In U.S., It’s Open Season For Racism Toward Muslims, Or Even The Muslim-ish

By William K. Wolfrum

In the aftermath of 9/11, it was still considered racist to be hateful toward Muslims. In 2010, however, after a monumental and relentless campaign to dehumanize the Arab world, we have reached a stage where being racist toward anyone even Muslim-ish is considered acceptable public discourse.

Take, for example, two recent statements: Reporter Helen Thomas says Jews should leave Israel and go to Germany, Poland. The Right shrieks in as good a showing of faux outrage you’ll see this side of Broadway. If she could be publicly executed, 10,000 conservative blog posts would rush to agree what a good idea putting her in front of a firing squad would be.

Right before that, an elected official – Republican South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts – had this to say: “We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.” The response from the Right? Crickets. That Nikki Haley – the “raghead” in question – is Sikh is something that should be noted. Sure, Americans are notoriously bad with geography and knowledge of other cultures, but that ignorance, when it comes to racism, means that now everyone North of South Africa, South of Austria and West of China is an open target for racism.

Think about it. In just a couple short days, two public figures made racist statements. One was horribly vilified. The other got a few pies tossed at him from Leftist blogs. But that’s the way it will be for now. For too many years, any one defending anti-Muslim or anti-Arab language has been accused of being in league with terrorists (recently even, reporter Jeremy Scahill admits to being called a “terrorist supporter” off-air during a radio show by former New York Mayor Ed Koch.)

Since 9/11, this scenario has repeated itself. And, with little interest in knowing the first thing about those they hate, Americans have now decided that everyone that may in anyway resemble a Muslim, is now a Muslim. Thus, Nikki Haley, born in America to Indian-born parents who are Sikhs, is just another “raghead.”

Or take, for instance, the tale of the American teen shot five times during Israel’s flotilla raid. One would imagine the killing of an American would command outrage on a bi-partisan scale. But not if his name is Furkan Dogan.

And one can only imagine the silence that building a Catholic Church or synagogue on Ground Zero in New York would bring. But being that it’s a mosque, the vitriol from the Right has been especially hate-filled.

But in 2010 in the U.S., that’s all just fine. Because the controls for reasonable society have been shut off when it comes to Muslims. So much so that now Americans can feel free to act as racist as they wish toward even the Muslim-ish.

By: William K. Wolfrum

I'm a journalist, columnist, humorist, satirist, Dogist and Husbandist