FYI: A very interesting article
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/automagic/columnists/2000-10-24/OPEDreese2410
2400.html
Racism, bigotry bad for all
Charley Reese
Commentary
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on October 24, 2000
In these politically correct days, all of us are supposed to refrain from
being racist bigots, right? Then how come so many Americans believe that
it's OK to be a racist bigot when it comes to Arabs and Muslims?
Ric Keller, running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida's
eighth district, which includes Orlando, got carried away recently and said
the Palestinians who killed two armed Israeli undercover agents are "lower
than pond scum."
Well, I have one question, Mr. Keller. Do you have the guts to stand up in
public and say that the Jewish settlers who lynched a Palestinian -- they
gouged out his eyes, broke both arms, fractured his skull and set him on
fire -- are "lower than pond scum?"
If you don't, you don't deserve the vote of any decent American. You are
just another cowardly panderer. None of my Palestinian friends condones the
killing of the two Israelis, even though, unlike the Palestinian, the
Israelis were armed. But if it's brutality you're against, then you have to
be against it no matter which side commits it.
Don Imus, the radio pseudo-iconoclast, referred to Yasser Arafat as a "rag
head." Well, Mr. Imus, if you feel free to call Arabs rag heads, do you
think that Jews or black people should be called derogatory names? Why do
you think that Arabs are exempt from common decency?
Rod Dreher, a New York Post writer, asserted that Israel was the only
outpost of Western civilization "in that savage and irrational desert."
Well, Mr. Dreher should study history. Most of Western Europe's knowledge of
the classical society came from Arabs who preserved the texts of ancient
Greeks and Romans.
Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, repeats the old canard that Arabs hate
all Jews. Well, once more, consult history. When Jews fled Christian
persecution in Europe, where did they go to find sanctuary?
The Islamic countries. Arabs don't hate Jews. Jews, Christians and Muslims
have lived together in the same countries for centuries. Arabs are, by the
way, also the "seed of Abraham."
The dispute with the Israelis is over territory not religion. No less a man
than a leader of Hamas reminded a caller, who asked how Hamas would treat
Christians, that Islam teaches that Muslims must treat Christians as they
would treat themselves.
Columnist Cal Thomas, who must be a Christian Zionist, warns that Muslims
are a threat to Americans. Wake up, Cal, and read something besides Zionist
propaganda. Muslims have been part of America since the 1800s, and, so far
as I know, we Christians have done the killing in North America.
And, Cal, if you visit an Arab city, your hotel clerk won't have to warn you
to stay out of certain neighborhoods. There is far more crime in our cities
than in theirs.
Islam has been greatly distorted, and the propaganda campaign seems to be
intensifying, probably to divert attention from Israeli brutality.
Needless to say, most Americans are as ignorant of Arab history and culture
as they are of their own. In Jerusalem, the keys to Christianity's holy site
were entrusted to Muslims.
There is only one point on which I agree with the politically correct types,
and that is that racism and bigotry should be condemned. But when you
exclude Arabs and Muslims and feel free publicly to insult, stereotype and
distort their culture and their religion, you are really telling the world
that you are a hypocrite. You are, in fact, a racist bigot and ignorant, to
boot.
