Should Barack Obama's religion matter as U. S. President?
From the onset of his bid for President, Barack Obama was inundated with questions about his faith. The controversial sermons of President Obama’s former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and the claims that Obama is a Muslim, at times, gained more attention and public scrutiny than his political ideology.
While Obama’s religion was a hot-button topic during the 2008 presidential campaign, one must wonder if his religious preference should matter now that he is President? To find the answer to this question, one must examine the laws and ideas on which the United States was founded.
The Requirements to Be a U.S. President: The Constitution of the United States only provides three specific requirements for someone to be President. One must be a natural-born U.S. citizen, either born in the U.S., or born abroad to parents who are both U.S. citizens. Also, one must be thirty-five years of age. Lastly, one must be a resident of the U.S. for fourteen years. Among these tenants there is no mention of a religious qualification.
The First Amendment: This constitutional amendment establishes two key points with regard to whether a President’s religious preference should matter.
First, the “Establishment Clause,” which prevents the Federal Government from establishing a national religion, or favoring one religion over another.
Second, the “Free Exercise Clause” which states that the government cannot infringe upon anyone’s right to believe in a religion. The government also cannot impede on one’s free practice of a religion, so long as its practices do not violate any other laws.
Article VI, Section III: In addition to the presidential requirements, and the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion, Article VI, Section III of the United States Constitution delves further into the topic of religion in politics. It states that no religious test will ever be used as a means of qualifying someone to hold a political office in the U.S.
Separation of Church and State: Many of the United States’ founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, wrote on the the idea of the separation of church and state. They called for a complete separation, wall, or line placed between religion and the government of the United States.
What Does This Mean?
Based on the founding principles of the United States and more importantly, its laws, the question as to whether Barack Obama’s religion should matter as President can be summed up in a word: NO. The Framers of the Constitution were very clear that religion and politics should not intermingle. The Federal Government does not require a President to have a particular religion, nor can it require any religious test as a requirement for office. The Constitution of the United States is also clear that individuals have freedom of religion, and that they have the freedom to practice their religion, so long as that practice does not break any other laws.
Many argue that the United States was founded upon Christian principles, therefore, the Commander in Chief should be a Christian. However, the Framers intentionally excluded religious requirements. The United States is founded on the principles of freedom and democracy, so requiring a President to practice a particular faith would mean imposing certain beliefs on others. These beliefs would also be reflected in laws and executive decisions, creating bias, and disaffecting those without the same beliefs.
President Barack Obama is a self-professed Christian, but based on the laws and principles of the United States, it would not matter if he was a Muslim, Jew, or worshiped blades of grass. The President of the United States is elected by the people, to represent the people. He should be objective and unbiased in all of his decisions, and his religious preference should matter about as much as his choice of Oval Office carpet.
Just prior to the South Carolina primary, Barack Obama answered questions from a group of Evangelicals (January 23, 2008). One of the questions asked and answered was:
"You've talked about your experience walking down the aisle at Trinity United Church of Christ, and kneeling beneath the cross, having your sins redeemed, and submitting to God's will. Would you describe that as a conversion? Do you consider yourself born again?"
"I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. I didn't 'fall out in church' as they say, but there was a very strong awakening in me of the importance of these issues in my life. I didn't want to walk alone on this journey. Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.
There is one thing that I want to mention that I think is important. Part of what we've been seeing during the course of this campaign is some scurrilous e-mails that have been sent out, denying my faith, talking about me being a Muslim, suggesting that I got sworn in at the U.S. Senate with a Quran in my hand or that I don't pledge allegiance to the flag. I think it's really important for your readers to know that I have been a member of the same church for almost 20 years, and I have never practiced Islam. I am respectful of the religion, but it's not my own. One of the things that's very important in this day and age is that we don't use religion as a political tool and certainly that we don't lie about religion as a way to score political points. I just thought it was important to get that in there to dispel rumors that have been over the Internet. We've done so repeatedly, but obviously it's a political tactic of somebody to try to provide this misinformation."
Don, unless someone of high repute can document in some form or fashion that Barack Obama is a "closet Muslim" and can prove that "once a Muslim, always a Muslim' "fits", in this instance anyway, the only legitimate criticism we can lay on him is that he is the most liberal Democrat to ever hold the hold of U.S. President.
