News & Politics - In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep

Lexis · 12-02-2006, 08:21 AM

I thought this article was extremely interesting.

Quote:

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (630 WMAL: Stimulating Talk � Breaking News, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland

"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.

"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."

The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an interview afterwards he had been surprised by the response.

"The switchboard went from empty to totally jammed within minutes," said Klein. "There were plenty of callers angry with me, but there were plenty who agreed."

POLLS SHOW WIDESPREAD ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENT

Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification.

Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

A poll carried out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, found that for one in three Americans, the word Islam triggers negative connotations such as "war," "hatred" and "terrorist." The war in
Iraq has contributed to such perceptions.

Klein's show followed a week of heated discussions on talk radio, including his own, and online forums over an incident on November 22 involving six Muslim clerics. They were handcuffed and taken off a US Airways flight after passengers reported "suspicious behavior" that included praying in the departure gate area.

The clerics, on their way to a meeting of the North American Imams Federation, were detained in a holding cell, questioned by police and
FBI agents, and released. Muslim community leaders saw the incident as yet more evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice.

IGNORANCE SEEN AS KEY PROBLEM

Several American Muslims interviewed on the subject of prejudice over the past few weeks said ignorance was at the core of the problem.

"The level of knowledge is very, very low," said Mohamed Esa, a U.S. Muslim of Arab descent who teaches a course on Islam at McDaniel College in Maryland. "There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and some people think they are all terrorists."

Hossam Ahmed, a retired Air Force Reserve colonel who occasionally leads prayer meetings for the small Muslim congregation at the
Pentagon, agreed. "Ignorance is the number one problem. Education is of the essence."

There are no hard figures on how many Muslims have been subject to harassment or prejudice and community leaders say that ugly incidents can prompt spontaneous expressions of support. Such as the e-mail a Minneapolis woman sent to CAIR after the imams were taken off their flight.

"I would like to ... help," the e-mail said. "While I cannot offer plane tickets, I would be happy to drive at least 2 or 3 of them. My car is small, but at least some of our hearts in this land of the free are large."

And optimists saw signs of change in the November 4 election of the first Muslim to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has 435 members.

Democrat Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old African-American lawyer, did not stress his religion during his campaign for a Minnesota seat, but said his victory would "signal to people who are not Muslims that Muslims have a lot to offer to the United States and the improvement of our country."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061201/...uslims_fear_dc

Its an interesting experiment this guy did and shows just how scary things can get. I mean people were seriously saying tattoo muslims, make them wear armbands...its awful.

chicah · 12-02-2006, 09:12 AM

It's clear that the government are making muslims the scapegoats after 9/11, and if they manage to rise a fear towards muslims people will understand them when they attack arab countries for oil.

Muslims seems to be the new jews.

migamoo · 12-02-2006, 11:31 AM

The reactions that he got were horrible. While I understand why he did this, I'm not surprised at all for the responses he got. Really, what is separating this from Nazi Germany? History always repeats itself and if people actually take these ideas one step further, it'll repeat faster than I thought it would.

TokyoNiGHTS · 12-02-2006, 11:35 AM

I'm not surprised by this. The media tends to control the way the country will see things. How often to you see a good representation of Muslims on TV? I'd say hardly ever. It's helping group all of Muslims into being viewed as terorists. And its not just TV shows, its thew news outlets. It's nothing but negative news stories on Muslims all the time. So when all you see is negative images of something its about to give you a negative impression of them.

There was a poll done sometime last year I believe where over 50% of people polled agreed that racial profiling should be done against all Muslims.

flagpolesitta43 · 12-02-2006, 11:44 AM

While this is really horrible, can't say that I'm surprised.

S.A.S.H.A. · 12-02-2006, 12:27 PM

Yeah, not surprising at all.

Sasha

**sum1** · 12-02-2006, 01:42 PM

Quote:

In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep

It's hardly unique to the US, it's a problem in Britain, in Europe, in Australia, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicah (View Post)

Muslims seems to be the new jews.

No, the Jews are the new Jews. Anti-Semitism hasn't vanished in a puff of smoke, not only is it still around it's a growing problem. And Muslims are not a tiny minority of the world's population the way Jews have always been, it's a very different sort of situation. That is not to say Muslims aren't suffering greatly as result of Islamophobia but it's a different sort of situation from the Jewish one. Both Islamophobia and antisemitism are major serious problems that need something done about them.

