the allegations prove true, one assault doesn't a national trend make.
Indeed, it would be outrageous for the same people who reflexively insist that confirmed and coordinated Islamic terrorist attacks are "isolated incidents" that don't reflect on Muslims generally to suddenly insist that this one lone, despicable act somehow reflects the views and attitudes of, say, the 70 percent of Americans who oppose the Ground Zero mosque.
Consider the data.
According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600 percent in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the rise is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on 9/11.
Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States -- and civil libertarians and Muslim activists insisted it was 1930s Germany all over again. The following year, the number of anti-Muslim hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. The number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since.
Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like an anti-Muslim backlash?
Let's put this in even sharper focus. America is, outside of Israel, probably the most tolerant country in the world to Jews. Yet, in every year since 9/11, more Jews have been hate-crime victims than Muslims. A lot more.
In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as anti-Muslim ones, according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim incidents by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America?
Because there isn't one. There isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. Yes, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on the Internet. Absolutely, some non-Muslim Americans don't like Muslims, and a few (perhaps like Enright) are willing to criminally act on their views. But if you watch TV or movies, or read, say, the op-ed page of The New York Times -- never mind left-wing blogs -- you'll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the "Taliban wing of the Republican party") than you will toward Muslims.
No doubt some American Muslims -- especially young Muslim men with ties to the Middle East and South Asia -- have been scrutinized more at airports, but does that really amount to Islamophobia, given the dangers and complexities of the War on Terror?
religionists.
Meanwhile, to listen to Obama -- say, in his famous Cairo address -- you'd think America has been at war with Islam for 30 years and only now, thanks to him, can we heal the rift. It's an odd argument given that Americans have shed a lot of blood for foreign Muslims over the last three decades: to end the slaughter in the Balkans, to feed Somalis and to liberate Kuwaitis, Iraqis and Afghanis. Millions of Muslims around the world would desperately like to move to America, this supposed land of intolerance.
Conversely, nowhere is there more open, honest and intentional intolerance -- in words and deeds -- than from certain prominent Muslim leaders around the world. Yet, non-Muslim Americans are the bigots?
It's fine to avoid negative stereotypes of Muslims, but why the rush to embrace them when it comes to non-Muslim Americans?
The mosque controversy has ignited passions, which some might see as evidence of how ill-conceived the idea was in the first place. And, justified or not, this stabbing will be seen in that context. But we shouldn't let anyone suggest that this criminal reflects anybody but himself.
It's unavoidable that many will cite this as proof of the national wave of "Islamophobia," touted by Time magazine and other media outlets. We'll have to wait for the facts, but even if the allegations prove true, one assault doesn't a national trend make.
Indeed, it would be outrageous for the same people who reflexively insist that confirmed and coordinated Islamic terrorist attacks are "isolated incidents" that don't reflect on Muslims generally to suddenly insist that this one lone, despicable act somehow reflects the views and attitudes of, say, the 70 percent of Americans who oppose the Ground Zero mosque.
Consider the data.
According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600 percent in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the rise is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on 9/11.
Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States -- and civil libertarians and Muslim activists insisted it was 1930s Germany all over again. The following year, the number of anti-Muslim hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. The number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since.
Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like an anti-Muslim backlash?
In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as anti-Muslim ones, according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim incidents by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America?
Because there isn't one. There isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. Yes, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on the Internet. Absolutely, some non-Muslim Americans don't like Muslims, and a few (perhaps like Enright) are willing to criminally act on their views. But if you watch TV or movies, or read, say, the op-ed page of The New York Times -- never mind left-wing blogs -- you'll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the "Taliban wing of the Republican party") than you will toward Muslims.
No doubt some American Muslims -- especially young Muslim men with ties to the Middle East and South Asia -- have been scrutinized more at airports, but does that really amount to Islamophobia, given the dangers and complexities of the War on Terror?
religionists.
Meanwhile, to listen to Obama -- say, in his famous Cairo address -- you'd think America has been at war with Islam for 30 years and only now, thanks to him, can we heal the rift. It's an odd argument given that Americans have shed a lot of blood for foreign Muslims over the last three decades: to end the slaughter in the Balkans, to feed Somalis and to liberate Kuwaitis, Iraqis and Afghanis. Millions of Muslims around the world would desperately like to move to America, this supposed land of intolerance.
Conversely, nowhere is there more open, honest and intentional intolerance -- in words and deeds -- than from certain prominent Muslim leaders around the world. Yet, non-Muslim Americans are the bigots?
It's fine to avoid negative stereotypes of Muslims, but why the rush to embrace them when it comes to non-Muslim Americans?
The mosque controversy has ignited passions, which some might see as evidence of how ill-conceived the idea was in the first place. And, justified or not, this stabbing will be seen in that context. But we shouldn't let anyone suggest that this criminal reflects anybody but himself.
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