AlterNet: Fallout of Hate Is Spreading Across America from 9/11 Site

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

Fallout of Hate Is Spreading Across America from 9/11 Site
The hysteria over a planned Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan is only the tip of the iceberg.

August 21, 2010 |


Scientists building the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos referred to the coordinates where a test device was detonated as “point zero.” When the horror of nuclear warfare was unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the term “Ground Zero” entered our lexicon. The expression has come to mean the epicenter of a catastrophic event, be it a nuclear detonation, a disease epidemic or an earthquake. It is the point from which damage spreads, whether it’s radioactive fallout or a deadly contagion.

That the site of the World Trade Center has come to be known as Ground Zero illustrates how the American public has come to fetishize the attacks of 9/11. It’s not an apt analog for the physical destruction that resulted from the attacks on the World Trade Center. But it is an appropriate metaphor for the virulent and socially acceptable bigotry against Muslim Americans that has radiated out from Ground Zero and spread across the United States.

One thing is clear: the feverish discourse about Muslims’ role in American society is not about the proposal to build an Islamic community center a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site. Park 51, as it’s being called, merely let an ugly genie out of the bottle. The dark stain of Islamophobia had spread far and wide long before the controversy erupted.

In May, a man walked into the Jacksonville Islamic Center in Northeast Florida during evening prayers and detonated a pipebomb. Fortunately, there were no injuries. (If the man had been Muslim and the House of worship a Christian church, the incident would have garnered wall-to-wall coverage, but while the story got plenty of local press it was ignored by CBS News, Fox, CNN and MSNBC.) ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/147920/fallout_of_hate_is_spreading_across_america_from_9_11_site/

[Uncle Joe]

1. It's the new Red Scare BS. The Republican Party is like a broken record stuck on the same

divide and conquer song, they know no other tunes.

"Have you ever been a Muslim or a member of the Muslim religion?"

It's the only way to power for them, sowing irrational fear and hatred is their life blood.

The Republican Party does this because their true mega-wealthy masters be it oligarch or corporate conglomerate are extremely small in number, so they must divide and conquer the American People in order to obtain power.

That's why the Republicans and their corporate media propaganda machine keep hammering President Obama with un-American, First Amendment raping questions regarding his religion. It's partly done as a means to hurt his popularity with the people but the real subtext is to demonize one of the world's major religions, using the fear and hatred; energy generated by the attack on 9/11; during Bush's watch.

If the Republicans come to power again, I suspect there will be Senate hearings grilling people about their religion.

FDR was right "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and Republicans are about nothing but fear and hatred and their return to power can only lead to ruin for the United States.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[IndianaGreen]

2. They that oppose the Islamic Center are also anti-Semites

The same calls for Muslims to come to Jesus were heard by Jews from Christians that would end up murdering millions of us.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. if I was a conspiracy theorist - I would be convinced that they are purposely trying to harm America

Just imagine the lunacy that many of the same people who advocate more wars in the Middle East are the very same people trying to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria in the U.S. Obviously, if one really did want more military interventions in the Middle East with some sort of imperial ambitions, they would rationally want to win allies in the Arab and Islamic world - not do everything humanly possible to alienate them even more. But just look at who will being appearing at the big anti-Muslim rally in NYC on September 11, 2010 - Two of their prime speakers include John Bolton and Newt Gingrich who will be sharing the stage with the likes of the notorious Dutch Parliamentarian bigot and anti-Muslim extremist, Geert Wilders - an event sponsored by an organization that calls itself, Stop Islamization of America:

http://sioaonline.com/?p=452

If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would conclude that they are intentionally trying to drive America into more wars in the Middle East which they intentionally plan to lose - while hoping to provoke more terrorist attacks on America - to grant them the ability to suspend all considerations of constitutional rights and impose their fascistic order.

But, I am not a conspiracy theorist. I think these people don't have the where-with-all to recognize the self-destructive course they are trying to push America toward. I Think they are just plain nuts.

[Karenina]

4. And it's being broadcast in all its pustuled glory

LIVE to the rest of the world.