Islamophobia, violence fueled by prejudice in the US

[caption id="attachment_17435" align="alignright" width="368"] 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.

 

 

American extremism: Nothing to fear but fear itself.

[caption id="attachment_7607" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Roosevelt speaking to Congress in 1941"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff - The letter came from a friend.  It is the kind that is forwarded again and again over the Internet, identifying Barack Obama as the anti­-Christ who is trying to take over the country with Islamic beliefs with his Chicago goon squad, but the highlight is on his so-called Muslim background from someone identified as a former classmate, revealing another example of extremism that creates an atmosphere for violence from fear.

It is that fear we should fear the most, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared in his inaugural address.

The letter has been making the rounds for certain, for more than a year.  Therefore it has likely been read by many people.  Email news is often what fuels debate and where “facts” are presented at small and large gatherings as evidence.  But they are often of the same ilk, basing information on emotionally-laden words designed to create fear and hatred in the reader.

Wayne Allyn Root is the author of a letter dated June 6th, 2010

Barack Hussien Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. who writes this:

To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing.

He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure,
economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and
our country from within.

Then Root goes on to explain that his information  comes from the fact he was Obama’s classmate in college, not a roommate or close friend, but someone who happened to be in Obama’s college and that Obama is Muslim and working with extremists to bring the country to ruin.

The rest of the letter merits no recitation, because it is of the type that makes the rounds and rounds these days.  It isn’t written with logic nor read with it as well, as the motive becomes apparent as the drivel continues on.  The letter itself is deemed authentic by Snopes.com, which encourages the reader’s belief in the contents itself.

But how many of us would be able to define a fellow classmate in a large University class unless that person had been a close friend or a well-known individual in the school with whom the person becomes acquainted over time?  Most of us could not.    Yet there is no mention in the letter of any special relationship that would give Mr. Root any information that would be more authentic than what one might read in a right-wing brochure or an Internet piece sometime.

These letters are passed along from one to another, some simply asking rhetorically what the reader might think.  This means the audience grows until more and more people wonder if the accusations are true.  For enough smoke that is sent up the chimney, some people believe is a fire.  And those motivated to write and send on these letters recognize that even those who disagree with the contents will have some small reservation, just because of that scent of smoke.

This is called propaganda, which differs from education in that its intent is to persuade using tactics of manipulation for negative purposes and power. It’s the kind of propaganda that leads to ruin not enlightenment and mirrors the history of earlier times.

In the 20^th century one great leader who knew the value of propaganda said this: "Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea.”

There were several audiences for this propaganda.  There were those who feared foreign immigration and believed they would dominate the culture.  There were those who feared domination by those of different beliefs.  And there were still others who believed that economic chaos had been visited on the country specifically to create schisms so that a takeover by these foreign folks could occur with sureness and speed.

The propaganda machine and the quote came from a man who knew the value of twisted facts and emotionally-laden words.  It is that propaganda provided in the way defined by his words that continues to be mimicked by those folks who have learned that same lesson and practiced it years later in places like Norway by an extremist whose manufactured beliefs led to violence.  It plays out In email exchanges from person to person and blogs like that of Pamela Gellar, whose writings are dedicated to creating fear of Islam.

It is that fear, that propaganda,  that presents us with danger.  It is the reason to stop the email forwards and the tactics used to undermine government, create suspicion and distrust and gets in the way of reasoned exchange.  It is the reason the letter from “Obama’s classmate” is an insult to democracy too and those folks who read and know history and when its worst parts don't need repetition.