Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Hate

There is so much hate floating around out there. People are picketing the funerals of soldiers carrying signs that say things like "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers." They even have a music video. If you want to chuckle and have your hair stand up on end at the same time, take a look at http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1228470/god_hates_the_world_music_video/. It's not so funny that a Congressman, Peter King, is going to hold hearings on the threat posed by American Muslims. Unless this will be followed up by hearings om the threat posed by Conservative Christians, Catholic Priests, and Tea Party members, I think there is too much political posturing, scapegoating, and appealing to fear and anger going on. The same could be said of the reaction to the attempt to construct an Islamic Center near 'ground zero.' I have never heard a valid reason for stopping adherents of a specific religion from locating their facilities anywhere they want in violation of the spirit of religious and other freedoms we invoke all the time, if not the Constitution. I have hear a lot of chatter about what would happen if they built it, and how Muslims are not real Americans. It's like the chatter you hear about how our President is a socialist, fascist, communist, foreigner, accusations hard to separate from the hate and vitriol running through them and the racism that sufuses the whole subject. The chatter that is echoed by elected representatives at every level, and played upon all too often. Peter King is the official counterpart to idiots who walk around and quote selectively from the Quran to show how awful Islam is. Have they opend a Bible before? Do we support slavery and stoning? Do these people have any idea of the living and breathing reality of Islam. Do they want to know the living and breathing reality of anything, or are they happier with their hate? They might be happy with it, but the rest of us shouldn't be. We can't be. We also can't continue to be oblivious to it, whether intentionally or not. This is a real threat that we can't be content to simply laugh at from our living rooms. It is time to challenge the politics of hate and fear, and to tell its adherents and facilitators that their time is drawing to an end. It is well past time.

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