AMERICA’S ISLAMOPHOBIA

When did Muslim automatically equal bad?

If you ask famed boxing icon Muhammad Ali, basketball star Shaquille O’Neil, supermodel Iman, or journalist Steven Schwartz, they’ll all tell you Muslim DOES NOT equal bad.  You see, they are all Muslims and they are not bad people.  But ever since Islamic extremists admitted to the catastrophic 9/11 terrorist attacks, many Americans have used an exceptionally broad brush to paint all Muslims the same.  And it is wrong!

All whites are not bad simply because of the actions of their slave owner ancestors.  All Catholic priests are not bad simply because of the perverse actions of some of their pedophile brethren.  And all Muslims are not bad simply because of the actions of a few on 9/11. But try telling that logic to an eerily increasing number of Americans, and you’ll quickly see pre-determined anger and fear overtake common sense.

The actions of 9/11 were so shockingly horrific, some Americans built up a shield of fear to surround and protect themselves from ever experiencing anything like it again.  Except that shield of fear has been built on the rickety logic that because SOME Muslims attacked us before, ALL Muslims are capable of doing so again. Never mind centering on the other traits of the attackers, such as the fact that they were men, or middle-aged, or stockily built.  Nope, that’s too complicated.  Just focus in on their ethnicity or culture and BINGO! — you’ve got a bullseye.  It’s similar to a white woman who has, for example, been robbed once by a black man, but is always quick to lock her car doors at a traffic light whenever she sees ANY black man even crossing the street.  Once ONE does the crime, ALL are capable of repeating the crime.  And it’s foolish.

It is this “logic” that has President Obama constantly trying to prove over and over again he is not a Muslim.  Now I am of the group who believes that he is not.  But what if he was?  And why would that be a bad thing? IF President Obama were a Muslim, does that instantly mean he is sinister, untrustworthy, un-American, or seeking to do the country harm at the first opportunity (all things some Americans have convinced themselves to be true)?  Or have our fears and anger since 9/11 gotten so far out of control that our sense of smarts and logic are now ethnically and culturally twisted?

In a recent poll, 24% of Americans said they believe Mr. Obama is a Muslim; 25% don’t believe Muslims are patriotic Americans; and 32% don’t believe a Muslim should be allowed to run for president. Within this sad state of affairs, the Republican Party played the Barack “HUSSEIN” Obama card during the last presidential election, in an attempt to stir up the emotional fears of a post-9/11 skittish electorate in their favor.  And they’re still doing it, hoping to turn those same fears into an electoral victory.  Racial bigots are stirring the “Obama is a secret Muslim” pot along with claims that he wasn’t really born in America, simply because they just do not want a black man as president.  So painting him as different and not “one of us” but “one of them,” bolsters their attempts to define him as illegitimate.  And the media and even some religious and public figures have played along, fanning the flames that Muslim = Bad.  So Obama, a mosque in lower Manhattan, the Muslim gentleman sitting next to you on a plane, or anything even connected with Islam must also be bad.  And this ignorance must stop!

Are SOME Muslims bad people? YES, they are. But are some whites, blacks, Catholics, Republicans, younger, older, poor or rich bad people? YES, they are too. But does that mean ALL of them are? NO, it does not!

So WAKE UP AMERICA!  Your Islamophobic ignorance is killing you — and this nation.