The Last Bastion of Acceptable Racism in the US, Islamophobia, MUST GO!

Racism in America, a touchy touchy subject these days. With our nation electing it's first African American president, it would be utterly foolish to say that it has not flared again. As the underlying and often outright tone of many of the attacks against Obama are noticeably racist (not legitimate debate on policy disagreements), it would also be undeniable to say that racism against African Americans has become totally unacceptable. Unacceptable because racism in ANY form is unacceptable.

Or is it? Unquestionably the last bastion of racism in the US which is acceptable to spout is racism against Muslims. Witness the wild flurry leading up to 911 this year concerning the Park51 project. Not racist you say? All one needs to do is watch the videos of the protest against Park51, the nature of the signage and the crazed rantings of so many of Park51's opponents to see that at best the opposition was thinly veiled racism and at worst full-blown racism against Muslims.

There it was for all to see, with FOX News leading the pack of commentators to

tell us all why a multi-faith cultural center built by Muslims which would contain

a Muslim prayer space should not be built anywhere near "hallowed ground"

911 came and went this year, "Pastor" Terry Jones of Florida backed down from burning the Koran and the news seemed to settle down a bit. Then came Juan

Williams, his statement on the Bill O'Reiley Show that he gets nervous boarding a

plane with people in "Muslim garb who first and foremost identify themselves as

Muslim". Would he be more comfortable boarding planes with Muslim travelers

who showed no outward sign of their religious identification? He wouldn't be able

to tell they were Muslim would he? Perhaps identifying themselves is a GOOD thing

for Mr. Williams so he can be aware he needs to be afraid.

Note: none of the 911 hijackers whose actions have been condemned soundly by statements and fatwas from Muslim organizations world wide were "dressed in "Muslim garb". Note also that the myth is still perpetuated that Muslims have not condemned these horrendous acts when this simply is NOT the case.

As we all know, Juan Williams was fired following his statement on FOX. Subsequently CAIR has been blamed erroneously for the firing when the only thing CAIR did was ask

NPR to address Juan Williams' statement. CAIR did NOT ask for him to be fired, it was NPR who terminated his contract with him. Immediately following and since his firing

CAIR has been under attack. By threatening emails sent to them and public reaction

the firing of Juan Williams and support of his right to make the statement he did has

far outweighed those who agree he should have been fired.

However, there is much more to this story than what is apparent on the surface. There

are also questions that need to be asked of Juan Williams himself. Today an article was published which does ask Juan Williams a pointed question:

"Were he to get pulled over by a cop who made him get out of his car and submit to a full body-search, would he say “That’s OK officer. I know you’re just expressing your honest feeling that most black people driving nice cars are criminals”?

Unfortunately Juan Williams himself perpetuated the idea in his own statement that he was fired by NPR BECAUSE he did not fit NPR's mold as a Black liberal.

Mold? What mold Juan?

You were already on notice from NPR for other infractions and this time as stated by NPR you were fired due to breach of your employer's ethics code. A reminder of what those codes are which Juan Williams agreed to follow in signing his contract with NPR:

http://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr/ethics/ethics_code.html

Now, lets compare Juan Williams' statement about being frightened of getting on planes with people in "Muslim garb" to the point made by the author of this article, would Juan Williams have a problem being pulled over for driving while Black simply because the police officer had an "honest feeling that most black people driving nice cars are criminals"? Note, it doesn't have to be "nice cars", it can be any car can't it? The point being that this Black man is in the wrong neighborhood, he must be up to no good, he doesn't belong here, reason for suspicion.

While racism against African Americans has become RIGHTFULLY politically incorrect in this country to publicly espouse, it hasn't stopped die hard racists from continuing to flaunt their racism. Take the case of White Nationalism which exists here til this day. Leading the pack of US White Nationalists is David Duke. What is he up to these days besides announcing his potential run for the presidency in 2012? Well David Duke has glommed on to a recent news item about a cheerleader in Texas who was raped at a drunken party in 2008. Evidently the rapist was allowed to continue playing football while the girl was kicked off her cheer team for refusing to cheer him. The story is outrageous, but what aspect of the story did David Duke hone in on? The fact that the rapist was Black, and that these sort of things didn't occur in Silsbee, Texas until Blacks started moving in.
This is important, watch David Duke's video HERE: at 4:40 he states,

"There was a time when Silsbee High School was entirely European American, parents never had to worry about their teenage girl getting raped at school or at a school party, much less gang raped, during that time gang rapes of 16 year old girls was simply inconceivable"

Student while Black. Before these non-White Europeans moved in there was never anything to worry about at Silsbee High. Got that? White Europeans don't do such things, never in Silsbee. Silsbee was the perfect little White hamlet at one time wasn't it Mr. Duke?

There's just one problem with Mr. Duke's statement (besides the point that it is utter RACISM), while unable to find evidence of past gang rapes in Silsbee which I am SURE have occurred since gang rape in this country crosses all socio-economic and racial boundaries and does not stop at any municiple border, I was able to find the list of registered sex offenders for the town of Silsbee, and surprise surprise NOT, there are White registered sex offenders a plenty in this priorly perfect little hamlet. Note: the term "aggravated sexual assault"=rape.

http://www.city-data.com/so/so-Silsbee-Texas.html

Now back to Juan Willliams being frightened of those in "Muslim garb". Just as David Dukes utter racism paints Blacks as the criminal element bringing "this sort of thing" to what used to be the perfect little White hamlet of Silsbee, Texas, so is Juan Williams statement that he is fearful of those in "Muslim garb" RACIST. To collectively hang the tag of criminal on ANY group of people is RACIST. Juan Williams would NOT accept being pulled over for "driving while black" any more than he would accept David Duke's assertion that Silsbee, Texas was just a wonderful place to live before the undesirables (Blacks) moved into town.

Just as David Duke's racism is unacceptable, so was Juan Williams' statement and those supporting his right to have this "feeling" are both unacceptable.

Fear of those in "Muslim garb" or Muslims in general=fear of those "driving while Black"/fear of "undesirables" (African Americans) in the neighborhood.

While it is RIGHTFULLY politically incorrect and WRONG to harbor racist sentiments against African Americans in this country, it must ALSO become unacceptable to harbor racist sentiments towards Muslims.

NO TO RACISM no matter what form it takes.

NO TO RACISM against Muslims, it is time to bury the acceptance of this vile sentiment.