The main problem, as I see it, is one of religious fatalism, ignorance, and narrow mindedness on the part of too many Christian zealots.
To use a well-worn quote that applies to both Barack Obama and to this issue: “Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg.”
Alexander Hamilton said: "The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right."
Don, if we are to judge President Obama, then we must judge him on his actions, not his intentions; on his deeds, not on his words.
by G. Ryan
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Think about this!
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity ... ink won't flow down to the writing surface. In order to solve this problem, they hired Andersen Consulting - Accenture today. It took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did Russians do?? The Russians used a pencil!!!
People need to learn to focus on solutions not on problems. If you look at what you do not have in life, you don't have anything. If you look at what you have in life, you have everything. Yet someone once said: "Focus on problem leads to inventions and focus on solution leads to discoveries."
G. Ryan
And what did Russians do?? The Russians used a pencil!!!
People need to learn to focus on solutions not on problems. If you look at what you do not have in life, you don't have anything. If you look at what you have in life, you have everything. Yet someone once said: "Focus on problem leads to inventions and focus on solution leads to discoveries."
G. Ryan
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Cultural Center and Mosque
My view by George Ryan
Not all Muslims are Jihadists, Terrorists, Fanatics, and "Death-to-America" ranters. I'll admit it is difficult to pick out those from the Muslim silent majority who SHOULD stand up and be counted, but that is not their way (and they don't want their relatives and other family members killed for doing it).
For thousands of families, Ground Zero in southern Manhattan is holy ground. Thousands lost someone they love in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and hundreds of thousands know someone who was directly or indirectly scarred by the collapse of the World Trade Center. The emotional investment in Ground Zero cannot be overestimated.
That is precisely why Ground Zero must be open to the religious expression of all people whose lives were scarred by the tragedy: Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, and more. And Muslims.
No one knows how many Muslims died on 9/11, but they number in the hundreds. One was Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New York City police cadet, emergency medical technician and medical student. When Salman disappeared on September 11, law enforcement officials who knew of his Islamic faith sought him out among his family to question him about the attacks. His family lived with the onus of suspicion for six months until Salman’s body was identified. He was found near the North Tower with his EMT bag beside him, situated where he could help people in need.
The point of this now famous story is simple. Not every Muslim at Ground Zero was a terrorist, and not every Muslim was a hero. The vast majority were like thousands of others on September 11: victims of one of the most heinous events of our times.
But for the family of Salman Hamdani and millions of innocent Muslims, the tragedy has been exacerbated by the fact that so many of the rest of us have formed our opinions about them out of prejudice and ignorance of the Muslim faith.
It is that narrow-minded intolerance that has led to the outcry against the building of Cordoba House and Mosque near Ground Zero. It is the same ignorance that has led many to the outrageous conclusion that all Muslims advocate hatred and violence against non-Muslims. It is the same ignorance that has led to hate crime and systematic discrimination against Muslims, and to calls to burn the Qur’an.
They want to build Cordoba House as a living monument to mark the tragedy of 9/11 through a community center dedicated to learning, compassion, and respect for all people. The alternative to that is to engage in a bigotry that will scar our generation in the same way as bigotry scarred our forebears.
Three-hundred years ago, European settlers came to these shores with a determination to conquer and settle at the expense of millions of indigenous peoples who were regarded as sub-human savages. Today, we can’t look back on that history without painful contrition.
One-hundred and fifty years ago, white Americans subjugated black Africans in a cruel slavery that was justified with Bible proof-texts and a belief that blacks were inferior to whites. Today, we look back on that history with agonized disbelief.
Sixty years ago, in a time of war and great fear, tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were deprived of their property and forced into detention camps because our grandparents feared everyone of Japanese ancestry. Today that decision is universally regarded as an unconscionable mistake and a blot on American history.
Today, millions of Muslims are subjected to thoughtless generalizations, open discrimination and outright hostility because of the actions of a tiny minority whose violent acts defy the teachings of Mohammed.
How will we explain our ignorance and our compliance to our grandchildren?
It’s time to turn away from ignorance and hatred. It is tearing this nation apart.
