Religion and the Politics of Fear

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-james-clark/religion-and-the-politics_b_7146162.html

Kelly James Clark
Brooks College and Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Grand Valley State University

Posted: 04/27/2015 4:04 pm EDT Updated: 04/27/2015 4:59 pm EDT

At the April 10-12 National Rifle Association's annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee, speaker Steve Tarani issued a dire warning that Muslim extremists have set up "Islamic no-go zones" in cities across America. Moreover, he warned of the "5,000 known terrorist cells" and "homegrown violent extremists" currently operating in the US. He claims to have personally witnessed all of this when riding along with a member of the Detroit Metro SWAT team.

According to Kira Lerner at ThinkProgress, Tarani's speech included the following:

The street signs suddenly went from English to Arabic. There wasn't a single English word on any shop or any street sign. And in fact, these little yellow signs were posted all along the edges. Jeremy said to me, "this is it. We don't go past this line." And I said to Jeremy, "what do you mean? You guys are Detroit Metro. You're the SWAT team. You can go anywhere you want. What if you get a call over there?" He said[,] "'this is it, it's hazardous for our team if we go past this line."

I have seen it with my own eyes, witnessed it in the backseat of a car and it is for real. No-go zones exist in the United States.

Dearborn, Michigan is not the only place that these settlements exist. They are spread out over the country in various cities. There's an estimate of over 5,000 known terrorist cells in the United States. However our most persistent and significant threat, right now, to us here today this morning, is the homegrown violent extremists.

Dearborn's nearly 70 percent non-Muslim citizens might be surprised to learn that they live in an Islamic no-go zone. Sarcasm aside, there's not a word of truth in what he claims to have seen firsthand.

Tarani, a self-defense instructor, is spreading the vicious myth, repeated by Louisiana governor and presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal and endorsed by Fox News (among many others), that a number cities in the US, France, and Britain contain Muslim "no-go zones" (operating under Sharia Law) where local laws are not applicable.

more at link

[nil desperandum]

1. Well then,

sad to see the one thing we don't have a shortage of currently is liars.

They seem quite plentiful across the nation.

But they are indicative of the reality of a nation that worships liars. Many of our celebrities/heroes/important people are famous liars, they tell lies all day long and are never challenged by their sycophantic admirers. When challenged about those lies a variety of explanations from the outrageous to the quite weak are offered up about mis-speaking, or how the words they used to lie don't actually mean what the rest of us think they mean....

We are a nation of liars in many ways, have been for sometime with or without religion and fear is a great tool for selling product. A few lies about some unpopular culture and voila increased sales...

[cbayer]

2. "Fear is a great tool for selling product" - exactly.

Whether it be guns or snake oil or political positions.

And fear of the "other" is the most potent bait out there.