The role of the Gov/Media in the Fear/Racism against MEs

I see the bumper stickers around occassionally:

"Don't Believe the Biased Liberal Media"

Has all that changed now?

I know what you are saying, but isn't it possible that there is just a tad of yellow journalistic ideology at work here? What makes a better story...

a. A small group of middle eastern people in a far away country burning American flags (p.s. that happens all the time over there)

b. A group of American Muslims praying for their fallen citizens

???

I'm not saying there isn't a threat or that you don't have valid points. I'm just saying that there is more than a small degree of media madness going on at the moment.

 

Did anyone see that show last night, was it 60 minutes? or some other special on Suicide Bombers? The ones whos bombs DIDN'T go off and are now in custody in Israel. Israel has already had 30 suicide bomings in their country THIS YEAR! Get ready, the insanity is just beginning. OOps, they also said in that program that not a single one of the caught suicide bombers showed signs of physchosis, not a single one is "clinically" crazy, although we call it crazy, its all truely and heartfeltfully for Allah. Kinda crazy , huh?

I think I'll just ride my bike around town and stay outta trouble.

 

ok, let me preface by saying what these people did is wrong and in no way would i ever defend them (refer to any prev posts from me) but you gotta get your facts straight

if you're talking strictly acts of terrorism on US soil, we got (in recent history, that i can remember right now)

1. world trade center bombing
2. oklahoma city bombing
3. world trade center attack

guess we still got about 999,997 acts of terrorism by 'muslim lunatics' to go.

number one was by 'muslim extremists' and number two was by a 'catholic extremist' (hey if we're gonna label ppl with religion, lets play fair)

number three, so far, we dont know [italics] for sure [/italics] who did it.

as for acts of terrorism by us citizens:

killing 1000+ innocent iraqi CHILDREN EVERY DAY because of HUMANITARIAN aid sanctions. you got a beef with iraq, punish the government, they're oppressive bastards, i got no problem with it, but why are you taking away a 3 year olds piece of bread?
in the last year alone this has amounted to.... oh i dont know... 10 times the magnitude of the wtc attack. (please note, i am in no way trying to belittle what happened at wtc, i think its horrible, but some things the proud us non muslim extremist citizens are doing isnt so great either)

lets talk about war, gulf war, burying HUNDREDS of iraqi soldiers ALIVE. when the war was ending, iraqi troops were retreating, hands up, and the us shoots em all.

lets talk about palestine where blind support of an oppressive israeli regime is massacring palestinians by the thousands. you wanna fight oppression, you wanna fight tyranny and terrorism, and defend freedom and liberty? stop HELPING israel do it to palestine.

lets talk about terrorism here, what about the kkk? guess that wasnt terrorism. guess it wasnt religious extremism either. how soon we forget these "millions of acts"

im shaking in my boots every time i see a bald white guy in doc martens.

sorry if the tone of this was a little harsh, but im sick of this witch hunt against arabs/middle easterners/anyone brown.

just cuz im a brown guy with a beard and a yankees hat, should i be racially profiled and kicked off a plane?

 

oh something i saw no the news the other day, i forgot what program, but this dramatization is getting out of hand.

"the terrorist could be living right next door"

whats the point of all this? get everyone riled up into a trigger happy frenzy to goto war with afghanistan (and consequently some of its own citizens)?

 

abt the rights of iraqi citizens.. hey i agree, iraq's govt sucks. if those ppl had an option im sure theyd get someone better. us govt has a problem with saddamn - fine. dont trade with him, dont buy his oil, dont sell him weapons. punish the govt all you want, but why is it necessary to also impose humanitarian aid sanctions? usa hasnt done anything in terms of humanitarian aid acts there except starve them.

ok lets talk about uss cole. while we're at it, lets talk about the uss liberty (www.ussliberty.com) . that thing was freaky, i cant believe those 'jewish extremists' would do such a thing, and we STILL support israel. every time i see a yammaka i think im gonna get shot. if this is a war on terrorism, lets invade israel while we're invading afghanistan. its only fair right?

oh yeah, the media should do a special. i suggest we call it, CNN documentary, behind the overalls. take a look at those redneck r****ds harassing muslims and shooting up and bombing mosques. im tellin you, next time i goto the mall and i see a white guy in overalls, im gonna demand security escort him out. you never know where those terrorists might turn up.

 

Ty_Webb,

Sound like good arguments.

I bet similar ones were used to intern Japanese Americans in WWII.

Sorry, but even if fearful, even if we have 'good' reasons to restrict them, we have to protect the rights of all individuals, PARTICULARLY in times like these.

BTW, there are over 5 million Muslim living in the US.

 

tywebb, point im trying to make, is the us stance is somewhat hypocritical. why support the terrorists in israel? if its a war on all terrorism, take them ALL out, dont support half and hate the other half. as for the ppl who did the wtc attacks, the bomings, all that stuff, whoever did it, deserves the punishment. i got NO PROBLEM with that.

but the bottom line is, when u say you dont blame ppl for being scared, you're saying racial profiling is ok.

 

hey man, believe me, i probably hate them more than u do. but if we're gonna do something, impose trade sanctions all that, i dont care, i got no problem with it, but humanitarian aid shouldnt go. you're right they're still doing WMD... so lets go ahead and lift the human aid sanctions. no reason to kill innocent ppl right?

cohen.. you're right, we cant look at one pov. thats why im tryin to say, we gotta open up and look at all these other things than just runnin around about these 'wacko muslims' cuz there's a bunch of other wackos out there too who've been proven to do some wacko stuff

i guess i should be thankful that we're not gonna get interned in camps like the japanese right?

 

I guess I would agree if Arab countries were our neighbors. You have to remember that many of those suicide bombers in Israel came from places WITHIN Israel. It is tougher to plan, pay for and execute those types of things in the US. Still there is reason to be concerned.

 

Originally posted by Ty_Webb
Cohen,

I am sure they are the EXACT types of arguments used in the 40's,

Then why are you supporting them, then?

good thing we have progressed since then. How many Arab Americans have been herded up and put in camps?

At this rate, give it time.

So far, we have only been shooting at and fire-bombing Mosques, killing a few 'arab-looking' strangers, kicking them off of planes, yelling epithets at them on the street, and a poll showed that the majority of Americans want them to carry ID cards.

Oh yeah, we've come a long way.


The Arabs treat their own people THOUSANDS times worse then we do.

You know this is irrelevant. We are all humans first. Just because an Arab treats another Arab poorly does not mean that I have a right to.

I am not saying what was done was right, but considering the current circumstance,

Considering anything, it is wrong.

I am not going to label a group of scared people as idiots/uneducated/racists.

Depends on how they react to their fear. If they try to control it, and to protect other people's rights regardless of their fears, they are brave and standing up for a basic tenet of our Country.
If they take hateful actions against people because of their appearance, they are easily racists and probably idiots. I cannot speak to their education.

 

Actually, I have some hope. First the PLO supports a cease-fire, then HAMAS says that they will end the suicide bombing for know, unless provoked.

Our tragedy has opened the door for Israeli and Palestinian discussions. Not much seems to be able to do that anymore.

 

jamma34 wrote: "killing 1000+ innocent iraqi CHILDREN EVERY DAY because of HUMANITARIAN aid sanctions. you got a beef with iraq, punish the government, they're oppressive bastards, i got no problem with it, but why are you taking away a 3 year olds piece of bread?"

I'm not saying the sanctions are right or wrong, but is the U.S. the only place they can get a piece of bread from? Why the hell don't other Arab/Muslim countries give them a slice?

rH