As I wrote in an earlier message, I've read several PRO and CON points of view on the Cordoba House Project. While I personally feel it is a bit insensitive to build an Islamic Cultural Center within the 9/11 destruction zone, they have a right to build there. However, my MAJOR issue with all this right now is that political and mob rule mentality mishandling of this issue has reached the point of asinine. This project could have ... and SHOULD have ... been handled much better and smarter than it was. Christian fanaticism on this issue has reached a point of stupidity and narrow-mindedness. Until cooler heads prevail and the political beings and mob rule mentality fade away, EVERYONE directly involved in this project should lay low before irreparable repercussions occur and serious and sustained animosity amongst Muslims and non-Muslims results. New York City can handle this issue without outside intervention.
Not all Muslims are Jihadists, Terrorists, Fanatics, and "Death-to-America" ranters. I'll admit it is difficult to pick out those from the Muslim silent majority who SHOULD stand up and be counted, but that is not their way (and they don't want their relatives and other family members killed for doing it).
For thousands of families, Ground Zero in southern Manhattan is holy ground. Thousands lost someone they love in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and hundreds of thousands know someone who was directly or indirectly scarred by the collapse of the World Trade Center. The emotional investment in Ground Zero cannot be overestimated.
That is precisely why Ground Zero must be open to the religious expression of all people whose lives were scarred by the tragedy: Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, and more. And Muslims.
No one knows how many Muslims died on 9/11, but they number in the hundreds. One was Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New York City police cadet, emergency medical technician and medical student. When Salman disappeared on September 11, law enforcement officials who knew of his Islamic faith sought him out among his family to question him about the attacks. His family lived with the onus of suspicion for six months until Salman’s body was identified. He was found near the North Tower with his EMT bag beside him, situated where he could help people in need.
The point of this now famous story is simple. Not every Muslim at Ground Zero was a terrorist, and not every Muslim was a hero. The vast majority were like thousands of others on September 11: victims of one of the most heinous events of our times.
But for the family of Salman Hamdani and millions of innocent Muslims, the tragedy has been exacerbated by the fact that so many of the rest of us have formed our opinions about them out of prejudice and ignorance of the Muslim faith.
It is that narrow-minded intolerance that has led to the outcry against the building of Cordoba House and Mosque near Ground Zero. It is the same ignorance that has led many to the outrageous conclusion that all Muslims advocate hatred and violence against non-Muslims. It is the same ignorance that has led to hate crime and systematic discrimination against Muslims, and to calls to burn the Qur’an.
They want to build Cordoba House as a living monument to mark the tragedy of 9/11 through a community center dedicated to learning, compassion, and respect for all people. The alternative to that is to engage in a bigotry that will scar our generation in the same way as bigotry scarred our forebears.
Three-hundred years ago, European settlers came to these shores with a determination to conquer and settle at the expense of millions of indigenous peoples who were regarded as sub-human savages. Today, we can’t look back on that history without painful contrition.
One-hundred and fifty years ago, white Americans subjugated black Africans in a cruel slavery that was justified with Bible proof-texts and a belief that blacks were inferior to whites. Today, we look back on that history with agonized disbelief.
Sixty years ago, in a time of war and great fear, tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were deprived of their property and forced into detention camps because our grandparents feared everyone of Japanese ancestry. Today that decision is universally regarded as an unconscionable mistake and a blot on American history.
Today, millions of Muslims are subjected to thoughtless generalizations, open discrimination and outright hostility because of the actions of a tiny minority whose violent acts defy the teachings of Mohammed.
How will we explain our ignorance and our compliance to our grandchildren?
It’s time to turn away from ignorance and hatred. It is tearing this nation apart.
As I wrote in an earlier message, I've read several PRO and CON points of view on the Cordoba House Project. While I personally feel it is a bit insensitive to build an Islamic Cultural Center within the 9/11 destruction zone, they have a right to build there. However, my MAJOR issue with all this right now is that political and mob rule mentality mishandling of this issue has reached the point of asinine. This project could have ... and SHOULD have ... been handled much better and smarter than it was. Christian fanaticism on this issue has reached a point of stupidity and narrow-mindedness. Until cooler heads prevail and the political beings and mob rule mentality fade away, EVERYONE directly involved in this project should lay low before irreparable repercussions occur and serious and sustained animosity amongst Muslims and non-Muslims results. New York City can handle this issue without outside intervention.
