FOR AMERICAN MUSLIMS, THIS COULD BE WORSE THAN 9/11
I'm concerned that things are going to get ugly for law-abiding Muslims in America -- uglier than they did after 9/11.
Recall that in the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush said positive things about Islam. Less than a week after the attack, he went to a Washington mosque and said, "The face of terrorist is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace." This was three days after the bullhorn speech. Bush was extremely popular with the general public and, more specifically, he was becoming a right-wing hero. Muslim-hate was widespread, but he limited the extent to which it became the overt ideology of the right.
There's no one in the GOP who'll do that now. President Obama is believed to be a Muslim by 30% of Republicans. Many Republican officeholders fear a tea party challenge when they run for reelection, which means they may feel they have no choice but to Muslim-bait (and suggest that Obama is either Muslim himself or a jihadist sympathizer).
Right-wingers mostly gave Bush a pass when he said positive things about Islam because he was satisfying their thirst for bloodshed in the Muslim world. President Obama isn't likely to offer the right (and middle Americans who are susceptible to right-wing arguments) the same satisfaction -- no, I don't think he's going to attack Iran, which, to be totally cynical about it, would help him with this problem.
Hell, I think attacking North Korea would help him slake this bloodlust. But I don't think he's going to do that, either.
So I fear there could be more open, unapologetic Muslim-bashing in America than there was a decade ago. I fear there could be more hate crimes. I'm afraid there's nothing left that could keep the lid on.
That day was the only time in my life I'd ever thought, or ever will think, kindly of George W. Bush.
ReplyDeleteOf course, he then invaded and occupied two Muslim countries, so what he said that day didn't quite match-up to his actions.
And I suspect that may have something to do with what I think is an over-kill/over-reaction, in lockind-down Boston and sorrounding towns:
Governor Patrick did't want there to be any suspicion that either he, or the President, wouldn't take the most extreme measures possible, to protect people from "Muslim extremism."
Judging by the level of anti-Muslim hatred across the blogosphere even before the bombers were identified, things could get very ugly. I hope I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, if it's true, them being Chechen's will confuse the living livid sh*t our of a lot of the morons on the right.
ReplyDeleteIf I were Chick-fil-A, or KFC, I'd hire extra security to protect their stores from people looking to take revenge on "Them Chickens!!!"
The right has become incoherent about Islam and policy toward Muslim regions, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThey have been and remain solidly Zionist extremists, but over the last few years they have wanted us not only to attack the region's most volatile Islamist regimes (Afghanistan and Iran) but also to to attack and destroy anti-Islamist regimes in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and now Syria, in all cases to the advantage of Islamists allied with Iran or with al-Qaeda.
The only constant is that they want us to destroy any regime with a Muslim population that seems to be in trouble.
Their advice is worthless and they are just a noise factor that ought to be tuned out.
@Victor
ReplyDeleteNot Floyd Corker progressives?
@ Victor, tough to play the Islamophoba = racism card when the Muslims are as white as the Imperial Wizard, eh?
ReplyDeleteBut you are right, I think, about the scope of a police reaction that apparently included brushing aside the least concern for such legal niceties as search warrants.
Wait for talk of WMD and the history of exceptional violence of Muslim terrorism to come up in justification.
And the specific history of Muslim terrorism in Russia will help to sustain that defense of such extraordinary measures.
Beslan. The opera house. And so on.