Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Why Peter King's hearings are so dangerous

The answer to the question about why Peter King's hearings are so dangerous? They gin up anti Muslim hate groups.  What is dangerous about anti Muslim hate groups? An atmosphere of hatred of one religion can come back to bite other religious groups. Are there already hate groups? Yes there are.

Politico today reported  about the mainstreaming of anti Muslim groups already formed. ACT!, with over a million dollars in funding is one of them.  Oklahoma has already passed an anti Sharia law measure (which the courts put on hold). Tennessee has witnessed attempts to pass anti Muslim legislation.

Since Pres. Obama was a candidate, my in-box has been flooded with anti Muslim hate messages...claiming that the religion itself is dangerous and so all Muslims are dangerous.  Usually that kind of blanket condemnation of all practitioners of a religion has come from those in the South, but the gist is something like this: this or that excerpt says it is permissible to kill Christians and innocents in the name of the Koran. (Never mind other passages of the Koran contradict ).Of course, that is the same interpretation Jihadists, Bin Laden and other extremists use to justify a political goal of unseating Muslim leaders with whom they disagree. They advocate defanging America as a way to unseat the moderate, secular and sometimes oppressive  Muslim governments the US has supported.

Many other Muslims do not adhere to  extremists' interpretation, but they, too, are painted with the same brush.  Muslim haters are ignorant of the various practices of Islam and  that the application of Sharia law  varies to large extremes from one country to another .  However I am not hopeful their bigotry would be replaced with fact and knowledge. It has not happened since 9/11 and rationality is not a hallmark of those whose prejudices blind their hearts and minds.

Aside from the fact that these measures may be unconstitutional, play right into the hands of jihadists and make it difficult to conduct foreign policy in an already dangerous world (see my column which will run in tomorrow's www.skyhidailynews), there are other reasons to believe the King hearings are dangerous.

Hate of one religion can spawn intolerance of other religions...plain and simple.  If the public gives tacit approval of one group that spreads hatred against one  religion , it makes it easier for others to believe it is acceptable to hate another religion. That truism used to guide the Anti Defamation League for years...who preached tolerance of all religions as a way to combat anti semitism.  Lately, the ADL backtracked, and they lost my respect. Nonetheless, the truism is still a truism.  In short: what goes around comes around. 

This country has seen its share of anti Catholicism, and any number of anti this and anti that. JFK's election  broke the barrier of hatred against Catholics, but it was not without pain. We have gone through cross burning, the red scare of McCarthyism and now we have the Green Scare of the anti Muslims.  Flush with money, with witch hunting fervor justified by the likes of King,  anti Muslim groups are ready to take on the US electorate and poke a finger in the eye of the rights given minority religions by the US Constitution. Shame on us and shame on them if they gain more strength because of these hearings.

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