Mosque in N.Y.C.
by George Ryan
I watched and listened to the demonstrators today in downtown Manhattan, New York City declaring "No Ground Zero Mega-Mosque and No Sharia Law and Jihad Mosques in America!" Why did they demonstrate? To push back against those attempting to impose Sharia Islam, stealth jihad or terror on our nation.
Who were the organizers?
The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero and the Blue Collar Corner;
The Bravest; 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America;
Women United International;
Stop Sharia Now;
ACT! For America and ACT! Manhattan;
Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam;
Congress on Racial Equality,
Proclaim Justice to the Nations,
Center for Security Policy,
Dr. Herbert London of the Hudson Institute, and many other organizations and leaders. .
What came out of the mouths of the anti-Cordoba House Project demonstrators was fierce, hateful, and scary, at least to me!
Because this issue has been so poorly handled - politicized beyond any reasonable limits of common sense, reason, and compromise, demonstrated against by emotional, irrational, well intentioned but unthinking people in terms of the ramifications of their action ... I fear that regardless of what I personally feel and have expressed on this issue, we have created a monster that will not die quietly nor will its impact be negligible. This, combined with our departure from Iraq and claiming that all is well (which it most assuredly is not now nor will be later), will all culminate in the rising up of a Phoenix, which will consume us.
We as Americans have reverted back to the era of McCarthyism when we made blanket accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence and the rule of law. This period in our history was characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political (or religious) adversaries.
We have replaced those heightened fears of communism and its influence on our American way of life with Islamophobia. This term seems to date back to the late 1980s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the practice of discriminating against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the nation. It includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and is a violent political ideology rather than a religion. Steps were taken toward official acceptance of the term in January 2001 at the Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance, where Islamophobia was recognized as a form of intolerance alongside Xenophobia and Antisemitism.
During the post–World War II era of McCarthyism, many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal, or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.
Is our issue really about the Muslim cultural center proposed near Ground Zero in New York? About being sensitive to "hallowed ground"? I don't think so. The cultural center was merely an excuse to let loose the hate that has always been there. Bigotry is spreading and people are spewing hate so calmly and freely that it is scary. People, powerful people -- those who have influence over others; those with followers: Newt, Hannity, O'Riley, Beck, Palin -- these are people with millions of followers. There are leaders emerging, leaders who are gathering these fearful and hate-filled masses and using powerful words to control them. Sound familiar?
Enter the new Reich.
Allow me to elaborate by painting a grim but completely plausible scenario. Imagine an America where Sarah Palin's comments about mosques and profiling were not challenged. An America where no one questioned Newt as he continued to draw no distinction between al-Qaida and Muslims in general. An America where people from the media, like Rush and Hannity, controlled our minds through TV and radio, constantly filling us with hatred towards Muslims.
Imagine then, if every inhumane, torturous act against Muslims were justified because they wanted to build places of worship like everyone else. Imagine Hannity agreeing with and cheering his listeners when they suggest bombing mosques was acceptable, jokingly, of course. Imagine Rush pushing to bomb Mecca to send a message. Now imagine this. Muslims wearing armbands so that they stand out; Muslims in internment camps to keep the "good" God-fearing people safe; their blood cheaper than water, and their lives worthless. Bomb them, kill them, they deserve it.
September 11, 2001, a horrendous crime perpetrated by one small group, is blamed on 1.5 billion Muslims. Millions die because Rush, Beck and Hannity encouraged it, because Sarah was OK with it, because Congress turned a blind eye. This is all possible. It starts with allowing one simple act of profiling, or protesting a mosque. This is how groups are isolated. One act leads to another and then another; baby steps toward mass execution.
It is frightening to be a Muslim in America these days. No one will care if they are murdered. At most, they will be a headline for a day. I can just hear Newt say, "It is unfortunate that young man was killed. I did not ask for that." Oh, but he did. We all did. Fear has murdered our common sense. Emotions have given birth to a bigot in our homes. Yes, I just generalized. Who doesn't these days?
The terrorists use God to justify their cause. I know that is just a fabrication of their minds ... do you? If we look in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan we see that al-Qaida has killed more Muslims than any other group to date. America, it is our turn! If we continue to feed the hate in our minds, it is not naïve to think that the murder of Muslims in this country cannot also occur. There is no employer like God and if you convince yourself that God is with you, you become powerful and fearless. This is what makes the terrorists who they are.
