| It has been six years since John le Carre wrote "America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. ... The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press."
I look around today - and I yearn for the relative sanity of 2004. That is because today the anti-Islamic bigotry has crossed the line and is firmly into terrorism territory, and I can tell you this without a shadow of a doubt: If I was a Muslim living in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I would sure as hell be terrified after this weekend. First the site where the new Islamic Center is being constructed became a crime scene when four pieces of heavy construction equipment were doused with gasoline and torched.
Then as leaders of the congregation looked over the scene, shots were fired.
Rutherford County Sheriff's deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired this afternoon near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.
The report came just hours after a fire of suspicious nature damaged construction equipment at the site.
A group of congregation members was at the site looking at the damage done to construction equipment by the fire overnight when they heard nine shots fired from two directions.
The incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. The congregation members reported hearing six shots coming from one direction, and about three minutes later they heard three more shots from another direction, said Saleh Sbenaty, a congregation member and MTSU professor.
Professor Sbetany stressed that they were not certain if the gunfire was meant to frighten them, or if it was unrelated, but in light of the fire the night before and the anti-Islamic fervor that is gripping the nation, they reported the incident to the police and it is being investigated. That anti-Islamic fervor seems to be particularly acute in middle Tennessee, even though the local Islamic community has been there for 30 years and there has never been a hint of trouble before the current shameful hysteria that has too many formerly-sensible people in it's thrall because the fright-wing has made hating on Muslims into a political cudgel to wield against liberals and Democrats.
Opponents of a new Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer; they are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the U.S. government.
"They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group," Bob Shelton, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in the area, told The Associated Press.
Shelton was among several hundred demonstrators who recently wore "Vote for Jesus" T-shirts and carried signs that said "No Sharia law for USA!," referring to the Islamic code of law.
Others took their opposition further, spray painting a sign announcing the "Future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro" and tearing it up.
Earlier this summer opponents criticized the planned mosque at hearings held by the Rutherford County Commission, as supporters held prayer vigils.
At one such prayer vigil, WTVF reported opponents speaking out against construction.
"No mosque in Murfreesboro. I don't want it. I don't want them here," Evy Summers said to WTVF. "Go start their own country overseas somewhere. This is a Christian country. It was based on Christianity."
I have no words for how angry that makes me. Just who the hell does Evy Summers think she is? Go start their own country overseas somewhere. This is a Christian country.?
No, it is not, and the Founding Fathers never meant it to be such. In fact, they went to great lengths to codify that it most certainly was not a Christian nation. They put a wall between church and state in the Constitution, and then in 1797 it was spelled out in no uncertain terms in the Treaty of Tripoli, which states: "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
It just doesn't get any plainer than that.
It is frustrating sharing a planet, let alone a nation, with small-minded, pants-pissers like Evy Summers and Bob Shelton. As distasteful as I find the very idea of religion, I am far more offended by the bigotry, ignorance and stupidity of small-minded cretins like Evy and Bob.
The social contract that has held this nation together for over two centuries is a delicate piece of fabric, and what Evy and Bob are not stopping to consider is the fact that if a group they dislike can be denied their rights, is that one always ends up on the "unpopular" side of that equation eventually.
Indeed, the seeds are already being planted by the likes of Beck and Palin. Less than 24 hours after he attempted to hijack the legacy of Dr. King and claim the mantle of the Civil Rights movement for white conservatives, he was out there setting the wedge and swinging the sledge, asserting that while President Obama might be a Christian, he isn't the "right kind" of Christian, he is some alien sort of Christian that "normal" Americans don't recognize. (This is rich indeed, coming, as it does, from a Mormon.)
Of course, any "unity" that might have come from that farce was short-lived.
Less than 24 hours after the Beck-analia on the National Mall on Saturday, he was on Fox and drawing the division lines. The "other" is scary and the President is the "other."
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck voiced sharper criticism of President Obama's religious beliefs on Sunday than he and other speakers offered from the podium of the rally Beck organized at the Lincoln Memorial a day earlier.
During an interview on "Fox News Sunday," which was filmed after Saturday's rally, Beck claimed that Obama "is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor-and-victim."
"People aren't recognizing his version of Christianity," Beck added.
Beck's attacks represent a continuing attempt to characterize Obama as a radical...
Religious bigotry opens up so many more people to hate than just race. You still get to hate the black people, and quite a few hispanic people, if you hate liberation theology - which as far as I can tell is the most in line with the actual teachings of Jesus.
And while it's unseemly to hate people just for being from the middle east - especially considering all the trouble Uncle Sam has stirred up over there ever since the first drop of oil hit the global market - you can hate a lot more people - over a billion, world-wide - if you hate them for being Muslim. That opens up wide swaths of Asia.
And the Jews - they are useful sometimes, but really, they're gonna burn in hell anyway, so it won't be any big deal severing those ties...
And then there are those Hindus...they really do worship a monkey-god, and a whole bunch of other gods, too. And then you have the Buddhists...what's up with them? How can you have a religion with no god at all? And since we're already dealing with atheists...
And once they have purified the country for Christianity, then they can set about purifying...Christianity.
That is where this road ends up, people. If Evy and Bob get their way this time, there will be a next time. Because there is always a next time. What Evy and Bob are not stopping and thinking through is that it is only a matter of time before there is no one left to speak for them, when someone decides they don't like the way they worship their lord. |
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