Pamela Geller, blogger who fosters prejudice against Muslims[/caption]Carol Forsloff — A man was attacked and thrown to his death in New York in December 2012. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR - New York chapter) has called for America's political and religious leaders to speak out against intolerance and the growing anti-Muslim hate in the United States.
The recent declaration from CAIR follows the event in New York where a woman was arrested for allegedly pushing a man to his death on the tracks of a subway station. She thought he was Muslim and cited 9/11 terror attacks as her motive. The victim, in fact, was a Hindu, not a Muslim.
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) said the alleged killer, who has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, told police the attack was "an act against Muslims" and cited the 9/11 terror attacks as a motive for her actions. Her alleged victim was reportedly Hindu, not Muslim.
CAIR gave the following hate incidents targeting Muslims or Islam as examples of the problem of violence:
* A designated hate group headed by blogger Pamela Geller is placing Islamophobic advertisements in transit systems nationwide, including in New York subway stations. CAIR-NY reached out to the transit authority with concerns that the ads might incite violence.
* A New York man of Afghan heritage was attacked and stabbed a number of times, as his assailant shouted anti-Muslim comments. He was stabbed repeatedly outside a mosque by an attacker shouting anti-Muslim comments.
The increasing violence has been fueled by an evolution of feelings from the initial attack in New York on 9/11, with an ongoing distrust of people from the Middle East, many of whom are assumed to be Muslims, although many are not. The prejudice against an entire group of people has created a climate that precipitates events like the recent attack in New York, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog group against the prejudice of minorities in the United States. The SPLC writes "in Muslims, those inclined to bigotry may have found their perfect bogeyman."
Experts in violence and terrorism, as well as watchdog groups, remind Americans that prejudice has spurred terrible crimes in the past against a whole people for the crimes committed by a minority of people of various faiths, races, and opinions. The most famous representation of that prejudice was the imprisonment of thousands of loyal Japanese citizens following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Americans of that era continue to express the prejudices of that time, despite the fact that decades have since past; and Japan is now an ally of the United States.
In tracking the treatment of minorities by the majority in Korea, Professor Na Jeong-ju reminds us that many crimes against minorities are committed by those who feel left out of the competition or out of the major areas of society in schools, workplaces and social groups. Thus those who have long-term unemployment or feel they are outcasts themselves, such as ex-convicts, are more apt to be prejudiced against others, as they need to feel superior to someone, given their own feelings of inadequacy. This is what can happen in a "Winners only" society, according to Professor Na Jeong. On the other hand prejudice within these socially isolated individuals does not exclude others from having the problem, however, whose foundations of prejudice may be religious instead.
Ted Pike, whose wife and supporter died 2012 in a drowning accident in Oregon, has often been on the forefront to confront Christian Zionists and others who foster hate and bigotry against others. He writes,
These racist ideologies, like Geller’s Islamophobia, degrade large populations to such inferior, even subhuman status that Christians need no longer share Christ with them – or even care what happens to them. The Bible says all men are created in the image of God, endowed with free will souls capable of choosing for or against their Creator.
Pike's message may not get the headlines of the moment; however, his message is a reminder of SPLC concerns and that fighting prejudice and the violence it precipitates is a responsibility of everyone.
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