etee's Blog

Polimom has been so full of positive news lately... For example, this morning I spotted this article on her site, which referenced this article over at The Moderate Voice, which discussed an article in Reuters concerning attitudes in America toward Muslims. In a nutshell:

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.

And, that type of "special identification" was that? Try something on the order of

...tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates...

Uh... did we somehow get caught in a time warp, and end up back in 1930's Germany or something?

Polimom asks at the end of her piece:

We really are a much different country today than we were on September 10, 2001, don't you think?

Actually, I don't think so. We have always been somewhat of a paradoxical nation: "the land of the free", where people risk their lives to get here so they can pursue their goals, but at the same time the country with the highest percentage of its population in prison or under court supervision. A country founded on "freedom of religion", while expecting everyone to follow the moral precepts on one particular faith. A country which proudly displays the Statue of Liberty and advertises itself as the "land of opportunity", but which also seeks to put down (and keep down) those who are somehow different. A country which prides itself on "freeing the slaves", but where the descendants of those slaves still are in many ways considered less than full participants in the life of the country. And I can go on and on and on...

To get to my point, "We the People" are at very generous and open-minded, while at the same time being very suspicious and bigoted. During the 1930s, there was a significant part of the population who admired what Hitler was doing: among them was Charles Lindbergh, a true "American Hero" of the era. So, it doesn't surprise the that the nation which brought forth the Ku Klux Klan and gave us the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII would express this type of sentiment toward Muslims.

That does not, however, make it right. And, even if Gallup was less than accurate in this poll, the fact is that "We the People" must stand up and stand united in opposition to this mindset. Yes, those who aid terrorists may in fact be our enemy: but, words like "aid" and "terrorist attack" are words of action, folks. And, unless someone has committed the act, it is simply wrong to presuppose that because of their name, their skin color, their religion, even their national origin, that they might do so - and that we have any right whatsoever in taking preemptive steps against them on that basis. We can take some small measure of comfort from the radio talk show host discussed in the Reuters article, who ended his show with the following:

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said... 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."

It is up to us to make sure that, moving forward, our attitude reflects his, and not that 39% of people responding to the Gallup Poll.