The pictures of Barack Obama in African garb and the focus by wingnuts on his middle name has shown the continual fear of the Other on the part of the Republican party, with the other being Muslims. When you have people screaming that Obama will swear on the Koran instead of the Bible and Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (who did take his oath on the Koran) being asked to prove his allegiance to this country, it’s clear that way too many people buy into the “Muslims are the enemy” mentality. This whole notion that all Muslims are some 7th century throwback who “hate us for our freedoms” really does show the collective dumbing down of this country.
Gallup did an extensive survey of 50,000 Muslims globally on their attitudes and values, and recently published its findings in a book called Who Speaks For Islam? Some of their findings knock out these insulting stereotypes that the administration and media keep feeding us:
The result is Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, based on six years of research and more than 50,000 interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims who reside in more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations. Representing more than 90% of the world’s Muslim community, it makes this poll the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.
What the data reveal and the authors illuminate may surprise you:
* Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable.
* Large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution AND they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution.
* Muslims around the world say that what they LEAST admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values - the same answers that Americans themselves give when asked this question.
* When asked about their dreams for the future, Muslims say they want better jobs and security, not conflict and violence.
* Muslims say the most important thing Westerners can do to improve relations with their societies is to change their negative views toward Muslims and respect Islam.
Hmmm….doesn’t sound like the bloodthirsty savages bent on destroying this country, does it? Will this survey or its findings ever make it onto American airwaves? Nope, I don’t think so either. It’s so much easier to wallow in ignorance and bigotry.
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99.9999999999% of all muslims are peaceful people, with the same hopes and dreams as us in the US. There much common ground we could explore if we put away the rhetoric.
After all, Jesus is considered a prophet of Islam (as is Abraham).
It’s the Republican MO…there always has to be a “them” or bogeyman, i.e., communists, immigrants, homos, and now, Muslims.
Islam is the new comunism, and the Bush administration et al have been festering this climate since 20 zealot criminals exploited a weakness in our security. Things didn’t have to get this bad afterward, but we let it happen nonetheless.
“After all, Jesus is considered a prophet of Islam (as is Abraham).”
We should put away the religions, too. Too often the Muslims that are associated with violence are being good islamists. Just the same many Americans that are associated with violence are being good Christians.
Bah, research smeasearch. This is probably all a clever ploy orchestrated by Barack Hussein Obama to lower our guard and hand America to the evil mooselums. *rolls eyes*
Genital mutilation, burkas, forced to wear black bedsheets, beheaded for having extra marital sex. I will never understand why any woman would willingly submit to Muslim Sharia law. Islam is a horrible, degrading, dehumanizing, brutal and insane 7th Century religion.
Did Obama swear in on the Kuran or just Ellison?
abob @ 6:
So is Christianity. I fail to see the difference between any of the cults regardless of how “mainstream” they are.
The REAL enemies of America are in the White House now.
Muslims are to neocons what the jews were to nazis. Convenient scapgoats.
Islam deserves nobody’s respect.
Of course neither does Christianity, so the right-wing fear of Islam is beyond hypocritical.
I really hope that’s true. The Danish cartoon fiasco makes me pessimistic though.
CafeenMan @ 8:
Yes. As Richard Dawkins says, “What you cannot deny about all religions is they are weird.”
What does worry me is the third point and it’s what bothers me most about the Christian right in the US, too. Breakdown of traditional moral values is often code for gay rights, women’s rights, minority rights, etc. Lumping the Muslims in with the Christians doesn’t make me feel better. The glory of the West is the breakdown of traditional moral values in many cases. Traditional moral values are often hateful and draconian in their application.
abob @ 6:
By the way, are you willing to judge God and renounce the many atrocities he committed that are documented in the Bible? Or are you willing to denounce the Bible? If you’ve actually read it you know it’s a really sick book.
Abbie @ 11:
And a certain book by Salman Rushdie.
My understanding is there is no central hierarchy, nothing comparable to pope and Vatican.
Some of the Cathars on the run from the Inquisition may’ve coverted to Islam.
But any Imam can issue fatwas, which aren’t necessarily dangerous, but have been of late.
Then you also have caliphates and ayatollahs, one being Sunni the other Shia.
Some would say their lack of McDonaldization of religion (over a billion served) is what makes Islam dangerous.
Give me extra pickles and onions.
