Where do you think racism against Muslims in the United States comes from? Sometimes it comes from the media; sometimes from the churches. But in the case I’m describing below, it comes from the government itself.
Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo (Who is also trying to run for President) made one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve ever heard in my entire life that the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina should be bombed in response to a terrorist attack against the United States.
Or in his words “If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. Because that’s the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they otherwise might do,” he said.
U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey pretty much summed up what I was thinking when I first read this: “To somehow suggest that an appropriate response to terrorism would be to attack sites that are holy and sacred to more than a billion people throughout the world is just absolutely crazy,” he said, denouncing “any suggestion that the defense of the American homeland or the defense of American interests would ever justify attacking holy sites.”
What was Tancredo thinking by making a comment like this? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not the first time I’ve come across Americans who think that every Muslim in this world is out to get the Americans; like they are hiding under their beds or something.
This is the type of ignorance that inflames hatred. At the same time, Barack Obama made a stupid comment that he would attack Pakistan if he were President. This goes to show you how inexperienced he really is. He really doesn’t understand the complex relationship between the United States and Pakistan. Pakistan President Musharraf is walking on thin ice as a result of his friendship with the United States. Even President Bush knows that if Musharraf is too friendly to the United States, his people will turn on him and the risk will be another revolution like the 1979 Iran revolution, which would make things even worse for the United States.
But I guess the Politicians try to tell the people what the people want to hear. Let’s blow up the Middle East, let’s kill all the Muslims.
What a sad world we live in.