Dominists -- the Failure of Power
JackeM, takes issue with me for using the term "dominionist" as applied to Christians who are as happy to convert to their religion by the sword as they are to force their religion down my unwilling throat by laws that favor their somewhat whacked out brand of religion. As a response I offer the following story, these people are dominionists -- Repugly Dominionists to boot:
Radio Hoax Exposes Anti-Muslim Sentiment in U.S
By Bernd Debusmann, Reuters
WASHINGTON (Dec. 1) -- When radio host Jerry
Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States
should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or
a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed
instantly.
The first caller to the station in Washington said that
Klein must be "off his rocker." The second
congratulated him and added: "Not only do you
tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship
them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."
Another said that tattoos, armbands and other
identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's
licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far
enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked.
"You have to set up encampments like during World
War Two with the Japanese and Germans."
At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments
on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst"
would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that
he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are
not uncommon in post-9/11 America.
"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have
agreed for one second with anything I said," he told
his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which
covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland.
"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's
bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent
moon on their driver's license on their passport or
birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.
"Because basically what you just did was show me
how the German people allowed what happened to
the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them,
we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them
wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them
in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill
them all because they are dangerous."
The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after
the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an
interview afterwards he had been surprised by the
response.
"The switchboard went from empty to totally
jammed within minutes," said Klein. "There were
plenty of callers angry with me, but there were
plenty who agreed."
Those in agreement are not a fringe minority.
A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000
Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of
requiring Muslims in the United States, including
American citizens, to carry special identification.
Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would
not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third
thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized
with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the
September 11, 2001, attacks on New York
and Washington.
A poll carried out by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, found that
for one in three Americans, the word Islam triggers
negative connotations such as "war," "hatred" and
"terrorist."
The war in Iraq has contributed to such perceptions.
Klein's show followed a week of heated discussions on
talk radio, including his own, and online forums over
an incident on November 22 involving six Muslim clerics.
They were handcuffed and taken off a US Airways flight
after passengers reported "suspicious behavior" that
included praying in the departure gate area.
The clerics, on their way to a meeting of the North
American Imams Federation, were detained in a holding
cell, questioned by police and FBI agents, and released.
Muslim community leaders saw the incident as
yet more evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice.
Ignorance Seen as Key Problem
Several American Muslims interviewed on the
subject of prejudice over the past few weeks said
ignorance was at the core of the problem.
"The level of knowledge is very, very low," said
Mohamed Esa, a U.S. Muslim of Arab descent who
teaches a course on Islam at McDaniel College
in Maryland. "There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the
world and some people think they are all terrorists."
Hossam Ahmed, a retired Air Force Reserve colonel
who occasionally leads prayer meetings for the small
Muslim congregation at the Pentagon, agreed.
"Ignorance is the number one problem. Education is
of the essence."
There are no hard figures on how many Muslims
have been subject to harassment or prejudice and
community leaders say that ugly incidents can
prompt spontaneous expressions of support. Such
as the e-mail a Minneapolis woman sent to CAIR
after the imams were taken off their flight.
"I would like to ... help," the e-mail said. "While I
cannot offer plane tickets, I would be happy to drive
at least 2 or 3 of them. My car is small, but at least
some of our hearts in this land of the free are large."
And optimists saw signs of change in the November
4 election of the first Muslim to the U.S. House of
Representatives, which has 435 members.
Democrat Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old African-American
lawyer, did not stress his religion during his campaign
for a Minnesota seat, but said his victory would "signal
to people who are not Muslims that Muslims
have a lot to offer to the United States and the
improvement of our country."
Radio Hoax Exposes Anti-Muslim Sentiment in U.S
By Bernd Debusmann, Reuters
WASHINGTON (Dec. 1) -- When radio host Jerry
Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States
should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or
a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed
instantly.
The first caller to the station in Washington said that
Klein must be "off his rocker." The second
congratulated him and added: "Not only do you
tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship
them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."
Another said that tattoos, armbands and other
identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's
licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far
enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked.
"You have to set up encampments like during World
War Two with the Japanese and Germans."
At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments
on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst"
would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that
he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are
not uncommon in post-9/11 America.
"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have
agreed for one second with anything I said," he told
his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which
covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland.
"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's
bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent
moon on their driver's license on their passport or
birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.
"Because basically what you just did was show me
how the German people allowed what happened to
the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them,
we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them
wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them
in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill
them all because they are dangerous."
The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after
the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an
interview afterwards he had been surprised by the
response.
"The switchboard went from empty to totally
jammed within minutes," said Klein. "There were
plenty of callers angry with me, but there were
plenty who agreed."
Those in agreement are not a fringe minority.
A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000
Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of
requiring Muslims in the United States, including
American citizens, to carry special identification.
Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would
not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third
thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized
with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the
September 11, 2001, attacks on New York
and Washington.
