This is a continuing series looking at anti-Muslim bigotry on the internet since the Cordoba House/Park 51 project became a national news story.
See part one here.
When I was working in Biloxi, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, I often found myself behind the wheel, heading from meeting to meeting. My radio dial was set to the Voice of New Orleans, a great talk radio station with programming that focused on the recovery efforts- with the exception of the 11am-2pm block, which featured the sweet sounds of Rush Limbaugh. Listening to Limbaugh manipulate the news narrative on a daily basis taught me where uninformed right wingers got their babbling drivel from. Today, Limbaugh may have been supplanted in some circles by Glenn Beck, but the playbook is the same- the talk show crowd peddles truly insane theories that are entertaining/scary enough to pull listeners in for several hours a day.
The meme de jour is the threat of "Sharia law". According to this line of reasoning, Muslims/Muslim-Americans (there is no distinction) are a threat to American democracy because of their insistence on living under Sharia law. The two are simply incompatible, you see, because Sharia law is a barbaric throwback to the Koran, a literalistic interpretation of holy scripture (completely unlike the evangelical political movement) that seeks to curtail our freedoms. What’s more, there is a serious threat that the Muslims are going to pull this off, if people like Glenn Beck and his crazed followers aren’t vigilant! This "Ground Zero Mosque" could potentially be a tipping point for the spread of Sharia law throughout our dear country, crippling democracy forever.
Is it really worth taking the time to refute such inane arguments? How about three quick points to end the discussion. Muslims constitute 2% of the U.S population, so even if every single one was a scheming Sharia law zealot, they’d still have problems at the ballot box. If anything, I thought Mexicans overrunning the country was the real threat to democracy. Being a right-winger is so confusing...Fortunately, we know from Muslim-American voting patters that not only do they not believe in such nonsense, but they cast approximately 80% of their votes in the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush, who ran a campaign premised on "compassionate" Christian conservatism. Finally (and this is gonna freak the bigots out), Sharia law actually has coexisted with democracy. The Islamic Party of Malaysia has for years won regional elections on the platform of instituting very strict social laws in tenets with fundamentalist Islam. Many of the laws that would be least preferable to secular liberals like myself, including a ban on alcohol and a requirement to stand more than five feet from a woman who is not your relative, do not apply to the non-Muslim population living in these areas. The Islamic Party of Malaysia stands for election every cycle, winning and losing as political parties do.
The talk radio bigot spigot has hyped up the threat of this "Ground Zero Mosque" to absurd levels. They have needed to sustain this hype through ridiculous but intricate mythology. First, they castigate Imam Rauf as some radical jihadist. Then they talk about him "traveling around the world, spreading his message of anti-Americanism on the taxpayer dime," referring to his State Department trips to spread a pro-America message to the Muslim world. The reason the right-wing message makes sense to right-wingers, of course, is that they have already been taught that Obama himself is probably an anti-American Muslim. Of course his State Department would pay for such trips.
Scapegoating individuals was not enough for these people, however. It is too risky a strategy, because one day the American people might wake up and say, "Wait a minute. Imam Rauf seems like a good guy. And didn’t President Obama have some big scandal about his Christian pastor..." That’s why the entire Muslim population needs to be scapegoated. That’s why they all believe in this "barbaric Sharia law." That’s why they want to bring Sharia law to your community.
Lock your door, because nobody’s safe!!!
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Today’s bigot spigot comments are brought to you by John Avlon’s very sensible CNN op-ed, Dangerous game in Islamic center debate. The selection below was culled from about the first hundred of over 1000 comments.
fred99911: All the people defending Muslims really don’t know much about their beliefs and religion and what they will do to America’s values. Read up on Sharia law for a start, it’s really scary primitive stuff. If these people truly want to be American and have a better life they need to leave their religion behind to have a fresh start on life. Or see the first amendment, you are free to leave
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SayNo2Islam: One can’t be for islam and against sharia and one can’t be for sharia and for the USA. islam demands your subjugation or death. islam doesn’t want to co-exist in the USA. islam intends to exist instead of the USA. What are you for?
Challenged for painting all Muslims with the same brush, SayNo2Islam‘s response was so comical that if not for his/her other comments, I would definitely think it was parody:
Wherever we find islam we find misery, violence, hatred, terrorism and murder. There is not one redeeming aspect of islam. islam must be opposed wherever it festers. moslems deserve a better option than islam. All moslems should be encouraged to leave islam. Then no mosques will be needed anywhere.