No matter what the reason, the cause or trigger, history does repeat itself. It will once again, if we don't wake up, if we continue to ignore it. Media personalities sell us fear and hate in return for advertising dollars. They encourage outrageous ideas and will promote anything so long as it creates more news.
We need to challenge the media, we need to be fearless of terrorists, we need to fight on both fronts, and we must remember one very important thing: Goodness is not a Christian trait, a Jewish trait or even a Muslim trait. It is a human trait. We are all in this fight together. The terrorists must not win. The new Reich must not take root.
(Portions of these comments came as a result of editorials in The Hartford Courant, Sunday, August 22, 2010).
Now read the following editorial from The Hartford Courant and ask yourselves, "Is this how we wish to portray ourselves to the rest of the world?"
For those of us with a military background, did we fight in World War II, Korea, Southeast Asia, and now Iraq and Afghanistan, so we could have a country of bigots and Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Americans with the mentality of the KKK and the Skinheads? I sure as hell didn't ... but the America I see now and saw today in those demonstrations tells me what is coming down the road is ugly, nasty, and as close to Armageddon as we can be without the Second Coming!
Un-American Intolerance Rears Head
Islamophobia A troubling look inside American hearts and minds
August 22, 2010
The controversy over the so-called Ground Zero mosque in New York City should be a tempest in a teapot, an emotional squall easily dispersed by the logic of our Constitution and our traditions of tolerance.
But no. Demagogues, with the help of weak-kneed leaders who stand up only partway for the principle of religious freedom, are fanning the flames of fear and religious bigotry. The fire is spreading.
Earlier this month, for example, as the month long Ramadan observance by Muslims began, a group of Christians from Texas protested outside a Bridgeport mosque, insulting Islam and urging local Muslims to convert to Christianity. Police were called. Muslims understandably viewed the protests as threatening.
Such insults are growing. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in all seriousness proposed that no mosques be built here until churches and synagogues are allowed in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. How shameful and embarrassing for Mr. Gingrich to suggest that the United States, a democracy founded on the principle of religious freedom, should act like a closed, intolerant, family-run theocracy.
Such loony proposals dominate the news. The Ground Zero mosque and the religious hatred it has engendered have become a giant distraction, needlessly pulling the nation's focus from issues that are more deserving of our attention and more important to our future.
The Mosque
The match that lit this conflagration was the approval by local boards, after contentious debate, of a developer's application to build an Islamic cultural center, sports facility and worship space some two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, the place Americans call Ground Zero.
That's where the twin towers were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, with the loss of 3,000 lives, by Islamic fanatics — but not by Islam, a religion that, as practiced by more than a billion and a half adherents, would not countenance such a hideous crime.
New York is where the nerves are still most exposed, emotions are rawest and memories of 9/11 still most painfully sear.
But New Yorkers seem to be working through the issue. There are other mosques in the vicinity, as well as churches and synagogues, and they fit into the neighborhood. So will the proposed Islamic cultural center.
The problem now is the storm of Islamophobia racing from coast to coast. It's being stoked by folks who normally would be waving a copy of the Constitution if the topic had anything to do with the Second or Tenth amendments. But they pretend, in this case, that there is no First Amendment with its bedrock guarantee of free exercise of religion.
President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to be on the right side last week when they cited the First Amendment as the reason to allow the developer to proceed with the Ground Zero Mosque. But they temporized later by saying, in effect, "They have the right to build, but maybe it isn't such a good idea." In the face of a dangerously bad idea like religious intolerance, stronger leadership than that is required.
Demagoguery
This episode is deeply distressing. The whipping up of hatred against Muslims is McCarthyism, pure and simple. And it works. Some 70 percent of Americans, a poll shows, oppose the Ground Zero mosque.
Such sentiment reveals a fearful people, too easily moved by demagogues and insufficiently faithful to our founding ideals as expressed in the Constitution. That in itself is frightening.
Is it right to hate all Muslims and blame Islam for the crimes of a few warped terrorists? Of course not. Is the Constitution meant to protect only people just like us, like the majority? No. Are we more secure if we are intolerant? No.
Americans have to remember who we are and how we became a model for the rest of the world.
I watched and listened to the demonstrators today in downtown Manhattan, New York City declaring "No Ground Zero Mega-Mosque and No Sharia Law and Jihad Mosques in America!" Why did they demonstrate? To push back against those attempting to impose Sharia Islam, stealth jihad or terror on our nation.
