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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep
By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent
Muslim men pray in Lafayette Park near the White House August 12, 2006.
Roughly a quarter of more than 1,000 Americans in a Gallup poll said
they would not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third thought
that Muslims in the United States sympathized with al Qaeda, the
extremist group behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and
Washington. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Reuters Photo: Muslim men pray in Lafayette Park near the White House
August 12, 2006. Roughly a...
WASHINGTON (Reuters)- When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all
Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape
tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.
The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be
"off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do
you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of
this country ... they are here to kill us."
Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such
as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates
did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You
have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese
and Germans."
At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual
identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's
fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions
that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.
"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one
second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630
WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia
and Maryland
"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear
armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their
passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.
"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people
allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate
them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow
Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically
just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."
The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving
holiday, and Klein said in an interview afterwards he had been surprised
by the response.
"The switchboard went from empty to totally jammed within minutes," said
Klein. "There were plenty of callers angry with me, but there were
plenty who agreed."
POLLS SHOW WIDESPREAD ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENT
Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer
of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of
requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to
carry special identification.
Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would not want to live next
door to a Muslim and a third thought that Muslims in the United States
sympathized with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the September 11,
2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
A poll carried out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
an advocacy group, found that for one in three Americans, the word Islam
triggers negative connotations such as "war," "hatred" and "terrorist."
The war in
Iraq has contributed to such perceptions.
Klein's show followed a week of heated discussions on talk radio,
including his own, and online forums over an incident on November 22
involving six Muslim clerics. They were handcuffed and taken off a US
Airways flight after passengers reported "suspicious behavior" that
included praying in the departure gate area.
The clerics, on their way to a meeting of the North American Imams
Federation, were detained in a holding cell, questioned by police and
FBI agents, and released. Muslim community leaders saw the incident as
yet more evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice.
IGNORANCE SEEN AS KEY PROBLEM
Several American Muslims interviewed on the subject of prejudice over
the past few weeks said ignorance was at the core of the problem.
"The level of knowledge is very, very low," said Mohamed Esa, a U.S.
Muslim of Arab descent who teaches a course on Islam at McDaniel College
in Maryland. "There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and some people
think they are all terrorists."
Hossam Ahmed, a retired Air Force Reserve colonel who occasionally leads
prayer meetings for the small Muslim congregation at the
Pentagon, agreed. "Ignorance is the number one problem. Education is of
the essence."
There are no hard figures on how many Muslims have been subject to
harassment or prejudice and community leaders say that ugly incidents
can prompt spontaneous expressions of support. Such as the e-mail a
Minneapolis woman sent to CAIR after the imams were taken off their
flight.
"I would like to ... help," the e-mail said. "While I cannot offer plane
tickets, I would be happy to drive at least 2 or 3 of them. My car is
small, but at least some of our hearts in this land of the free are
large."
And optimists saw signs of change in the November 4 election of the
first Muslim to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has 435
members.
Democrat Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old African-American lawyer, did not
stress his religion during his campaign for a Minnesota seat, but said
his victory would "signal to people who are not Muslims that Muslims
have a lot to offer to the United States and the improvement of our
country."
source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061201/us_nm/usa_muslims_fear_dc
===
-muslim voice-
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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
