Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Opinion
By Matthew Duss
Published September 22, 2010, issue of October 01, 2010.


After the last several months, it should be clear that the controversy over the Park 51 Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is about more than sensitivity to the families of the 9/11 victims and the sacredness of the site where their loved ones were murdered. In places as far from Lower Manhattan as Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Temecula, Calif., Muslim houses of worship, and the people who pray in them, have come under attack by conservative activists as representing an American beachhead for Muslim extremism.

Whether it’s Newt Gingrich peddling false stories of “creeping sharia” (strict Islamic law) to an audience of very serious people at the American Enterprise Institute, or the Washington Times running endless editorials and op-eds from conspiracy theorists like Frank Gaffney warning that President Obama “may actually still be a Muslim,” or Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney shamelessly and falsely asserting that Park 51 leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has “terror-related connections,” it’s clear that quite a few conservative elites see political profit in stoking Americans’ fear of Islam.

Such hostility toward Muslims is unfortunately not marginal in the pro-Israel community — unless one is prepared to define the huge annual policy conference of one of Washington’s foremost lobbies as “marginal.” At an AIPAC conference in March 2009, to take just one example, terrorism expert Steve Emerson spent 40 minutes stoking the worst fears of the mostly elderly attendees with a talk called “Tentacles of Terror: The Global Reach of Islamic Radicalism.” It could just as easily have been called “Scaring the Living Crap Out of Bubbe and Zayde.” As long as Jews are encouraged to believe that scary Muslims are hiding under every American bed, the idea is perpetuated that support for the Jewish state is a zero-sum contest between favoring Israel and favoring Arabs and Muslims. For too many American Jews, smearing Islam is seen as a legitimate expression of Zionism.

Groups like The Israel Project, the Middle East Media Research Institute and Middle East Forum seem to exist for no other reason than to spotlight the very worst aspects of Muslim societies. Magazines like Commentary and the Weekly Standard regularly traffic in the crudest stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, and promote the harshest measures for dealing with them. Musing over the appropriateness of targeting Palestinian civilians during the Gaza conflict, Standard contributing editor Michael Goldfarb wrote approvingly, “To wipe out a man’s entire family, it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t give his colleagues at least a moment’s pause.”


Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/131502/#ixzz10SsXWViw

[Ozymanithrax]

1. The Conservative Christian Community stokes fears of Islam...

for political purposes. There are more hateful Christians to stoke this fear, and more ignorant Christians to believe in it. I mean, just to be fair...

[bemildred]

2. Or even just "for profit".

It's easy work, the benefits are good, you get to be a quasi-bigshot.

[Ken Burch]

3. I'm sincerely impressed that Forward did this story.

Maybe they're remembering that they used to be a radical paper, back in the day.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

4. I was as well.

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. I have very much noticed a divide even here on DU between those who

are pro-Israel but recognize the inherent unfairness and danger of whipping up hostility against Muslims in general and those who consider hostility against Muslims part and parcel of their "pro-Israeli" point of view.

To be fair and I am talking mostly about the other forums like LBN and General - I have seen some posters who are clearly and perhaps even stridently pro-Israel - who very much recognize just how dangerous and immoral it is to promote hostility against Muslims. Unfortunately, I have also seen the opposite.

I suppose this is a microcosm of the discussion in the larger world. The Jewish Community Center of Manhattan has been working closely with and has been very supportive of Park 51 leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in helping him and his organization develop plans for the community center in lower Manhattan. I would guess that many supporters of he Jewish Community Center of Manhattan could be fairly characterized as "pro-Israeli". On the other hand -if one just takes a look at the reply comments to this article on Forward we can see some real examples of chilling hatred and bigotry.