Beheadings Fuel Backlash Against Muslims

[CShine]

EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - The recent beheadings of two American businessmen in the Middle East have added fuel to the angry backlash against Arab-Americans and Muslims that began after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The murders of Paul Johnson and Nicholas Berg triggered hate mail, verbal attacks and anti-Muslim signs. Muslims received death threats and their mosques were vandalized.

<snip>


Following Johnson's death, anti-Islam signs surfaced around the rural New Jersey neighborhood where he once lived. One read "Stamp Out Islam" next to a drawing of a boot over a crescent and star. Another, hung on a mailbox next door to Johnson's sister's home, was more detailed. "Last night I wasn't a racist, but today I feel racism towards Islamic beliefs," it read. "Last night Islamics had a chance to speak up for Paul Johnson, but today it's too late. Islamics better wake up and start thinking about tomorrow."

<snip>

Two mosques in Florida were vandalized in the days after Johnson's killing. In the Tampa suburb of Lutz, someone broke into the Islamic Community Center and scrawled "Kill All Muslims" on the mosque's interior walls, then smashed windows. In Charlotte Harbor, someone vandalized a mosque's sign and left threatening phone messages. In the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin, Mo., vandals painted a swastika and the word "Die" on the wall of the Dar-Ul-Islam mosque. In Texas, dead fish were dumped near the entrance sign to a mosque under construction in a suburb of Houston. And in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, residents urged officials this past week to reject a mosque's building application. A Baptist pastor told a public hearing he feared it would attract Islamic extremists and violence. The center was approved over boos and catcalls from the audience.

"I believe the time is coming when Muslims will not be safe inside the U.S. borders," one man wrote to the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I see nothing wrong with us doing the same things to them that they are doing to innocent people."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=3&u=/ap/20040626/ap_on_re_us/beheadings_muslim_backlash

[jukes]

1. our psyops @ work...

i am NOT falling for this even a little.




:tinfoilhat:

[Auntie Bush]

2. What???!!! Who said that?

"I see nothing wrong with us doing the same things to them that they are doing to innocent people."

I can't believe someone could suggest such a thing! What have we become under this administration?

That comment must have come from some rabid Republican Conservative.
But I won't name any names...for fear I might get sued...or arrested!

[TahitiNut]

4. That, from people who sneer at "moral relativism"!

These are people who don't even seem to be able to find an adequately low standard for their own behavior.

Coprocephalic sycophants! :puke:

[Solly Mack]

3. They were racists before, they're racist now ,and they'll be

racist tomorrow. The only thing different is they feel they have a more accepting environment to express their hate and their ignorance. I'll wager they look for any excuse to "justify" voicing their hate.

Don't blame those beheadings as the cause of your racism. As if somehow it just sparked up overnight.

These people disgust me...and the atmosphere Bush is cultivating that gives permission to such ignorance and hate that will cause harm to others also disgust and angers me.

[jdj]

6. Yeah, it's the "ist" that matters, not the particular race, where

racism is concerned.

[DBoon]

5. Also at CNN..

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/26/beheading.backlash.ap/index.html

[Gemini Cat]

7. The racism was already there with the morans.

I don't know for sure, but I'll bet their (the racist) collective stupid actions are not making the Bergs and the Johnsons feel any better.

[AliceWonderland]

8. I agree that someone who says

"Well, I wasn't a racist yesterday and today I am" was always a racist.

Then again, I find the whole thing absurd, because Islam is not a race. The level of ignorance is chilling: Muslims can be any number of ethnicities, same as Christians. Collective punishment is abhorrent. It goes against every principles of human rights, civil rights, and common decency.

[bemildred]

9. How about: "Bombings fuel backlash against Americans"?

What ever happened to "Bring it on!" anyway.