Surprise! More anti-Muslim bigotry. Who would have guessed???
Gee, who could have guessed that with all the Muslim-bashing coming from the right, and especially regarding the “Ground Zero Mosque,” some jackass would decide to act out in a violent act of hatred? Amazing: words have consequences. Who knew?
Nor is it surprising that some right-wing white blowhard, like Rep Roy Blunt, of Missouri, would compare the building of the so-called Mosque to Dr. Laura’s racist rant. Not comparing the racist and religiously bigoted rants of the Islamophobes to Dr. Laura (which would be more appropriate), but the construction of Cordoba House itself. Typical, typical, typical…
Um. Damn. Thats not good. Hope the taxi dudes going to be alright 🙁
I wonder whether the attacker was just a drunk asshole, or if he had ties to organised racism.
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My take on this is that the United States as well as the global community is going through such a profound structural and fundamental transformation that the ongoing stress of it unleashes these primal fears about our survival. Everyone seems to feel so threatened. This reverberates everywhere. Collective hysteria. Thoughtless ignorance spewed 24/7. Looks to me, like a percentage of all these groups religious, political, racial,…etc have their ample share of the pie that wants to display their fangs while declaring their righteousness. Human nature really needs to actively choose everyday to walk the walk. Words do have power. We all need to use them wisely. Though it can be so satisfying to lash out….it creates nothing but more pain, and anger and then comes the throw down. You can tell some of these people really have a taste for it. I wish they had a taste for Peace rather then getting off on there fleeting momment with a press microphone. Jersey Shore, Jerry Springer it’s all the same thing. Ego tripping blow hard Hams.
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MaryAnn Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 2:47 pm
My daughter is away at college. Today she posted a pic of Mr Ishikawa, whom she brought into the freshman orientation as a speaker. Her comment with the pic. “This is Mr. Ishikawa, a veteran of WWII and Korea. He lived through the Japanese internment. Isn’t he precious?”
I couldn’t help but think about the hysteria that brought the internment. It feels like we could go there again with the muslim community. It is important that we speak up about it and make sure it doesn’t go there. Like Mr. Ishikawa, many muslim americans have served, are serving and have died for our country. Many muslim americans died on 9/11. How could declaring all of them “evil” be anything but bigotry.
Mr. Ishikawa is so very precious, and so is my daughter for having him tell his story to the incoming freshman.
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About the victim, from the New York Times: “Recently, some passengers asked him about the center planned near ground zero, he recalled, and he replied that he was against it, that there was no need to put it there.”
About the alleged attacker, from the same article: “Mr. Enright is also a volunteer with Intersections International, an initiative of the Collegiate Churches of New York that promotes justice and faith across religions and cultures. The organization, which covered part of Mr. Enright’s travel expenses to Afghanistan, has been a staunch supporter of the Islamic center near ground zero.”
So, apparently, a supporter of the mosque attacked an opponent of it. If “words have consequences”, maybe the attacker has been reading this site.
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Tim Reply:
August 30th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
wrong DR…turns out, the attacker had worked with that group, but before they came out in favor of the site…get real, this man was militantly anti-muslim, so draw the only logical conclusion please…
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