Is This America? - Do Arab & Muslim Lives Matter?

[Turborama]

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, NYT OP-ED COLUMNIST

For a glimpse of how venomous and debased the discourse about Islam has become, consider a http://www.tnr.com/blog/77475/the-new-york-times-laments-sadly-wary-misunderstanding-muslim-americans-really-it-sadly-w">blog post in The New Republic this month. Written by Martin Peretz, the magazine’s editor in chief, it asserted: “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.”

Mr. Peretz added: “I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”

Thus a prominent American commentator, in a magazine long associated with tolerance, ponders whether Muslims should be afforded constitutional freedoms. Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews? How do America’s nearly seven million American Muslims feel when their faith is denounced as barbaric?

This is one of those times that test our values, a bit like the shameful interning of Japanese-Americans during World War II, or the disgraceful refusal to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe.

Full piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=2

Kristof's follow up to this piece in The NYT: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/readers-on-the-anti-muslim-frenzy/">Readers on the Anti-Muslim Frenzy

Review of this piece by Steve Clemons in The Washington Note: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2010/09/do_arab_muslim/">Do Arab & Muslim Lives Matter?

A key quote from later in the main article:

"In America, bigoted comments about Islam often seem to come from people who have never visited a mosque and know few if any Muslims. In their ignorance, they mirror the anti-Semitism that I hear in Muslim countries from people who have never met a Jew."



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x504510">Empire Special: Chris Hedges & Other Experts Explain America's Islam Problem (Essential Viewing For All Americans. If You Agree, Please Pass It On To All Your Friends & Family Using The YouTube Share Options)

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