Who were the organizers?
The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero and the Blue Collar Corner;
The Bravest; 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America;
Women United International;
Stop Sharia Now;
ACT! For America and ACT! Manhattan;
Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam;
Congress on Racial Equality,
Proclaim Justice to the Nations,
Center for Security Policy,
Dr. Herbert London of the Hudson Institute, and many other organizations and leaders. .
What came out of the mouths of the anti-Cordoba House Project demonstrators was fierce, hateful, and scary, at least to me!
Because this issue has been so poorly handled - politicized beyond any reasonable limits of common sense, reason, and compromise, demonstrated against by emotional, irrational, well intentioned but unthinking people in terms of the ramifications of their action ... I fear that regardless of what I personally feel and have expressed on this issue, we have created a monster that will not die quietly nor will its impact be negligible. This, combined with our departure from Iraq and claiming that all is well (which it most assuredly is not now nor will be later), will all culminate in the rising up of a Phoenix, which will consume us.
We as Americans have reverted back to the era of McCarthyism when we made blanket accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence and the rule of law. This period in our history was characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political (or religious) adversaries.
We have replaced those heightened fears of communism and its influence on our American way of life with Islamophobia. This term seems to date back to the late 1980s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the practice of discriminating against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the nation. It includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and is a violent political ideology rather than a religion. Steps were taken toward official acceptance of the term in January 2001 at the Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance, where Islamophobia was recognized as a form of intolerance alongside Xenophobia and Antisemitism.
During the post–World War II era of McCarthyism, many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal, or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.
Is our issue really about the Muslim cultural center proposed near Ground Zero in New York? About being sensitive to "hallowed ground"? I don't think so. The cultural center was merely an excuse to let loose the hate that has always been there. Bigotry is spreading and people are spewing hate so calmly and freely that it is scary. People, powerful people -- those who have influence over others; those with followers: Newt, Hannity, O'Riley, Beck, Palin -- these are people with millions of followers. There are leaders emerging, leaders who are gathering these fearful and hate-filled masses and using powerful words to control them. Sound familiar?
Enter the new Reich.
Allow me to elaborate by painting a grim but completely plausible scenario. Imagine an America where Sarah Palin's comments about mosques and profiling were not challenged. An America where no one questioned Newt as he continued to draw no distinction between al-Qaida and Muslims in general. An America where people from the media, like Rush and Hannity, controlled our minds through TV and radio, constantly filling us with hatred towards Muslims.
Imagine then, if every inhumane, torturous act against Muslims were justified because they wanted to build places of worship like everyone else. Imagine Hannity agreeing with and cheering his listeners when they suggest bombing mosques was acceptable, jokingly, of course. Imagine Rush pushing to bomb Mecca to send a message. Now imagine this. Muslims wearing armbands so that they stand out; Muslims in internment camps to keep the "good" God-fearing people safe; their blood cheaper than water, and their lives worthless. Bomb them, kill them, they deserve it.
September 11, 2001, a horrendous crime perpetrated by one small group, is blamed on 1.5 billion Muslims. Millions die because Rush, Beck and Hannity encouraged it, because Sarah was OK with it, because Congress turned a blind eye. This is all possible. It starts with allowing one simple act of profiling, or protesting a mosque. This is how groups are isolated. One act leads to another and then another; baby steps toward mass execution.
It is frightening to be a Muslim in America these days. No one will care if they are murdered. At most, they will be a headline for a day. I can just hear Newt say, "It is unfortunate that young man was killed. I did not ask for that." Oh, but he did. We all did. Fear has murdered our common sense. Emotions have given birth to a bigot in our homes. Yes, I just generalized. Who doesn't these days?
The terrorists use God to justify their cause. I know that is just a fabrication of their minds ... do you? If we look in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan we see that al-Qaida has killed more Muslims than any other group to date. America, it is our turn! If we continue to feed the hate in our minds, it is not naïve to think that the murder of Muslims in this country cannot also occur. There is no employer like God and if you convince yourself that God is with you, you become powerful and fearless. This is what makes the terrorists who they are.
