Proposed Mosque Near Ground Zero

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by The_Lady_Snow

I am shocked when I hear things like.... Not in our city.

A lot of Muslims reside there too. Should they too get out of your city? (general you)

AJ said it best in another thread.

To be Brown, or Muslim is a scary fucking time in America, either we are terrorists, taking jobs, building facilities that are training monsters, decapitating folks in the desert.

As the calendar inexorably marches toward what would be my mothers 88th birthday and having just left behind in mid-August what would have been my father's 88th, I find myself grateful that they did not live see America take this turn. About 65 years ago, my father--along with a whole lot of other Americans--began to demobilize as WW II closed. My father, as part of the 761st Tank Battalion, earned a Purple Heart and Bronze star for his actions in that war. My parents, my father particularly since he SAW the camps, drilled into us that we had an obligation to make good a promise of 'Never Again', a promise that to our (all of humanity) eternal shame we have not made good on. They also drilled into us that at the time that Hitler came to power, Germany was the most educated, liberal and culturally advanced nation in Europe if not the world. They made us aware that if it could happen in Germany it could just as easily happen here. Seeing their country do this--and keep in mind that these are people who lived through Jim Crow, both my parents had siblings who were the victims of physical violence that cost one uncle his life and another uncle the ability to walk right--would break their hearts.

As my parent's generation exits the stage I am seeing one of my great cultural fears come to pass; namely that we would soon forget once the last generation of Americans who had stared evil--real, true, visceral, unmitigated evil--right in the face were gone. And here we are. My father, if he were alive, would be on his way to D.C. for the 2 October rally and would tell everyone who would listen that "we've heard this song before" just because now the words are in English and not German and just because the targets are Muslims and not Jews, doesn't mean that this isn't the same old ugly song. I understand that a lot of people on the other side are people of good will. I also understand that they *really and genuinely* believe that 8 of 10 mosques are *actually* terrorist training facilities carefully disguised as places of monotheistic worship.

Here's the thing--and to anyone on the other side, I want you to really read what I'm saying here and then sit with these questions--does anyone really believe that the Germans didn't think that the Jews were *really and genuinely* a threat to all things German? Does anyone here believe that the Germans didn't *actually* think that Jews were trying to bring down Germany or that Jews controlled 'all the banks' or that Jews didn't have all kinds of bizarre rituals wherein they killed Christian babies? Is there a single person reading these words that has ANY doubt that every German who turned in a Jewish neighbor, every German who was in the SS or the SA, every German who saw the persecution of the Jews, didn't think that THEY were on the side of right and good? That THEY didn't really hate or fear the Jews per se, they just needed to make certain that they weren't a threat? It's comforting but wholly wrong to believe that the evil done by people is done with the perpetrators knowing that they are doing evil. That is so incorrect that it is not even wrong.

Rather, the Germans thought that THEY were on the side of good in slaughtering the Jews and the gypsies and the homosexuals and the communists and the socialists and the trade unionists. White segregationists didn't think they were evil or propping up an evil system, rather they believed that THEY were on the side of right and good. The Soviets under Stalin did not think that their system was dehumanizing and cruel, they were doing what needed to be done to promote the interests of the proletariat. The Khmer Rouge thought that it was necessary to kill the writers, teachers, lawyers, artists, musicians and others who did not have sufficient revolutionary fever or the children of same because they carried the bourgeois taint of their parents. The Chinese under Mao, the Serbs under Milosevic or the Rawandans all believed the same thing as they committed stomach-turning atrocities. They were on the side of good, the other guys were on the side of evil and the elimination--as regrettable as it might be--just had to happen in order to protect all that was good and noble.

In the name of good, righteousness, nobility and, ironically, freedom we are poised to do the same thing to at least two other groups in this country--Muslims and Hispanics. If you aren't a Muslim or a Hispanic, you might feel safe but don't put your money on that bet. You aren't. If you are reading this then you're queer and make NO mistake that they will come for us. Now, they might get around to us AFTER they are done with the Muslims and the Hispanics but that's actually counter to the historical pattern. The pattern in Germany was that, actually, homosexuals were really part of the test run, to see what they could get away with.

If you are queer, your white skin will not protect you. If you are queer, your Christian religion will not protect you. You'll be gotten around to eventually because movements that seek to cleanse or purge the Other are never satisfied with one group, there's always one OTHER group preventing the nation from achieving its true historical zenith that is its due and when that group is removed THEN all will be well. I know this sounds alarmist but that's only because we're on the 'before' side of whatever historical event we seem hell-bent on hurtling toward. Maybe I'm wrong. I want to be. I hope I am. So far, though, everyday we seem to be taking more and more steps toward an abyss.

Cheers
Aj