No excuse for anti-Muslim prejudice
Carolyn Zezima - Evanston, Ill.
I was absolutely horrified by the poll results cited in a recent article. USA TODAY reported that "39% of respondents to the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll said they felt at least some prejudice against Muslims." It said that 39% also "favored requiring Muslims, including U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID 'as a means of preventing terrorist attacks in the United States.' " Further, the poll found that about one-third of respondents "said U.S. Muslims were sympathetic to al-Qaeda, and that 22% said they wouldn't want Muslims as neighbors" ("USA's Muslims under a cloud," Cover story, Life, Aug. 10).
How can these respondents live with themselves?
Do these 39% fear and hate the Muslim "boogeyman" so strongly they would demonize Muslims by invoking the use of special IDs similar to practices during the Holocaust? If 39% of our country don't mind throwing out the constitutional rights of our fellow citizens, what's next? Internment? Indeed, why stop at Muslims? In this climate of fear, every outsider is seen as a potential threat. But who are the real Americans and who are the outsiders?
Terrorism exists. It has and probably always will. Every country and ethnicity has had to deal with it. But that is no excuse for this hatred.
I watched 9/11 unfold in real time from my office window about 40 blocks north in Manhattan. And though I was safe, I didn't know it at the time. My initial reaction was anger, finger-pointing and mistrust. But as a civilized New Yorker, I calmed down and moved on. I will still get on planes, go to major tourist attractions, oppose our invasion of Iraq, welcome all good people, including Muslims, into my life and continue to fight for the America those 39% seem willing to trade away for some false sense of security.
Like the remaining 61%, I will not sit quietly and let this infectious disease of fear and mistrust contaminate my soul or destroy my country.
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2 comments:
Unfortunately you are known by the company you keep. Another recent poll showed a significant number of Muslims in the US who are okay with suicide bombing. The Muslim community has been very slow and very quiet about speaking out against terrorism. My guess is the poll was phrased in such a way to get the extreme and repulsive suggestions about ID cards and the like, but a healthy suspicion about Muslims is an understandable, if unpleasant result of the reality of the situation.
I think they should deport all of them.
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