I believe it would be more appropriate if the question was posed another way. The more appropriate question would be: Do Muslims have a problem with America? And to that question, the answer is more than likely; yes. The events of 9/11, as well as both previous and subsequent events, demonstrate proof of this. And yes, I realize that not all Muslims are terrorists by any stretch of the imagination any more than all Catholic priests are pedophiles. But unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, when one belongs to a group, organization or institution they are associated with that “brand,” this is simply reality; people need to come to terms with this and just get over it. As the saying goes: “if you can’t take the eat, stay out of the kitchen.”
Anyhow, I believe it’s time that we stop with this nonsense that it’s taboo to criticize religion; regardless of what the religion is, whether Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, etc., etc. Religions and their advocates have gotten a free ride for far too long in this country, and very few, if any of them, are worth a dime. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: TIME
You don’t have to be prejudiced against Islam to believe, as many Americans do, that the area around Ground Zero is a sacred place. But sadly, in an election season, such sentiments have been stoked into a political issue. As the debate has grown more heated, Park51, as the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is called, has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance. But it is plain that many of Park51’s opponents are motivated by deep-seated Islamophobia.
The proposed site is close not just to Ground Zero; it’s also a stone’s throw from strip clubs, liquor stores and other establishments typical of lower Manhattan. Muslims have been praying in the building for nearly a year, a fact that has got lost in the noise of the protests. But since early August, it has been the scene of frequent demonstrations, with signs saying things such as “All I Need to Know About Islam, I Learned on 9/11.” The husband-and-wife team behind Park51, Imam Feisal Rauf and Daisy Khan, seem stunned into paralysis: while opponents cast them as extremists sympathetic to al-Qaeda, they have given very few interviews themselves. Pressure is mounting on the couple to move their center to a less polarizing location.
The controversy has also brought new scrutiny to other examples of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim protests, raising much larger questions: Does America have a problem with Islam? Have the terrorist attacks of 9/11 – and other attempts since – permanently excluded Muslims from full assimilation into American life?
Although the American strain of Islamophobia lacks some of the traditional elements of religious persecution – there’s no sign that violence against Muslims is on the rise, for instance – there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that hate speech against Muslims and Islam is growing both more widespread and more heated. Meanwhile, a new TIME-Abt SRBI poll found that 46% of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers. Only 37% know a Muslim American. Overall, 61% oppose the Park51 project, while just 26% are in favor of it. Just 23% say it would be a symbol of religious tolerance, while 44% say it would be an insult to those who died on 9/11.
Islamophobia in the U.S. doesn’t approach levels seen in other countries where Muslims are in a minority. But to be a Muslim in America now is to endure slings and arrows against your faith – not just in the schoolyard and the office but also outside your place of worship and in the public square, where some of the country’s most powerful mainstream religious and political leaders unthinkingly (or worse, deliberately) conflate Islam with terrorism and savagery. In France and Britain, politicians from fringe parties say appalling things about Muslims, but there’s no one in Europe of the stature of a former House Speaker who would, as Newt Gingrich did, equate Islam with Nazism.
I think that it’s interesting how Muslims have increasingly become scapegoats for Americans.
In the beginning of the war on terror, in the aftermath of 9/11, it was very clear who was responsible and who was to blame. Islam wasn’t seen as a violent religion, the focus was on the men responsible for the attacks, not their ideology. However, as time wore on, and Men like Osama Bin laden continued to escape justice, the American people have begun to lose interest in them, and have instead targeted the beliefs they say they acted under.
In addition to all that, the wars that America has started in the mideast have been dragging on and on, with no end in sight, and so its natural to shift your focus to a secondary party that seemingly deserves hatred.
In reality, Muslims have been major players in terrorism for decades. Americans have a short memory, but one can certainly recall the hijacking of planes in the 70s and 80s, in addition to all of the attacks on embassies across the globe.
America is not focusing on a party that “seemingly” deserves hatred, the Muslims have earned that hatred; and then some. If anything, the United States is the most apologetic, politically correct country on Earth. Everybody gets a free ride in the United States, including Muslims – the good ones and the bad ones…