🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi Bill,

> When I look up the word "racist" in the dictionary,  it says
> discrimination based on RACE. Since I am targeting specific Islamics in my
> discussion and this is a religion practiced by many different races, this
> word is not appropriate in this situation.

Okay.  I can accept your point with respect to you and your attitudes.  But
I maintain that a huge component of the prejudice we're seeing really is 
racism.  Most of these ignorant Americans spewing "Death to Muslims" posts
are about equally likely to spew "Death to Arabs" messages, and many
such messages about Muslims refer to the alleged physical characteristics
and appearance of Muslims.  That is certainly racism.

> Now the word bigot means one who is strongly partial to their own group,
> religion, etc.

Not at all.  That's the most benevolent possible interpretation anybody
could apply to the word.  Most immigrant groups tend to form their own
communities for the sake of comfort, security, comradeship, etc.  That's
a natural reaction to entering a strange new home.

Bigotry is an irrational hatred of a group of people, with no legitimate
justification for that hatred.

> Now that does not exactly describe persons wanting specific
> islamics to be investigated in America, but if you insist on name calling,
> then bigot would be closer, but note it still would not apply in this
> situation.

It seems that you're saying that irrational suspicion isn't the same thing
as irrational hatred.  All I can say is that if they aren't identical, the
association is very close -- and they result in all of the same destructive
effects to the innocent victims involved.

> Personally, I think the words "realistic" and "pragmatic" are most
> accurate for this situation. If I was to go about looking for a terrorist
> in America, I would need to start somewhere. Since these terrorists are
> Islamics, it would be just plain silly of me to start looking by
> interviewing Swedish Baptists correct? If I was required to interview
> persons of all religions because not doing so would be considered bigoted,
> then I should think it would be a big waste of my time.

You may be prepared to declare the entire citizenry of the US as suspects
and then proceed to interrogate anyone who looks extra suspicious, but I
assure you that America is not about that.  You didn't like my allusion to
the McCarthy era, but that is precisely what you're proposing and what I
find odious.

Bill, something I found revealing about your previous post was how you
admit that "Some of these [Islamic] people are patriotic American citizen."

I mean, that's an extraordinary thing to say -- that you concede that some
members of a given minority are patriotic Americans.  SOME???  Can you even
imagine anybody saying such a thing about whatever minorities you belong
to?  You must see how offensive an attitude like that is to those whom you
would subject to officially sanctioned suspicion.

If the best that you can say about Muslim Americans is that some of them
are patriotic Americans, then you do indeed have bigoted views.

- Jeff


-- 
  Jeff Cowen     \@ ^\
'98 Rans V-Rex    \==-\-%
  Waltham, MA    ()    O

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