Not if You're a Muslim
Double standards, something which we often attribute to Muslims is of course nothing new for non-Muslims as well. Several issues on double standards such as: America: Land of the Free? Not if You’re a Muslim, by Mary Shaw – Democratic Underground. In this article she shows how Muslims in the US are treated as second rate citizens, and considered to be a threat to national security. A reference to the Jim Crow law’s is made:
Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, summed it up well: “Racial profiling is to the 21st century what Jim Crow laws were to the last, turning entire groups of people into second-class citizens and denying them the rights to which we all are due.”
The reason for this article is probably the survey at Cornell University:
A recent Cornell University survey found that almost half of all Americans believe that the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. This bigoted, racist attitude is quite simply appalling. It essentially favors racial profiling; yet a recent report by Amnesty International presents strong evidence indicating that racial profiling does not work.
This is a survey used by Daniel Pipes one of the major anti-islam/anti radical islam prophets. According to Habib Sidiqui Pipes supports the concept of rounding up millions of Muslim Americans and interning them in concentration camps just as was done with the Japanese during WWII and he defends racial profiling.
To support his sinister proposal on internment of Muslims, Daniel cites a poll, conducted by sophomore students in the Department of Communication at Cornell University.[7] The report was released on Dec. 17, 2004. He writes, �For years, it has been my position that the threat of radical Islam implies an imperative to focus security measures on Muslims. � And so, I was encouraged by a just-released Cornell University opinion survey that finds nearly half the U.S. population agreeing with this proposition. Specifically, 44 percent of Americans believe that government authorities should direct special attention towards Muslims living in the United States, either by registering their whereabouts, profiling them, monitoring them, monitoring their mosques or infiltrating their organizations.�
Although Sidiqui has a nice analysis he falls into the same trap as a lot of people do with the following statement:
So, rather than shedding crocodile tears for Muslim Americans� image, Daniel and his ilk should examine at their own culpability and work towards improving the image of Bush and America around the world. That would be more productive and commendable. Otherwise, it won�t be too long that their honeymoon with Bush would be over. And who knows they might find themselves in the same spots visited by others like Julius Streicher, Hans Frank, Adolf Eichman, Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering for crimes against humanity!
Now he is attacking the person and as so often not the person’s statement. Does this mean he agrees? His only proposal is that people should know more about Islam; a little bit naieve I think. This is the old contacthypothesis: if you have contact with people of other groups you are probably to like them more than if you don’t have contact. Ah, if things were just that simple…
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