Letters to the Editor
LeCastor
Published Letters: 1916 Editor's Choice: 86
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Man:
[Read the article: Dutch Cabinet pushes for burqa ban]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1)UCLA student
Yes, I think it was because he was "Middle-Eastern-looking." According to him, he was the only one in his vicinity the library who was asked for an ID. He never posed a physical threat or even verbal threat to anyone. Even when he was being tasered, the worst he said was "fuck you!".
2) I often think you have to be an American to appreciate the unique Americaness of our relationship with African Americans.
Again, kind of a low blow. It's like you're trying to end the argument by saying "because I was born here, I somehow inherently understand something that you never will." And that implies that there's no way i can argue with your superior authority on the topic. Well, let's just say that I don't think I have to give you my "america" credentials to have a discussion with you during which we assume that the other is an intellectual equal and is not inherently disadvanged in any way. Intelligent, well-informed thoughtful people can disagree. Okay? :) Why are you trying to draw these lines between "you" the American, and me? I use "our" to mean America just like you do. It seems to betray a very slight tinge of general xenophobia on your part that is amplified when you talk about Muslims.
Muslims were doing just fine until 9/11. Do i think that Muslims have been treated unfairly? Perhaps. Do I think they done NOTHING to help themselves (unlike blacks, who sold more than a little dignity to be part of mainstream America) - you bet. Do i really beliebe that American Muslims have suffered great hardship - no way!
Maybe you should get some Muslim friends, or some terrorist-looking friends (dark-skinned, middle-eastern, I have one friend like that who is an Ashkenazi born & bred European Jew). Talk to them about their experiences just walking around, travelling, interacting with scared non-terrorist-looking Americans.
or it could be that Muslim sympathy lies with the terrorists...
That's pretty much like saying that all blacks agreed with the ideology of people like Malcom X and Black Panthers. Again, look at how you draw the line between you the American, and me, the non-American. It seems you want to group people into very broad and general allegiances. Why must you group all Muslims into the same allegiance? Are you really not aware that there are many sects, from Wahhabi to Sufi?
This insipid idea that all muslims are the same and all have the same sympathies, no matter where they live, where they were born, which of the multitude of muslim countries they may be from, where they were educated, which branch of islam they practice.
We know that in Muslim countries, according to the left, at least, they hate us more than ever before. We also know that- the left at least, encourages ethnic minorities to keep as much as their old culture as possible - that assimilation is "ethnic cleansing" - but we're never supposed to believe that those same minorities would EVER plot against or at least sympathise with, the enemy? Please - Muslims have been treated poorly because they refuse to help us against out enemies...
So, if they are perceived by you, Man, and fox news, as "refusing to help us against our enemies" then they deserve to be deprived of some of their rights, even if they are US citizens? Have you heard of Japanese internment camps? Michelle Malkin actually already raised the idea for Muslims/Arabs/etc. It was done on a much, much smaller scale to German citizens in Texas. But we didn't deprive all people of Italian or German, Finnish, Bulgarian, or Serbian origin of some of their rights just because our "enemies" were from there. They are all American citizens, and we must treat them all the same, or we lose part of our own dignity and moral authority.
No, leCastor, I think Muslim women are A) brainwashed by religion, and B) carrying water for the embarassment that is their culture.
This shows a great contempt for Muslim women, you realize. You think that Muslim women, especially ones that live in the west, cannot think for themselves, and still choose to wear a headscarf, for whatever reason they want to? You think that men should make that choice for them? Come on!
I think the left is A) secretly horrified by the embarrassment that is Muslim culture, but B) brainwashed by the true believers who keep telling the West how racist it is...
Yes, I am horrified by some aspects of Muslim culture, Orthodox Jewish, Hindu, Japanese, Catholic, of evangelical culture. But I don't impute what one group of people has chosen to do with a particular religion to everyone who practices that religion. I think it's pretty ignorant, and illogical, to do that.
Now, about the West being racist.. that's a whole other conversation.
We've been incredibly tolerant and patient with a backwards philosophy that actively preaches in its mosques and on its websites that we are the enemies deserving of destruction. We've been patient with an antisemitic and antiAmerican philosophy that happens to work with the lefty playbook, but actually espouses the same words as the Klan. We'll see how you feel when it's your ox being gored...
Yes, we are a country that tolerates all sorts of backwardness, religious and otherwise. We tolerate arranged marriages, we tolerate all sorts of absolutely nutty christian sects, Jewish sects, and Muslim sects, etc. We should as a society treat them all equally.
I think when you try to characterize as Islam as a "more extreme" or "more radical" religion than the others, and you try to say that because it allegedly has these characteristics, it deserves to be treated differently from all other religions, you set yourself up for (1) people relatively easily refusing your arguments with examples from other religions, (2) a massive slippery slope that i don't think any true patriot of this country would want it to descend into.