by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I knew an older couple in Arizona who had lost their home due to the bad economy and not being employed. He was disabled and couldn't work, and she had medical issues as well and worked part-time taking care of others who were no worse off medically than she was. The couple was also burdened with serious medical bills. Their situation was hard, but instead of being angry at corporate America for systematically destroying the American job market, or at the nation's unfair medical system, or the insurance industry - these good, God-fearing people who went to an angry Baptist church several times a week, blamed all of their problems on liberals, and particularly the black man sitting in the White House.
I always got along with this couple, choosing to ignore their (particularly his) preachifying. Now that I am overseas I don't have to hear the little rants or make excuses why I don't want to visit their church, but I still am subjected to their silly harangues courtesy of email. Today I received a pair of emails from my friend (and he is my friend) that were so outrageous I feel the need to purge them from my system by means of this blog.
The first email was a copy of a piece by Bill O'Reilly entitled "Political Correctness and Muslims." (My friend hates Muslims even more than he does Obama.) O'Reilly's diatribe focused on the recent "honor killings" in Canada in which a mother, father, and adult son were convicted of killing the three daughters of the family because they adapted too easily to modern ways. O'Reilly was incensed that American media primarily described the family as "Afghan" and not as "Muslim." The erstwhile sage of Fox News went on to say the "political correctness is dangerous because it obscures the truth."
The "truth" apparently was not that a family suffered a grievous tragedy due to fundamentalist and anachronistic views, the "truth" is that these were Muslims - and they were evil - and therefore...
The second email was based on a report from...you guessed it, Fox News. My correspondent stated that Fox News was "brassy" because they were the only news channel that reported the story. It was based on an email that a man supposedly received from a friend that described a purported incident that occurred on a passenger plane at Atlanta's airport. The email supposedly said that the writer was sitting in first class waiting on the plane to load when eleven "Muslim" men got on the plane in full "Muslim attire."
Apparently, again according to the email, two of the Muslim men in full Muslim attire seated themselves in first-class (oh, my!) and the rest sat throughout the plane. One of the first-class Muslims then telephoned one of the tourist-class Muslims on his cell phone. (How the other passenger knew who he was calling was never explained, and they were undoubtedly speaking "Muslim.")
(No, wait, I just found it. They were speaking Arabic, "very loudly and very, very aggressively.")
As the story continued, a couple of stewardesses got involved and tried to get the first-class Muslim to get off of his phone, and he reportedly then called one of the ladies an "infidel dog." Then a big Texan got involved, and then the guy who wrote the email got physically involved, and it all turned into quite a circus. TSA was summoned and took all eleven Muslims off of the plane, but after searching their bodies and baggage they returned them to the plane.
The flight crew put up some objections, the man who wrote the email used some inappropriate language, and the passengers righteously marched off of the Muslim-loving airliner! The email writer went on to declare, "If that wasn't a terrorism dry run, I don't know what is!"
And, of course, it had to be a terrorism dry run, because they were Muslims in full Muslim attire! (Alec Baldwin might be a bit juvenile and boorish, but he was not a terrorist because he was not a Muslim in full Muslim attire.)
Is there any doubt why Fox ran with this story?
I feel sorry for my friend back in the States. To him, these stories prove conclusively that Muslims are scary and evil people not fit to live in a good Christian country like his. I wonder how he would feel if every time a serial killer was identified in the United States, he was labeled as a Christian serial killer, or a Christian rapist, or a Christian pedophile? Clearly good people subscribe to all religions, as do many bad people - and it makes no difference at all what language we speak or what clothing we wear.
And Muslims are not a race of people - they are members of a very large organized religion known as Islam. They come in a variety of colors and dress in all manner of clothing. And some of them worship their God just as fervently as my friend worships his.
Citizen Journalist
I knew an older couple in Arizona who had lost their home due to the bad economy and not being employed. He was disabled and couldn't work, and she had medical issues as well and worked part-time taking care of others who were no worse off medically than she was. The couple was also burdened with serious medical bills. Their situation was hard, but instead of being angry at corporate America for systematically destroying the American job market, or at the nation's unfair medical system, or the insurance industry - these good, God-fearing people who went to an angry Baptist church several times a week, blamed all of their problems on liberals, and particularly the black man sitting in the White House.
I always got along with this couple, choosing to ignore their (particularly his) preachifying. Now that I am overseas I don't have to hear the little rants or make excuses why I don't want to visit their church, but I still am subjected to their silly harangues courtesy of email. Today I received a pair of emails from my friend (and he is my friend) that were so outrageous I feel the need to purge them from my system by means of this blog.
The first email was a copy of a piece by Bill O'Reilly entitled "Political Correctness and Muslims." (My friend hates Muslims even more than he does Obama.) O'Reilly's diatribe focused on the recent "honor killings" in Canada in which a mother, father, and adult son were convicted of killing the three daughters of the family because they adapted too easily to modern ways. O'Reilly was incensed that American media primarily described the family as "Afghan" and not as "Muslim." The erstwhile sage of Fox News went on to say the "political correctness is dangerous because it obscures the truth."
The "truth" apparently was not that a family suffered a grievous tragedy due to fundamentalist and anachronistic views, the "truth" is that these were Muslims - and they were evil - and therefore...
The second email was based on a report from...you guessed it, Fox News. My correspondent stated that Fox News was "brassy" because they were the only news channel that reported the story. It was based on an email that a man supposedly received from a friend that described a purported incident that occurred on a passenger plane at Atlanta's airport. The email supposedly said that the writer was sitting in first class waiting on the plane to load when eleven "Muslim" men got on the plane in full "Muslim attire."
Apparently, again according to the email, two of the Muslim men in full Muslim attire seated themselves in first-class (oh, my!) and the rest sat throughout the plane. One of the first-class Muslims then telephoned one of the tourist-class Muslims on his cell phone. (How the other passenger knew who he was calling was never explained, and they were undoubtedly speaking "Muslim.")
(No, wait, I just found it. They were speaking Arabic, "very loudly and very, very aggressively.")
As the story continued, a couple of stewardesses got involved and tried to get the first-class Muslim to get off of his phone, and he reportedly then called one of the ladies an "infidel dog." Then a big Texan got involved, and then the guy who wrote the email got physically involved, and it all turned into quite a circus. TSA was summoned and took all eleven Muslims off of the plane, but after searching their bodies and baggage they returned them to the plane.
The flight crew put up some objections, the man who wrote the email used some inappropriate language, and the passengers righteously marched off of the Muslim-loving airliner! The email writer went on to declare, "If that wasn't a terrorism dry run, I don't know what is!"
And, of course, it had to be a terrorism dry run, because they were Muslims in full Muslim attire! (Alec Baldwin might be a bit juvenile and boorish, but he was not a terrorist because he was not a Muslim in full Muslim attire.)
Is there any doubt why Fox ran with this story?
I feel sorry for my friend back in the States. To him, these stories prove conclusively that Muslims are scary and evil people not fit to live in a good Christian country like his. I wonder how he would feel if every time a serial killer was identified in the United States, he was labeled as a Christian serial killer, or a Christian rapist, or a Christian pedophile? Clearly good people subscribe to all religions, as do many bad people - and it makes no difference at all what language we speak or what clothing we wear.
And Muslims are not a race of people - they are members of a very large organized religion known as Islam. They come in a variety of colors and dress in all manner of clothing. And some of them worship their God just as fervently as my friend worships his.
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