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USArmy1477: The CAIR has openly announced that "Islam isn’t in America to be equal to other religions; Islam is in America to be the only religion". Just one more mosque, oh yes and just one more over there and.... America needs another mosque like it needs to double it’s nuclear arsenal...... wait, I think I’m onto something here. (and yes I’m serious)
- Good, it usually reflects well on the intellectual rigor of your point when you have to add a disclosure of your seriousness afterward (JM).
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This is a rambler, but it demonstrates my point so well it just has to be posted in its entirety.
Hapistyte: John Avlon must be a Muslim. Naivety, Stupidity, immorality, pride and, freedom and pluralism with no limits will destroy America. People like or not, believe or not, want to say or not have to understand that Islam’s beliefs, ideology, practice and history tell that is Islam does not have good intentions on America or any other country. They are fighting against America inside America with their ideology and outside America hitting America’s interest. Of course Obama and people like him in their arrogance think that somehow nothing will happen to America because of Islam. But open your eyes wherever their is Islam there big trouble. Wake up people. The issue is not to fight or hate Muslims but to Expose Islam as a false and not a peaceful religion. Some want to put in the same level Islam with Christianity. And that all because of Crusades. But Crusades it is just a black spot on Christianity. Crusades was led a evil pope and by people that they were not anything but not Christians. What they did has not whatsoever in the Bible or history of Christianity. Jesus said: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matt. 5:43-44). Because some people in the name of Christianity did very evil things to Muslims that does mean anything. That it is not Christianity. But that is not the course of Islam. Islam is a whole history that converted people by sword, conquered nations and all that is going to today. The difference is that Islam has the ideology of hating, wars and killings all in the Koran and in all their books. John Avlon is trying to paint a different picture and sell it to Ignorant and Naive Americans a different face of Islam. Again the issue are not the Muslims. Millions of Muslims are oppressed and deceived themselves. If they were left free around the world there will not be many Muslims left. But Muslims are told you can’t change your religion. You are born a Muslims. If you change your religion we will kill you. Look around the world families killing their own children because their children have changed their religion. Muslims can’t question Islam, can’t question Koran. They are not allowed to explore other religions.Their is not freedom of religion in any Muslims countries. Other religions have not rights at all. You cannot speak to Muslims about any other religion. You are not allowed to enter in some Muslims countries. Wake people and do not buy this big lie of John Avlon.
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Teremist: You are deluding yourself sir, in the name of appeasement, and dragging down the constitution, and old glory with you.
First appeasement, as a strategy, has always been an abysmal failure. Evil always assumes appeasement is weakness, and weakness must be exploited. Thus my theory, that it is more important to state an unpopular truth, then to "win" friends in the wrong places. WE who love AMERICA, must defend her from her enemies, even those at home, whether they be skinhead or islamic terrorists. STEP UP AMERICA, or you can be sure, you WILL BE STOMPED on. The Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, are indeed, sacred. They do not extend to terrorist organizations, or cults, masquerading as religion. Allowing this islamic center to be built so close to ground zero, pours acid into wounds that are as deep, as the day that will live in infamy, December 7th. (Pearl Harbor.) Rest assured, this is a deliberate AFFRONT BY AMERICA’S enemies. The truth is, this is not a time to play nice, but a time to fight hard, for America’s core values...
The false cry of bigotry, is no defense to the indefensible. There is no seed of bigotry, in the desire to prevent great evil, from overtaking our country. .......A bigot is someone who harbors hatred for a specific group of people WITHOUT cause..........the term does not apply to those who despise the cruelty, barbarism, slavery, rape of children and oppression of women, that is glorified by the CULT of ISLAM.
I would remind you that in the bible it commands Christians, not to mingle with idolaters. I do not think Islam, which desires America’s freedoms only when it suits them, (and not for the women and girls they regard as their property.) Has any place in the United States.
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dmt3: The simple fact is, the silence from Americans who are muslim is pretty deafening. Where are the protests about Somalia. Where is the outrage against honor killings, stonings for infidelity, child marriage, and Quran command to convert or kill the infidels? Not a word from Americans who are Muslim. Only silence.I doubt Muslims loyalty to the US and believe that if commanded by the clerics, many Muslim Americans would betray their country.
Cross posted at Unbridled Bigotry.