Arrow @ 3:
20 Sealot Criminals. I’m sorry. No one believes that it was anything but an inside job. It’s the “myth of our age” like the Assassination of JFK (by the same people if my research holds).
It will be used as a Neo-Con launching point. They needed it, and it happened. I’m sorry that alone reeks of complicitiness.
abob @ 6:
Isn’t circumcision genital mutilation?
If you’re talking vaginal you’re talking about a cultural factor not religious. In fact, the Islamic leaders are trying to stop that in Africa.
As I’ve said here before, this administration has engaged in a course of conduct in their policy toward Saudi Arabia which can only be described as flat-out treason. They have actively covered up a mountain of evidence implicating their bestest oil buddies in the Middle East in the rise of Al Qaeda and the attacks on 9/11. It’s no wonder that so many people feel compelled to blame Islam as a whole. If there was a common understanding of the basic facts surrounding 9/11 and Al Qaeda, people would understand with crystal clarity that the problem is not Islam generally, but one particular Islamic nation and the ideology they are spending billions to export abroad.
CafeenMan @ 14:
My kids won’t be reading the bible. It’s a book half taken from Egyptian mythology and the other half about genocide of and prejudice.
It certainly doesn’t help that the ‘War on Terror’ is really a war on muslim-extremism, so all media coverage of terrorist attacks and such is purely the ones committed by muslim-extremists. It’s the only media coverage of muslims many already narrow-minded americans have every gotten. If this were a real war on terror then other targets would include the I.R.A., right-wing christians who murder abortion doctors, etc, which would provide a more accurate, broader definition of terror then the muslim focused one we are engaged in now.
To sum it up; bad publicity!
In one of the more hilariously ironic developments of Campaign ‘08, the Politico reports that the GOP is undertaking a crash course in diversity training of sorts. Desperate to avoid another devastating “Macaca moment” in the fall campaign, the Republican National Committee is “working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election.” Unfortunately, that’s a tall order for a fractured party united only by its common disdain for immigrants, blacks, gay Americans and above all, Muslims. Like the proverbial leopard, the Party of Hate cannot change its spots.
For the details, see:
“RNC Orders Diversity Training for the Party of Hate.”
abob @ 6:
Sounds like Judaism.
I didn’t ask to be circumsized.
abob @ 6:
You haven’t read the Bible much, have you? It’s full of the same type of extremism as the Koran. Check the old testament.
CafeenMan @ 14:
Indeed. Which is why we need to stop the practice of shrouding all religious beliefs in unquestionable “respect”. Respecting crazy beliefs just gives the fundamentalists their power.
Smade @ 13:
Indeed. In fact, until recently these individuals were thought of as too scarce to talk about.
In Canada it is found that Bi-Sexuals may be the MAJORITY of Canadians. Yes. over 50% of men and women in Canada admit to be being SOMEWHAT attracted to the same sex.
How, in the sttes, if you are “like that” but don’t wanna be, they have a party that you can join that allows you to say your not, and hide the fact you are.
And they even have “parties” late nite for you to enjoy. Have you met Jeff Gannon?
Fools! They’re lying to lull you into a false sense of security! Sean Hannity said so! ;-)
CheneyIsADick @ 23:
At least the old testament lets you die. The new testament gets you in the afterlife.
I hate all religions equally, and only a miracle would keep this subject OUT of political debate, where it doesn’t belong.
Damn!
AngryOne @ 21:
Wow. If Lincoln came back he would execute each one of these mutherfrackers for treason and doing what they did to his party.
Think about he. Lincoln freed the slaves, so GWB can round them up with the “othered coloured folk”.
I may be wrong, but the “continual fear of the Other” seems to be more about the fact that he’s black, rather than that he might be a scaaaary Muslim. I think the Muslim thing is just a nice beard for their inherent racism.
Fanon @ 30:
Agreed (and excellent screen-name, by the way; quite topical). Though really, there’s no difference today - ‘Muslim’ is the nigger of the world.
Whooka @ 20:
Call it war on terror or war on Islam or whatever. It doesn’t change the fact that the war is really about securing energy supplies for the US until the end of the century.
Whooka @ 20:
Exactly! The media reports domestic terrorist attacks as “random shootings” instead of what they are - domestic terrorist attacks. Ask the people at any of the school, churches, malls, workplaces or their homes if they felt terrorized when a gunman opened fire. OK, you can only ask the survivors if there were any.
