Upon further examination he learns that over 600 Rutherford County residents showed up at a County Commissioners meeting in June to express their intolerance for a new place of worship for the community’s peaceful Muslim population. He wonders if there is something he is not seeing. He does numerous searches on the internet to find out if there is a problem with domestic violence within the Islamic community, or honor killings, beheadings, stonings, anything - but no such problem exists.
By Eric Allen Bell
Imagine an outsider comes to town. He is looking at real estate, to buy a new home for his family perhaps and maybe to move his business to Murfreesboro, TN. After all, the greater Nashville area is among the top relocation areas in the country. And Rutherford County, on the surface, appears to be a welcoming community.
But doubt enters his mind while he is getting his oil changed and picks up a copy of The Rutherford Reader. Page after page is filled with articles expressing a sick obsession with persecuting and demonizing a minority group in the community. He flips though the pages and sees that numerous businesses advertise in this paper and he assumes they must all agree with this cause, this witch hunt against Muslim Americans.
But the Realtor is friendly, and the house is kind of perfect, and all of the neighbors seem really kind. However when he goes to look at commercial space to move his business he sees that many of the local shops carry The Rutherford Reader. A week has gone by and once again the front page is an outright attack on Muslims. He peruses the paper and again there is article after article bashing Muslims.
He sees a copy in the lobby of the Hilton Hampton where he is staying and another copy at a hardware store. There are copies right outside of the legendary local eatery, The City Café. A relative from out of state tells him about the parade against the Muslims that was held right down Main Street during the summer. He does a Google search and finds out that there was an arson at the location of the new Muslim place of worship. He learns about how twice a sign saying "Future Home of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro" was vandalized, the second time with the words "Not Welcome" spray painted across it.
Upon further examination he learns that over 600 Rutherford County residents showed up at a County Commissioners meeting in June to express their intolerance for a new place of worship for the community’s peaceful Muslim population. He wonders if there is something he is not seeing. He does numerous searches on the internet to find out if there is a problem with domestic violence within the Islamic community, or honor killings, beheadings, stonings, anything - but no such problem exists.
While eating at I-Hop he learns that there used to be a giant billboard, right outside that said "Stop the Murfreesboro Mosque" and it was paid for by someone who was paid to speak at the County's largest church - World Outreach Church.
Still wanting to believe that Rutherford County is a good place to raise his kids he looks into the school system. He hears stories about Muslim kids being picked on called "terrorist" by other children - children who must have heard this talk at home from their parents.
Another week has passed and he decides to see what The Rutherford Reader is saying now, only the grocery store where he is shopping does not carry it. The employee at Kroger tells him that they discontinued it because the management decided it was "hate speech". He learns that the KFC also stopped stocking the paper for the same reasons and this puts his mind at ease a little bit. But then there it is again, a big stack of them at the entrance of Toots Restaurant where he goes for lunch. It just doesn’t make sense.
He opens up to the editorial section where the Editor and Owner of this paper boldly states "Can someone please declare war already?" He doesn’t finish his lunch. It just doesn’t make sense. The people in this town seem so friendly and yet so many people advertise their services in this publication of hate. The gas station. The Chinese Restaurant. Even the County Clerk’s office has stacks of these hate-filled "newspapers". Maybe this is not the town for him.
While at the Olympus Gym he talks to a couple who tell him about a big lawsuit that played out in the courts in Rutherford County over the summer. He learns that the plantiffs said that all Muslims were responsible for 9/11, that it is the religious duty of all Muslims to kill non-believers and how they tried to dehumanize and demoralize the Islamic community by threatening to dig up one of their dead as the lawyer asked the judge repeatedly, "How do we know the body don’t stank?" On the way out of the gym he sees another stack of The Rutherford Reader.
Maybe this is not the right place to raise his family after all. Maybe it’s not a stable enough community to buy a home or move his business. All of the bad PR the county is getting in the worldwide media over this Muslim-bashing would be bad PR for his business. And if so many people in this county are okay with the hate speech in this paper that seems to be everywhere, then how will they influence his kids? How would the hatred in this community shape who his children grow up to be?
This story is a "what if" scenario. But it stands to reason that it has played out before and will continue to play out again and again. No one voice can be held entirely responsible for the hatred and bigotry against Muslims that Murfreesboro, TN has become known for. But Pete Doughtie and his family owned "The Rutherford Reader" have clearly been at the forefront. And every business that carries the paper or advertises in its pages is also at fault - by passively standing by, by not objecting, by helping to fund and distribute so much negativity and hate.
So I have a question for the business community of Rutherford County. Are you trying to drive people away? The negative reputation this county has earned itself over the summer is bad for business. It’s bad for new home sales. It’s bad for the soul of the place and you are funding it. Is this the Rutherford County that you can be proud of?