Pardon Me, But Your Hate Is Showing

By Riad Z. Abdelkarim, MD

Much to the dismay of American Muslims, verbal attacks on Islam and Muslims by conservative commentators, religious clergy, and elected officials are increasing in our nation at an alarming rate. These recent attacks on the faith of Islam and American Muslims—which have escalated dramatically since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks—threaten to overshadow the repeated statements of President George W. Bush and other administration officials that the current campaign against terrorism is not a war on Islam. Òmerican Muslims also worry that these verbal attacks may rekindle the post-Sept. 11 backlash which resulted in over 1,000 hate incidents and crimes reported against Muslims, Arab-Americans, and South Asians.

Ironically, on many political and social issues, American Muslims and Christian conservatives should be natural allies. However, the two communities differ sharply over attitudes toward Israel and its policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians.The markedly divergent views on this single issue have led some conservatives to condemn Islam and Muslims quite broadly, in the process attempting to exclude American Muslims from policy-making discussions and debates. Several recent remarks and commentaries by conservatives illustrate a disturbing degree of Islamophobia and have clearly ventured beyond the limits of reasonable debate into the realm of hate speech and neo-McCarthyism.

For example, Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, recently told Georgia law enforcement personnel they should “just turn [the sheriff] loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line” (Washington Post, Nov. 20).

In the Washington Times (Nov. 21), commentator Cal Thomas mocked Muslim prayers offered at an event marking the fast of Ramadan held recently at the White House.Thomas wrote: “The [Muslim] ambassadors knelt and touched their foreheads to the floor...It’s unlikely they were praying Lee Greenwood’s lyrics for ‘God Bless the USA.’”Thomas also recently has written that Muslims “take their faith in a false god more seriously than we take our faith in the true one.”

Syndicated columnist Ann Coulter made perhaps some of the most vicious comments, writing that America “should invade their [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” She also called for the “mass deportation” of Muslims.And Paul Craig Roberts wrote: “Of all the hyphenated-Americans, Muslims pose the greatest challenge” (Washington Times, Nov. 16). Roberts also objected to “persons of Middle Eastern origin searching the personal effects of native-born blue-eyed blond mothers,” in a thinly-veiled racist reference to Middle Eastern-appearing airport security screeners (Washington Times, Nov. 8).

American Muslims and Christian conservatives differ sharply over Israel.

Some evangelical clergymen have also joined in the fray. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, is refusing to retract inflammatory remarks in which he claimed: “The God of Islam is not the same God…It’s a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.” In the NBC report, Graham (who delivered the benediction at President Bush’s inauguration) said, “I don’t believe this [Islam] is this wonderful, peaceful religion.” Concurring with Graham’s comments, Rev. Chuck Colson, former Nixon aide and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, said: “I agree that Islam is a religion, which, if taken seriously, promotes violence”(USA Today, Nov. 21).

The anti-Islamic vitriol also has been spreading among conservative think tanks. Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, called for the recently-released “Eid Greetings” stamp (commemorating Muslim holidays) to be recalled and “overprinted with the image of the twin towers,” because “America’s most notable experience with Islam was the attacks on Sept. 11” (USA Today, Nov. 20). And William S. Lind, also with the FCF, remarked that “There is no such thing as peaceful Islam...Islamics cannot fit into an America in which the first loyalty is to the American Constitution. They should be encouraged to leave.They are a fifth column in this country” (Washington Post, Nov. 19).

Writing in the neoconservative Jewish monthly Commentary’s November issue, the Middle East Forum’s Daniel Pipes goes so far as to recommend “vigilant application of social and political pressure to ensure that Islam is not accorded special status of any kind in this country.” The “special status” to which Pipes refers includes ordinary religious accommodations for Muslims in the workplace and “inclusion of Muslims in affirmative-action plans.”In a series of recent articles, Pipes has also put forward the laughable claim that American Muslim groups seek to impose Islamic law on this country. When asked in a Salon.com interview what evidence he had to substantiate his bizarre accusations against Muslims in America, Pipes said that his years of studying Muslims had provided him with a mental “filter” that enables him to see trends not apparent to others.

Others in the American Jewish community have apparently acted on Pipes’ recommendations.Members of the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee have gone so far as to attempt—unsuccessfully—to exclude representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations from participating in recent multicultural discussion panels in Florida, Connecticut and California.

Cynical Attacks on Islam

At a time when responsible members of our government are going to great pains to reassure Muslims worldwide that the war on terrorism is not a war against their faith, it is unfortunate that some among conservatives and the Jewish community have chosen to engage in polemic name-calling against adherents of one of the world’s great religions, and America’s fastest growing faith. American Muslims are loyal, patriotic, enthusiastic participants in our great nation’s democratic process.We have unequivocally and repeatedly condemned the barbaric terrorist attacks against our country on Sept. 11. Those who cynically attack Islam should take a cue from President Bush instead of making irresponsible statements that only serve to generate needless enmity between faiths and potentially undermine the fragile international coalition he has assembled. From a political standpoint, Republicans such as Rep. Chambliss would do well to remember that over 80 percent of American Muslims voted for George W. Bush in last year’s tight presidential election.

For all these reasons, the president should make it clear that these hateful comments are not welcomed by his administration.

Riad Z. Abdelkarim, MD, is Western Region Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).