This week I have Jake on to discuss what is an actual case of Islamophobia. That is, the biker “protest” outside of an Arizona mosque where members wore t-shirts saying “F*** Islam” and carried weapons.
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In the last few months my Facebook has been littered with posts from my conservative, or religious, or military contacts who are outraged and threatening violence over this “step on the flag challenge.”
That is the closest comparison I have been able to see and it is something that many people could easily empathize with the kind of reactions that Muslims have to the whole Muhammad cartoon thing.
Personally, I am in favor of protecting the rights of both activities under the First Amendment, but that does nothing to lessen the offense perceived by followers of Islam or patriotic Americans. But I don’t think that any level of offense justifies violence.
I would be interested to see what others think about that comparison.
Hello my name is Ben and I’m a stuck record.
Anyway in regard to the whole “offense” thing. You need to bear in mind that there are a growing number of Ex-muslims who are closeted within their communities and families. Surely they are the most vulnerable in all this. They are taking for “terrorists” by these fuds and as “native informers” at best by their peers if they out themselves. At worst they risk death. Things like Charlie Hebdo, the novels of Salman Rushdie and many other forms of skeptical and satirical media both from East and West, provide a release for these people.
Some people (whose names start with C) like to portray this as white people sneering at poor brown people but they, for some reason, dare not contemplate that these outlets provide these same brown people the means and the impetus to free themselves from the more oppressive aspects of their own communities.
All that being said this Arizona protest sounds pretty creepy especially the second amendment part. There might be some sort of public order issue at risk here. It could also be argued that the intimidation caused by the protest infringes on the freedom of religion.
Although if it is indeed the case that this centre in Arizona incubated jihadis they should certainly submit to some form of investigation and should perhaps expect some sort of public protest. They needn’t submit to mob rule however, which this protest skirts towards.