Sticks And Stones Will Break My Bones, But Names Will Be Reported

In a genuinely silly piece on supposed discrimination against our beleagured Muslim population, the Washington Post reports on the results of a survey among American Muslims which indicate that their feelings have been hurt at slightly higher than the national average:

Fifteen percent of Arab Americans in the Detroit area said they have experienced harassment or intimidation since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a significant number wish other Americans understood them better, according to a University of Michigan report to be released today.
Derogatory comments — “Go back where you came from!” or “Ooh, are you a member of al Qaeda?” — were the most common form of abuse. Others alleged job discrimination and a small number reported physical assaults, researchers said. Forty-two percent of Muslim Arabs interviewed for the survey in Detroit — an area with one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the nation — feel their religion is not respected by mainstream society. Nearly 60 percent said they worry more about their families’ future than before the attacks.

Well, excuse me, but no s**t, Sherlock! I guarantee you that 60% of all Americans worry about the future of their families since 9/11. I worry about it every time I see my granddaughter, the Little Admiral. In terms of respect for their religion, it would help if groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other such organizations would worry less about namecalling and more about urging American Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement. Instead, we mostly hear how our foreign policy led to 9/11 and our need to listen to the terrorists rather than hunt them down and kill them.
And now we have this ridiculous study that claims 15% have received serious harrassment, only to find out that tasteless jokes count in the survey. Gee, can I start a survey among Irish-Americans that count every alcohol-related wisecrack I ever heard? How about having the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League ask their members if they’ve ever been asked, “What do you hear from the mob these days?” (On second thought, let’s not. They’d actually take that suggestion seriously.)
You want our respect? Suck it up, buttercup, and quit whining when people dislike you. Idiots existed before 9/11, and they’ll be around after we beat the Islamofascists, too. You’re alive and overwhelmingly unharmed, which is more than I can say for 3,000 people in New York who made the mistake of going to work on 9/11.
The survey actually demonstrates how remarkably level-headed Americans have been in separating Islamofascist lunatics and their activities from the Muslims who live amongst us, despite the fact that some of the lunatics hid rather successfully within those communities prior to the attacks. That, however, does not qualify as news to the Washington Post or the University of Michigan, who conducted the study, and it doesn’t fit within the “Americans are closed off loners” meme that the press has pushed during this electoral cycle, hoping that voters conclude that John Kerry is the cure for the disease.

One thought on “Sticks And Stones Will Break My Bones, But Names Will Be Reported”

  1. Rhetorical hypothesis

    Moreover, only 3% of the respondents ever faced any serious negative experience (whatever that meant). So the survey shows only the FEAR of reprisal and DISPROVES a climate of anti-Arab feeling.

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