It seems to be only republicans who go into other countries at gunpoint and tell them how they’re supposed to run things. Meanwhile, they live in gated communities and complain constantly about the “clipboard lady” who comes around telling them their garden hose is coiled to the wrong diameter.
Whenever republicans are in charge they let their own country go to shit while invading others. They love welfare when it comes to “saving” people from “evil dictators” but when somebody in their own country needs a hand they call those people “crackhead welfare cheats.”
Republicans are extremely “liberal” when it comes to rich dynasties (Saudi) or well-to-do corporations but they can’t spare a dime for a person dying in New Orleans.
The conservatives who preach Phear Islam are no different than the Evangelicals who cry ‘persecution!’ whenever they’re told no, despite the fact that radical Islam has done less since 9/11 to restrict and rescind freedoms than our own government has. (And, in turn, we’ve become less the free nation that these ‘evil people’ supposedly wish to destroy, and more of an echo of those things we despise.)
The sad truth is that neither America nor faith is as fragile as these loudmouths believe. Even if every community were suddenly cut off from one another, no cable news to tell us what to think, would Americans suddenly knuckle under to some kook proclaiming Shari’a Law who comes riding into town? I don’t think so.
The same with faith. Christmas. Evolution. Blah, blah, blah. Is your faith defined by what others believe? How can faith be taken away by someone else refusing to admire your plastic Baby Jesus figure sitting on the lawn?
The problem is, the fear-mongers and idiots won’t change because of some Gallup study. The hate is worked into every last fiber of their being. It’s irrational, and it validates their narrow views. For people like Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc - it garners attention - they’re afraid not of being wrong, but of not mattering. It’s the same as George W. “Verdict of History” Bush. They’ll be proven right, and you’ll be sorry, you’ll see. You just wait.
Who speaks for Islam? How about Cat Steven/Yusuf Islam as a spokesperson.
CafeenMan @ 7:
Ahem. Neither man swore on anything, actually.
Ellison chose to take his official photograph with the Koran (once owned by Thomas Jefferson).
Here in the south, the rumors are coming fast and furious about Obama being a “secret Muslim”… this really needs to be addressed head-on. They are coming up with all kinds of bizarro-universe readings of Revelation that fit in with that “fact”, too.
It’s like an underground rumbling that the right wing of the GOP will nonetheless capitalize on.
Fanon @ 30:
I’ve been talking to some other liberal bloggers about this and it’s a little hard for us to separate it. I think that in this current climate, it’s safer to openly hate Muslims (note abob’s post above) than to hate African-Americans. The pushback on racial bigotry is much more immediate and one that they try to shy away from. The fear of Muslims (by emphasizing his middle name, talking about how he comes from a Muslim family) seems to be a more acceptable form of hate.
And frankly, it pisses me off. I’ve blogged before that I have an uncle who is Muslim and he’s gone through some tremendously hate-filled incidences post-9/11 that makes me very sensitive to attitudes like abob’s, which is just fundamentally ignorant.
And I think that it is incumbent upon those of us who are more enlightened to call out bigotry in all its forms. Why don’t the right wing whip themselves up into a frenzy over people like Eric Rudolph, Chad Castagana and Tim McVeigh, who have demonstrably shown a willingness to terrorize and harm American people? Because they’re white, Christians and right wingers.
To judge a diverse group of people world wide by a handful of extremists is as inane and ignorant as to judge all Americans by the actions of McVeigh, et al.
And I have a question for those who are concerned about “traditional moral values.”
To what time do you want to go back to? The Hippie 60’s? Ozzie and Harriet? Al Capone? The Wright Brothers? The Civil War? The Mexican/American war? Indian wars? Discovery of America? Dark ages? Birth of Christ? Stone ages?
abob @ 6:
Do you know your own history? Americans have done almost everything you mentioned to non-whites all over the world. When misinformed clowns like you try to judge others from your imaginary perch you get laughed at because intelligent people worldwide know more about this nation’s horrible history than you do.
It doesn’t matter, they are all unpeople anyway.
Has there ever been a society whose most conservative members didn’t decry a breakdown in traditional values as a sure path to Armageddon? One of my particular favorites is the B.S. claim that Rome fell because of it’s decadence. No one ever seems to point out that Rome didn’t “fall” until after it was proclaimed a “Christian” Empire.
Of course, this is what they used to do to the Catholics, calling them “Papists’ and saying that they were more loyal to the Pope than to the US. This was not that long ago, either. Maybe there are some principled Catholic leaders who will speak out against this crap?