Editorial, Opinion

EDITORIAL: Ignorance is fear in Republican fight against Islam

Throughout his time in office, U.S. President Barack Obama has been criticized as a leader whose long-term goals included waging a war on Christianity. His middle name, Hussein, has made Obama the target of anti-Islamic rants, and his devotion to keeping religion out of government has ignited uproar among members of the Republican Party.

But what would happen if these Republican claims informed our electing the leader of the free world? Such could be the case if Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson or Donald Trump were elected president in the 2016 election, as indicated by a Sept. 29 poll conducted in North Carolina. Conducted and released by Public Policy Polling, the poll’s results are nothing short of terrifying — 44 percent of Carson supports “think Islam should be illegal in the United States, [compared] to only 38 percent who think it should be legal.” In comparison to Trump’s numbers, though, which read that 52 percent of his supporters think Islam should be illegal in this country, Carson’s seem tame.

The New York Times editorial page blogger Lawrence Downes rightfully questioned the sanity of those polled in the North Carolina survey. “Do these people know what it means to outlaw Muslim worship?” he asked. “Do they know what would happen if we closed mosques, arrested worshipers and prayer leaders, imposed religious tests for public office?”

Frankly, these people can’t possibly have any idea of what Islam actually is.  Originating in Abrahamic tradition, just as Judaism and Christianity do, Islam is practiced by an estimated 2 to 7 million in the United States alone.

Radical Christian Republicans can’t actually claim that Obama’s alleged “war on Christianity” — the one that 72 percent of surveyed Republicans in North Carolina believe he is waging — is more dangerous than their insistence that Islam be banned in this country. You can’t claim that a war on Christianity is threatening your right to free religion and call for the erasure of an entire religious existence in the United States.

Regardless, have these Republican supporters even read the U.S. Constitution? Have their potential president-elects? This is questionable, considering the First Amendment prohibits our government from endorsing any one religion or, more pertinently, “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” We have separation of church and state drilled into our minds, and it seems as though this idea should be basic. Free exercise allows the rich mesh of ideas and intellects we so value in the country to exist uninhibited. What does it say about our nation that Thomas Jefferson, who penned the Declaration of Independence, was a Christian deist, a sect of Christianity that denies the divinity of Jesus Christ? Such religious beliefs didn’t affect his moral beliefs, chiefly those concerning life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Maybe we encourage this behavior. After all, elected officials are traditionally sworn into office with their hands on the Bible. Our Pledge of Allegiance to the United States reminds us that we are “One nation, under God.” And since 1956, “In God We Trust” has been the official motto of the United States.

On the other hand, maybe we don’t know better. Perhaps kids aren’t being taught about Islam in their history classes at school, or perhaps the media and parents and teachers may have so long enforced these anti-Muslim ideals that many just don’t know any different. And that’s incredibly troubling — fear stems from ignorance, and if this trend continues, people will be foisting these Islamophobic beliefs on new generations who don’t have the chance to learn acceptance. They are products of their discrimination-inducing environment.

Unfortunately, for many of these people, the only information about Islam comes in the form of sound bites from the media regarding extremist splinters that are automatically assumed to represent Islam. But Islam isn’t a terrorist organization. It is a quarter of the human beings on this planet.

Still, we see men and women racially profiled and pulled out of line at airport security. We see students arrested for bringing engineering projects to school that are mistaken for bombs. Carson and Trump are feeding the toxic fire that burns under the rears of these voters. We joke all the time about the potential of Trump as president, but we should be considering that this is a real possibility. Electing a leader this hateful is dangerous and destructive. At the end of the day, a Trump administration can’t simply stop doing business with anyone it disagrees with. You can’t just cut off ties, rip up your contract and wipe your hands clean. You have to collaborate. You have to be tolerant.

Otherwise, we know where this path leads, and what happens when hateful people are given the power to shape the world to their liking. “Then they came for me,” wrote Martin Niemöller in 1946. “And there was no one left to speak for me.”

One Comment

  1. Please understand that the “media sound-bites” aren’t about just islamic terrorists. They are genocidal killer machines, much fearsome and vicious than nazis. In the last 4 decades, they have successfully captured power in Iran, Afganistan, and now in Syria and Iraq and many other parts of the middle-east. And look at the way they enforce “islamic law” in those areas under their control. Its time the other ‘three-fourth’ of the world wakes up, stop treating this as mere terroist problem and start dealing with it as a hostile enemy force, which is looking to conquer and subdue us. Only unequivocal strong posturing and the fear of retribution will stop this evil force from spreading its menace. If we dont confront it now, we will have to pay a very heavy price, just a few decades later.