Some of you might remember my diary from about this time last year, wherein I discussed how my pregnant sister-in-law was laid off, leaving her without health insurance, and how suddenly my Republican parents and brother were peevish about health care [update: all is well on that front--he is 9 months old and has decided rolling is better than crawling]. Unfortunately, this was a blip in their political radar, because they went right back to their Fox-watching, Christie-loving (they are in NJ) Obama-bashing selves. But karma, being a bitch, has made an unwelcome return visit.
What I did not mention in my previous diary, because it was completely irrelevant, was that my sister-in-law is Muslim. She is Turkish, raised in Germany, carries a German passport and a U.S. green card. She is Muslim the way I am Presbyterian; that is, in title only. No pilgrimage to Mecca, no prayers five times a day, no headscarf, she is the epitome of secular Islam. Her family in Turkey is not religious, and her friends in Germany are all gay hairdressers (think Dieter from "Sprockets"). While her first name is a bit exotic, her married last name is ridiculously Wasp-y (remember, we are Presbyterians). Because she lives in NJ, if you saw her on the street, you might think she was Italian or Greek (although don't mention the last one to her--she may not be religious, but she is a bit nationalistic). There are no portraits of Osama Bin Laden in her home, but there is lots of IKEA. I say all this not to make her seem "less Muslim," but to show the ridiculousness of what follows.
Recently, my mother was working out in her local ladies' gym, when a woman of her acquaintance came up to her, full of concern. She had heard that my mother's daughter-in-law was a Muslim (she said this to my mother as though she was informing her of some secret information that my mother did not know). My mother said yes, that is correct, what of it, and the woman proceeded to tell her how sorry she was, and how did they allow their son to "marry into that religion" (this presupposed that 1) my brother converted, which he did not, and 2) they had any control over a guy who was 37 when he got married). My mother, needless to say, was a bit taken aback. She mumbled something about how her daughter-in-law "wasn't like that," but she ended up just walking off, hoping it was a one-time encounter. It wasn't.
Shortly afterward, she and my father attended a picnic for a community organization they help run. The husband of a longtime co-worker of my mother's, an Italian Catholic, marched up to her (probably into his 3rd beer) and started on a rant about her Muslim daughter-in-law. Only this time, he brought in her grandson, too (or, as I have taken to calling him, the Sleeper Cell Baby). Didn't she realize that this child, their grandson, was going to be exposed to this violent desert religion (that could describe a bunch of them, actually) and then he started spouting stuff about the Park 51 project. My mother, her backbone having regenerated, fired back at him that, as a Roman Catholic with an Italian name, he would face the same sort of discrimination he was doling out were he to enter, say, some Southern Baptist churches (think: Hagee). They went toe-to-toe for awhile, but the upshot was that it irretrievably altered their friendship, and my parents became aware that some segment of their community finds their family ties offensive.
When my mother called me to tell me about this, I was, to my discredit, not very understanding. I pointed out that the last time they visited, they kept the TV tuned to Fox, and when I said it was full of bull, they kept saying they liked the "real news" part of it (kind of like reading Playboy for the articles). I told her there is no real news there, just bigotry and demagoguery, and what she experienced was the result. My sister-in-law was working in NYC on 9/11, and had the same fear and panic trying to get off Manhattan. Yet she gets lumped in with 19 homicidal morons because Fox, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and all the rest of them say she is a dangerous presence. I said to mom that if she and my dad spent one more minute watching Fox, they had no right to be insulted when people said something insulting about my sister-in-law. Not charitable, but I thought they needed to see that they were part of the problem, too.
So once again, they are having to re-evaluate their lame politics. They still, inexplicably, love Chris Christie, but I think their affair with Fox may be over.