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.