Dear Shri KRS, Greetings!
.... I'll leave out the Jews, Rick Sanchez, Juan Williams and the 'right-wing' all out of my response here, because they are peripheral to the issue.
In a discussion I started about Islamophobia in us and in USA, you were the first to cite Jews suffer far higher rates of hate crime. I am glad you now see these as peripheral issues. In fact these have nothing in common.
Many minority groups suffer hate crimes, gays, Latinos, why even our own Indian women were targeted some years ago by the so called "dot busters". So, first, Jews suffering hate crimes do not diminish the corrosive nature of islamophobia any.
Secondly, hate crimes are committed by criminals who get arrested and prosecuted. But, islamaphobia is a fear/hate that is carefully nurtured by the politicians from low-level operatives to the highest levels. These politicians and pundits want to tell the country it is okay to fear and hate anyone wearing Islamic garb, or that looks like Islamic garb as in the case of Sikhs, after all it is Muslims who perpetrated 9/11 they assure you, as if to assuage any guilt feeling some may have for hating an entire group of 1.5 billion for the actions of a few hundred. In this atmosphere, no place is safe, no time is safe, for the targeted group. The phobia lurking just below the surface may burst out at any time from anyone, not in dark alleys or in the dead of night.
Your stand is: Damn the safety of the majority. Personal freedom is so important that when a person spends inordinate time in a plane's toilet, no action should be taken, let alone (or especially?) if that person is in a muslim garb.
Well, let me know whether I have summed up our stances correctly.
Sorry, you have not. Once again you have assumed a lot of things here. First, how long is too long for someone to spend in the toilet before suspecting them as terrorists. We have only the words of the crew. What was the damage? Was the damage real or just imagined. Often times, people just make up stories to hide their prejudice and phobia. But all these are irrelevant, in all these instances, all these people have passed through thorough security checks. Even after having been cleared by security these people are suspected just because of the way they look or dress. This is not about security, it is about prejudice and hatred.
....1. In USA, two things drive this fear:
A. In England, since 2007,
B. There was a case in NJ, where at a lower court, a judge ruled based on Sharia, which was subsequently overturned
These are the two reasons for the fear that Shariah is going to be imposed on all Americans??!
First is, in England they have Sharia courts for Muslims, and second is a NJ judge gave a stupid ruling that was overturned on appeal. India has lived with Shariah law for Muslims for a long time now and the non-Muslims are doing just fine. However, it is the second reason given that totally obliterates the fear that Shariah law is coming to U.S.A. While there were many grounds for overturning this senseless NJ ruling, it was apparently done on the separation of church and state grounds. This shows that Shariah law can never be applied even to Muslims in this country, let alone non-Muslims.
So folks, here are the two reasons, neither of which will be taken seriously if only people think before they start fearing. This oft-repeated slogan by the Republican political power hierarchy, "Shariah is coming, Shariah is coming, fear for your lives and limbs" is just malarkey. If this is not the very definition of bogus fear mongering, then I don't know what is?
Cheers!
