Holy Shit, A Post (about Muslims)

It’s been a while. So thank God it’s just me that has any expectation to write something. For this post I want to jump on the Juan Williams v. NPR discussion bandwagon. I’m going to do something shocking (maybe) off the bat: Defend NPR. The reason is that NPR asks its news analysts to not express their political (or in this case social) opinions, just as The Office producers have asked their writers to find any possible way to drive the show into the ground.

The reason why is not because NPR wants to stifle free speech, but because they want news analysts who seem to be relatively fair minded.

Not that that’s necessary.

The question turns into this: Was what Juan Williams said so bad? This is what he said: “Look Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

This comment is along the same line of thinking as: “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage of my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved” (Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking at the PUSH convention in 1993) or “I have to say that every time I walk into a frat party and see copious amounts of Vineyard Vines shirts, pants with whales on them, and white frat boys I get nervous that I will be Iced” (Someone is bound to have said it). 

So racist.

Juan Williams is clearly no bigot, just as Jesse Jackson clearly doesn’t hate black people. Both admitted to a feeling that neither of them had any control over. Nothing in their upbringings imparted onto them a feeling that Muslims or blacks could not be trusted. Instead, they learned this feeling through experience and how Muslims and blacks are represented in the media.

That’s where the Juan Williams episode highlights a serious problem in America.

Not this serious problem. 

Put it in simple terms: You can’t talk shit about Muslims. Not here. Not anywhere. There are potential side effects: Losing your job or life. And Muslims do not come off as the most rational of groups in the daily news. Let’s do a quick sociological experiment. I say, “Voice of Catholicism?” Who do you think of? Pope. I say “Voice of the Yankees?” Who do you think of? Bob Sheppard. And when I say, “Voice of Islam?” Who do you think of? I dare you to say that Osama bin Laden didn’t cross your mind. But suppose he didn’t, suppose another major spokesman of Islam came to mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the 9/11 Mosque cleric), or maybe Louis Farrakhan? Each of those names does not scream “rational”. And when Muslims do make the news…well…you know how that sentence will end.

American-Islamic relations aren’t exactly peachy right now. What makes it worse is that it is impossible to have a legitimate discussion about it. What happened to Juan Williams demonstrates that Muslims carry a considerable amount of clout in American political talk despite the small number of Muslims that live in America. Also, there seems to be a real movement among Muslim organizations to stifle the first amendment rights of others. What’s worse—we allow it. A part of me wonders if some of the reluctance to accept or make anti-Muslim comments comes from fear. Muslims throughout the world have made it abundantly clear what the plan is for people who disparage Islam.

We can’t just talk about this?

I’ve got no real way to finish this because I’m too carried away with the Phillies hopefully destroying the Giants in the first inning. Just for clarification, I am not a Phillies fan; I just really hate the Giants.