American Apologies

Via Huff Post:

“At a campaign event in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Lieutenant Governor and gubernatorial candidate Ron Ramsey (R) said that freedom of speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment, may not apply to Islam because it could be considered ‘a cult.’

During a question and answer session, an attendee said that he was concerned with an ‘invasion’ from ‘the Muslims.’ Ramsey responded that the uproar over a ‘mosque’ (in reality, the expansion of an existing Islamic community center) is justified because Sharia law is ‘scary’:

‘… I’ve been trying to learn about Sharia law. I’ve been trying to learn what it is: not good, if that’s what’s going on. You can even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, a way of life, or a cult — whatever you want to call it — and we do protect our religions. But at the same time, this is something that we are going to have to face.’”

If Dan Fanelli’s new campaign ad isn’t a blatant example of islamophobia, I don’t know what is.

Islamophobia in America has been especially rampant since the 9/11 attacks. It is defined as the dread or hatred of Islam, as well as the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures and is inferior to the West. Some even wrongfully suggest that Islam is a violent political ideology rather than a religion. This religious paranoia is disturbing and prejudice, and islamophobes tend to be ignorant people who think just because someone has a turban or the last name Khan, then they are obviously a terrorist. Such notions are horribly misguided, but they have become more and more common as the years have gone by. Who could forget all of the attacks against President Obama suspecting him of being a Muslim. First of all, so what if he was a Muslim, would that make him less fit to be President? And secondly, the implication that being a Muslim connotes violence or being untrustworthy is disgusting, considering the horrible things done by people of all religions. There are terrorists of all shapes and sizes, and there is no denying that. And it’s not like Islamic extremists are representative of the Muslim community as a whole, considering Islam is the second-largest religion in the world and the largest Muslim country is Indonesia (not in the Middle East!). The reality is that while 9/11 caused a lot of trauma for our nation, taking it out on innocent citizens is not the way to go about healing ourselves.