I guess the “freedoms” which our troops are defending in Iraq don’t include freedom of worship for anyone who isn’t a Christian, as Larry Johnson makes clear. And no matter how unamerican we consider the actions of those on the far right who seek to demonize Representative Ellison merely on the basis of his faith, their protests and prejidicial invective should come as no surprise to anyone.
For in America, we have long had a pernicious and disruptive force in our politics that places tribal loyalty over loyalty to the principles upon which this nation was founded. This schism in our political consciousness existed well before the searing events of 9/11, and has made its appeared in all its divisive ugliness and brutality throughout our national history.
From the genocidal treatment of the Native Americans to the atrocity of slavery, from the denial of civil rights to African Americans in the South to the denial of those same civil liberties to Asian Americans out West, from the repeated communist scares in the 20th Century to the various relious conflicts that have seemingly always been with us (the origin of Rhode Island is but one early example of American religious strife), we have long been a country derelict in in its pursuit liberty and justice for all. You need look no farther than the numerous anti-immigration movements throughout our history to see that this is a constant and consistent thread woven deep within the fabric of our national character.
So the vehement and exaggerated hatred of Muslims in America should come as no surprise. They fit so many of these categories. Much as international communism was trumpeted as the “greatest danger to our freedoms and liberties” in the late 20th Century, Islam is perceived by many today as the great adversary of America in the 21st. And it is easy to see why.
Many American muslims are also immigrants, or African Americans. Thus, they already fall within three of the despised categories demarcated by those who define the “Real America” as white, nativist and Christian . Add in the shock of 9/11, and it isn’t surprising that the mere existence of Muslims in our midst has created the perfect storm which rages in the mind of those who would limit America to a self contained entity of lily white, Christian men and women living free in an Ocean of despotic, dangerous and dastardly others.
For that is the