A poll carried out by the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, found that
for one in three Americans, the word Islam triggers
negative connotations such as "war," "hatred" and
"terrorist."
The war in Iraq has contributed to such perceptions.
Klein's show followed a week of heated discussions on
talk radio, including his own, and online forums over
an incident on November 22 involving six Muslim clerics.
They were handcuffed and taken off a US Airways flight
after passengers reported "suspicious behavior" that
included praying in the departure gate area.
The clerics, on their way to a meeting of the North
American Imams Federation, were detained in a holding
cell, questioned by police and FBI agents, and released.
Muslim community leaders saw the incident as
yet more evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice.
Ignorance Seen as Key Problem
Several American Muslims interviewed on the
subject of prejudice over the past few weeks said
ignorance was at the core of the problem.
"The level of knowledge is very, very low," said
Mohamed Esa, a U.S. Muslim of Arab descent who
teaches a course on Islam at McDaniel College
in Maryland. "There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the
world and some people think they are all terrorists."
Hossam Ahmed, a retired Air Force Reserve colonel
who occasionally leads prayer meetings for the small
Muslim congregation at the Pentagon, agreed.
"Ignorance is the number one problem. Education is
of the essence."
There are no hard figures on how many Muslims
have been subject to harassment or prejudice and
community leaders say that ugly incidents can
prompt spontaneous expressions of support. Such
as the e-mail a Minneapolis woman sent to CAIR
after the imams were taken off their flight.
"I would like to ... help," the e-mail said. "While I
cannot offer plane tickets, I would be happy to drive
at least 2 or 3 of them. My car is small, but at least
some of our hearts in this land of the free are large."
And optimists saw signs of change in the November
4 election of the first Muslim to the U.S. House of
Representatives, which has 435 members.
Democrat Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old African-American
lawyer, did not stress his religion during his campaign
for a Minnesota seat, but said his victory would "signal
to people who are not Muslims that Muslims
have a lot to offer to the United States and the
improvement of our country."
posted by John Stone at 10:38 AM
8 Comments:
The sad thing is that the people who need to understand this, won't.
John, it might be best to just ignore Jacke. There's talk about her on the street, and the word is that she's had her happiness plug pulled. After reading some of her stuff, it appears as though she may be off her meds, too.
The Flying Imams set this thing up so it would raise a political stink and they could cry foul. No doubt the ears of the ACLU (and CAIR) swiveled like hungry dogs catching the sound of a wounded rabbit...
Non-Sharia-crazed Muslims: Fine and dandy. The bug-eyed extremists: Fuck 'um.
Anon 634: Please desist from posts attacking someone who is not in the public eye like this. Either that or have the courage to identify yourself. With the rise of anonymous posts I have been tempted to disallow all comments which are unsigned, and am considering it again. This is close to being libelous, and if Jacke wanted to persue it she could also hole me responsible ... Attack her ideas or VD(j) -- that will keep us both out of trouble.
John writes:
"JackeM, takes issue with me for using the term "dominionist" as applied to Christians who are as happy to convert to their religion by the sword as they are to force their religion down my unwilling throat by laws that favor their somewhat whacked out brand of religion. As a response I offer the following story, these people are dominionists -- Repugly Dominionists to boot:
Radio Hoax Exposes Anti-Muslim Sentiment in U.S
By Bernd Debusmann, Reuters"
I'm not sure why you tied my disagreement with you about Dominionism in with this story about Anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S., John.
Is this a new definition for Dominionism? One who expresses anti-Muslim sentiment on talk radio? Did these callers identify themselves somewhere as "Dominionists" and I missed it? The definition of "Dominionism" is anything you want it to be to make your point, it seems?
Apparently, Jacke, when one notices that the majority of those who want to shove their religion down everyone's throats and convert them, by the sword if necessary, are Muslim and NOT Christians as Mr. Stone would have everyone believe, and they speak out about that reality, that makes one a "Repugly Dominionist." Oh the irony...people speaking out about a religion that wants domionion over the earth, with followers who are prepared to use the sword towards that end are automatically considered "dominionists" by Mr. Stone and others. HA! No, not all Muslims fit the above description, but all those who do fit that description happen to be Muslim. Guess I, too, am a "Repugly Dominionist." *eyeroll*
Of course, I do not agree with the "branding" of Muslims. That would be ridiculous and cruel....kind of the same effect Mr. Stone's unfounded accusations of Christians has. My goodness, another irony....which leads to the question: Should Mr. Stone be considered a "Repugly Dominionist" since his inclination towards Christians isn't significantly different than the radio show's callers' inclination towards Muslims?
To tell the truth MommaT ... when I am sworn into the Supreme Court, or the campaign Manager for Hillary, whichever comes first, I plan on placing my hand on the collected works of Mark Twain.
"when I am sworn into the Supreme Court, or the campaign Manager for Hillary"
John, dahlink, I think there is a Dominionist law against Pastafarians serving their country in America. ;)
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