AlexEvans · 12-02-2006, 02:31 PM

When six Muslims request seat belt extensions that they don't need (or even use), spread out in the pattern used by the September 11th hijackers (some of them not in their assigned seats) and pray ostentatiously both before and after getting on the plane, any reasonable person would be suspicious. This included passengers, crew, air marshals, and at least one Arabic-speaker (who reportedly translated some of the conversation among the six for the airplane's crew).

The support of these Imams by Muslim organizations shows how absurd most of their claims of discrimination really are.

Then throw in a poll that ambiguously asks if Muslims in the US sympathize with al Qaeda (some of them? all of them? it sounds like a third of respondents interpreted it the first way) and you have another trumped up piece of evidence to use in US-bashing.

Lexis · 12-02-2006, 02:32 PM

sum1, right on both points. : )

ceilirose · 12-02-2006, 02:52 PM

I'm not surprised either - you demonize people/groups and this is what happens.

As far as the story of the six Muslims being forced off the plane - it was a case of overreaction. The flight was during the noon hour and that's one of their praying times. Other members of the conference who left the airport had no problems - I guess because they weren't praying?

The next time I fly I'm going to be on the lookout for priest/nuns in their clerical attire holding rosary beads in their hands. Some Americans really need to have a reality check on what's going on in this country.

dayne · 12-02-2006, 03:56 PM

Given the current climate, I think the imams should have waited to pray afterwards. It just wasn't smart thinking IMO. Or maybe they were craving attention. I don't know. It was an over-reaction by the authorities, but should they be surprised that this would happen? I don't think so.

As for the radio show or poll, I am not surprised at all. These days, nearly every news program in America depicts Muslims in a negative manner. It's just the way it is there. I also get the sense that the level of tolerance is just generally lower down there amongst the public.

Jacob1983 · 12-02-2006, 04:24 PM

How is America suppose to feel toward Muslims especially after 9/11? Those hijackers on 9/11 gave Muslims a bad name and reputation. I think it will take America a long time to be more at ease and comfortable when it comes to Muslims.

migamoo · 12-02-2006, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dayne (View Post)

Given the current climate, I think the imams should have waited to pray afterwards.

I don't think so. Muslims are require to pray at certain times of the day, and I don't see how they should change that just because America and other countries feel threatened by them. They were following their religious guidelines and shouldn't be harassed because of it.

Quote:

Or maybe they were craving attention. I don't know.

Have you ever studied Islam? Just a question. If you have or if you haven't, Muslims are to pray at certain times of the day and that's all they were doing. Also, I really don't think they were trying to bring attention to themselves. They were praying! If a Christian or Jew started to pray before a flight, would you say they were just trying to bring attention to themselves? Probably not.

Quote:

And Muslims are not a tiny minority of the world's population the way Jews have always been, it's a very different sort of situation.

Considering the three major religions on the planet are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, I have to disagree with this. Jews and Muslims might be in a minority in certain areas of the globe, they are by no means a major minority.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacob1983 (View Post)

Those hijackers on 9/11 gave Muslims a bad name and reputation.

Yes they did. They belonged to a very radical sect of Islam that the majority is Muslims denounce. Islam is a religion about peace and that's something most people do not seem to realize. But if we educate people about this, it might help the ever-growing anti-Muslim sentiments around the globe, not just in America.

Gagme · 12-02-2006, 05:29 PM

We americans are lacking the use of the God-give 3 ilbs...its about time we learned to use it.

**sunnykerr** · 12-02-2006, 05:31 PM

I think it's sad that any population may be targetted for the actions of even several radicals and sociopaths. I do think it's unavoidable, though.

However, I think that forcing any sort of group to wear a sign to identify them as such is tantamount to surrendering our status as democracies. Islam didn't send those planes into the towers. Islam isn't spreading hate about any nation in the world.

After World War II, we said "Never Again." And that's an easy thing to say and do when we are unafraid, but it shouldn't be abandoned when we become afraid.

If the members of an entire religion are to be held accountable for the actions of what remains a fraction of so-called believers, I think it's just as fair that we hold ourselves accountable for the actions taken in the name of the one institution we all believe in: democracy.


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