all of which are parts of his Sunday NY Times column, Message to Muslims: I'm Sorry The title alone will probably get him hate mail, perhaps even death threats. After noting that many Americans have called for moderate Muslims to apologize for and speak out against the extremists of their religion, he continues in his second paragraph like this:
That’s reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I’m going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.
I again urge you to read his column, which I will explore further, and upon which I will comment.
Kristof continues with a discussion of what happened to a newspaper in Maine that published about Muslims celebrating Ramadan, only to be inundated with complaints because the story coincided with 9-11, whereupon the newspaper put a front page apology for , as Kristof puts it, "being too respectful of Muslims." When he spoke to the editor, the issue of balance was raised. This is in some ways the heart of the column, so let me offer it:
Must coverage of law-abiding Muslims be "balanced" by a discussion of Muslim terrorists?
Ah, balance — who can be against that? But should reporting of Pope Benedict’s trip to Britain be "balanced" by a discussion of Catholic terrorists in Ireland? And what about journalism itself?
I interrupt this discussion of peaceful journalism in Maine to provide some "balance." Journalists can also be terrorists, murderers and rapists. For example, radio journalists in Rwanda promoted genocide.
The italics are in the posted column. I stopped when I read those words. So far, the likes of Limbaugh and Beck have not promoted genocide.
So far.
But they have moved us down the road to legitimization of hatred.
They use language that demeans and begins to dehumanize the targets of their verbal attacks and smears.
There have already been incidents of mentally disturbed people being motivated by these kinds of expressions to embark on violent courses of action.
Kristof offers another reason to apologize:
This isn’t about them, but about us. I want to defend Muslims from intolerance, but I also want to defend America against extremists engineering a spasm of religious hatred.
And to those who argue that despite previous discrimination against Jews and Catholics it is different, because as one person posted on his blog "Catholics and Jews did not come here and kill thousands of people."
Note what Kristof offers next:
That’s true, but Japanese did attack Pearl Harbor and in the end killed far more Americans than Al Qaeda ever did. Consumed by our fears, we lumped together anyone of Japanese ancestry and rounded them up in internment camps. The threat was real, but so were the hysteria and the overreaction.
We were friends growing up with a family whose daughter was born in one of those camps.
When the Congress finally apologized and offered payment for the wrong done to many innocent people of Japanese descent some in this country objected.
We still have those willing to justify hatred.
From hatred comes discrimination.
When we hate, then discriminate, we begin to paint the target of that as less than fully human.
And when that happens . . . . can any of us be sure that the equivalent of a pogrom is out of the question?
Pogrom - I do not use that word lightly. I am descended in part from people who lived through a pogrom. I have known well people who somehow survived the Holocaust, or as Jews prefer to label it, the Shoah.
Kristof reminds us of an interesting parallel - that for all the American who think bin Laden is representative of Islam, there are similar proportions of Afghani Muslims who view Rev. Terry Jones of Koran-burning fame as representative of Christians.
Kristof is not blind to the worst one can see under Islam. But he also knows people who are very different:
Muslim aid workers in Afghanistan who risk their lives to educate girls; a Pakistani imam who shelters rape victims; Muslim leaders who campaign against female genital mutilation and note that it is not really an Islamic practice; Pakistani Muslims who stand up for oppressed Christians and Hindus; and above all, the innumerable Muslim aid workers in Congo, Darfur, Bangladesh and so many other parts of the world who are inspired by the Koran to risk their lives to help others. Those Muslims have helped keep me alive, and they set a standard of compassion, peacefulness and altruism that we should all emulate.
He describes how sickened he is to have these "gentle souls" lumped in with Al Qaeda, merely because they are nominally of a common faith.
I am of Jewish background. I would not want to be classified with the like of the late Meir Kahane merely because we both had parents who were Jews.
I am white. That does not mean I bear collective guilt for Bull Connor and his police dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham, for George Wallace opining about the permanence of segregation.
I am male. Not all of us believe that makes us superior to or gives us absolute authority over women, even those who are our wives.
I am American. William Calley and the other members of that platoon committed atrocities in My Lai. Other Americans helped cover it up. All of us are not responsible for that which we lament, we condemn.
And yet - if I remain silent while others abuse, I become at least partly complicit in their wrongdoing.
That is why it is incumbent to do what many here do, to speak out against what is wrong.
And it is wrong to demonize all of any group because of the behavior of the worst that can be included in that group.
Kristof apologizes. He will be criticized. He will be attacked.
I praise him for his apology. I add my own.
That is not enough.
Not for me, and not for Kristof.
But it is a necessary first gesture.
Now we need to act to stop the madness, to affirm those Muslims being smeared merely because of their faith.
I am of Jewish background. I have some understanding of that.
It is precisely because of that understanding that I must speak out against this demonizing, this smearing. Even the words by themselves hurt. And the danger is that the words will provoke or inspire actions that we all should reject.
I, too, apologize.
What about you?