This 9/11, Let’s All Take Responsibility for Ending a Summer of Hate

[unhappycamper]

This 9/11, Let’s All Take Responsibility for Ending a Summer of Hate
by Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdouh
Published on Friday, September 10, 2010 by ColorLines Magazine

Between the two us, we’ve spent a combined 59 years living, working and learning in the United States. In all that time, including the period immediately following September 11, 2001, this summer marks the worst anti-Muslim backlash we’ve ever seen here.

As the nine years since 9/11 have passed, Americans have forgotten an essential fact: Extremists can use any religion to justify murder, and the stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists sacrifices both American values and community safety. While we welcome national leaders condemning not just Quran burning, but all the less obvious forms of Islamaphobia along the way, the daily interruption of hatred is a job for all of us.

There’s no question that attacks on Muslim people have escalated. Opponents of the Cordoba House keep saying that 9/11 was the worst attack ever on American soil, therefore Ground Zero is “sacred” and nothing as profane as a mosque should be built there. The logic is profoundly twisted and most un-American. It presumes that it is impossible that American Muslims, like Mamdouh himself, who worked at Windows on the World, could have been in the World Trade Center, could have lost friends, colleagues or relatives there, could have grieved afterwards.

Attacks on mosques across the country indicate that many people don’t need the hook of Ground Zero on which to hang their hatred. In one of the never ending streams of “regular” Americans interviewed on TV news about the project, one man who opposed the Cordoba House was asked where a mosque could be built. “Nowhere” was his response.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that some Americans—too many—do not consider Muslims part of the country. A recent TIME/CNN poll found that 55 percent thought Muslims could not be patriots. Nearly a third of those polled thought Muslims should not be allowed to run for president or serve on the Supreme Court. Although we won’t have hard numbers on hate crimes for several years, the number of anecdotes is rising steadily.

[yellowwood]

1. I don't think so

Okay, I have trouble with the word "hate."
But I continue to "intensely dislike" the neocons who urge and continue to urge us into wars. And I believe that the "hate" that is being generated against Muslims is coming from some of these neocon types. After all, if they are going to get us pumped up for more miltary action, don't they have to generate a lot of "hate?"

[Toots]

2. The only way to really eliminate the Hatred in America is to eliminate

all those such as Limbaugh and Beck and Hannity and Palin and all those right wing hate mongers that continue to stir up the hatred. There is no such equivilence on the Left. Rachel or Keith don't spend a single moment inducing hatred. I know of none on the Left that do that. They try to get at the truth and try to get the Liberal point of view out there without trying to Divide the Nation and getting people to arm themselves to kill other Americans.

[wookie72]

5. You know of no one who says

"repukes" or "Sarah Pain" or even "Lamebaugh?"

[Toots]

6. Name one Public commentator that does that.

Tell me the last time you heard Rachel or Keith demean someone in that manner...Yes there are people that have no public platform that say all sorts of hateful things, though the ones you mentioned do not fall into that catagory, however I was referring to people with a wide audience that have influence..

[wookie72]

7. It starts with ourselves

I try not to use derogatory terms, mostly because I find them childish. I'm not talking about public commentators, and I don't know if the OP was either. In any case, it wouldn't hurt to examine or own language.

[Toots]

8. You replyed to my post in which I explicitedly mentioned Public Commentators by name

I agree entirely with you about personal behavior. I believe completely in the "Golden Rule" I was addressing a Specific factor in America that needs to be named for exactly what they are..Hate Mongers...Shame them a bit and perhaps they will tone it down..People don't normally get stirred up into a hateful frame of mind all by themselves..I mentioned but a handful from the right that do exactly that but the list is actully quite long.. I know of none on the Left of their stature that do the same..

[wookie72]

9. But that was my point

It's easy to say "well, they're the ones who do it" without examining ourselves. I *try* really hard not to use that kind of inflmmatory language, but it is hard.

[Xenotime]

10. Excellent point. Their racisim continues to fuel the hate in this country

[disidoro01]

3. I think

that we simply never get to the point where we can discuss differences between cultures and religions. When people can sit down and talk about these things face to face, people can often find similarities and forge bonds. The reason why we can't do that is twofold. The right does not want to hear that that someone from a different culture or who practices a different religion is really no different than they are. The second problem is the left. The left refuses to discuss controversial issues within a different culture or religion. We often gloss over it by saying that christians are worse or the old I hate America trick. For instance, is it true or false that a part of Islam says it is ok to marry a 9 year old female? What are the thoughts on this specific topic? is it actually true? If so, is that ok? If not, how do we put an end to this myth?

[wookie72]

4. Hmmm

THe responses here are, well, a little problematic, as they seem to be focusing on everyone else's hatred. Like JC said, we've got to notice the plank in our own eye before we can get the splinter out of the other guy's eye. So saying "it's all Limbaugh's/Gingrich's/whoever's fault" just doesn't cut it.

i'll admit that I have been close-minded sometimes. I've called people bigots without listening to them, considered any opponent of Park 51 close-minded and railing against atheists and right-wing Christians.

In the specific example of Islamophobia, there is a secular brand of Islamophobia that tries to excuse itself by saying "I hate all religions equally." Well, that's still hatred. The fact is that people do not consider their own prejudices irrational or emotionally-based.