No matter what the reason, the cause or trigger, history does repeat itself. It will once again, if we don't wake up, if we continue to ignore it. Media personalities sell us fear and hate in return for advertising dollars. They encourage outrageous ideas and will promote anything so long as it creates more news.
We need to challenge the media, we need to be fearless of terrorists, we need to fight on both fronts, and we must remember one very important thing: Goodness is not a Christian trait, a Jewish trait or even a Muslim trait. It is a human trait. We are all in this fight together. The terrorists must not win. The new Reich must not take root.
(Portions of these comments came as a result of editorials in The Hartford Courant, Sunday, August 22, 2010).
Now read the following editorial from The Hartford Courant and ask yourselves, "Is this how we wish to portray ourselves to the rest of the world?"
For those of us with a military background, did we fight in World War II, Korea, Southeast Asia, and now Iraq and Afghanistan, so we could have a country of bigots and Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Americans with the mentality of the KKK and the Skinheads? I sure as hell didn't ... but the America I see now and saw today in those demonstrations tells me what is coming down the road is ugly, nasty, and as close to Armageddon as we can be without the Second Coming!
Un-American Intolerance Rears Head
Islamophobia A troubling look inside American hearts and minds
August 22, 2010
The controversy over the so-called Ground Zero mosque in New York City should be a tempest in a teapot, an emotional squall easily dispersed by the logic of our Constitution and our traditions of tolerance.
But no. Demagogues, with the help of weak-kneed leaders who stand up only partway for the principle of religious freedom, are fanning the flames of fear and religious bigotry. The fire is spreading.
Earlier this month, for example, as the month long Ramadan observance by Muslims began, a group of Christians from Texas protested outside a Bridgeport mosque, insulting Islam and urging local Muslims to convert to Christianity. Police were called. Muslims understandably viewed the protests as threatening.
Such insults are growing. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in all seriousness proposed that no mosques be built here until churches and synagogues are allowed in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. How shameful and embarrassing for Mr. Gingrich to suggest that the United States, a democracy founded on the principle of religious freedom, should act like a closed, intolerant, family-run theocracy.
Such loony proposals dominate the news. The Ground Zero mosque and the religious hatred it has engendered have become a giant distraction, needlessly pulling the nation's focus from issues that are more deserving of our attention and more important to our future.
The Mosque
The match that lit this conflagration was the approval by local boards, after contentious debate, of a developer's application to build an Islamic cultural center, sports facility and worship space some two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, the place Americans call Ground Zero.
That's where the twin towers were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, with the loss of 3,000 lives, by Islamic fanatics — but not by Islam, a religion that, as practiced by more than a billion and a half adherents, would not countenance such a hideous crime.
New York is where the nerves are still most exposed, emotions are rawest and memories of 9/11 still most painfully sear.
But New Yorkers seem to be working through the issue. There are other mosques in the vicinity, as well as churches and synagogues, and they fit into the neighborhood. So will the proposed Islamic cultural center.
The problem now is the storm of Islamophobia racing from coast to coast. It's being stoked by folks who normally would be waving a copy of the Constitution if the topic had anything to do with the Second or Tenth amendments. But they pretend, in this case, that there is no First Amendment with its bedrock guarantee of free exercise of religion.
President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to be on the right side last week when they cited the First Amendment as the reason to allow the developer to proceed with the Ground Zero Mosque. But they temporized later by saying, in effect, "They have the right to build, but maybe it isn't such a good idea." In the face of a dangerously bad idea like religious intolerance, stronger leadership than that is required.
Demagoguery
This episode is deeply distressing. The whipping up of hatred against Muslims is McCarthyism, pure and simple. And it works. Some 70 percent of Americans, a poll shows, oppose the Ground Zero mosque.
Such sentiment reveals a fearful people, too easily moved by demagogues and insufficiently faithful to our founding ideals as expressed in the Constitution. That in itself is frightening.
Is it right to hate all Muslims and blame Islam for the crimes of a few warped terrorists? Of course not. Is the Constitution meant to protect only people just like us, like the majority? No. Are we more secure if we are intolerant? No.
Americans have to remember who we are and how we became a model for the rest of the world.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Parking on the Beach.
Of course we have to continue parking on the beach unless you want a major tax increase. New Smyrna lacks land to build parking garages. So, parents have to look after their kids or park in the areas where there are no vehicles. The same applies for adults.
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