Substitute "all Jews" for "all Muslims" to recall how terrifyingly incendiary this language is. Will those screaming the stereotypes take responsibility when people accept their cues and assume they have license to target innocent Muslims, "multi-culturalists", and others? Do they care how innocent people, even children, bear the brunt of the climate they incite?
Rana Sodhi dedicated himself to fighting hate after losing two brothers, both killed for wearing turbans, an article of the Sikh faith. Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim victim left for dead and blinded in one eye, made a mission of fighting against the death penalty for the man who had hoped to take his life. The family of a Coptic Christian Egyptian man, killed in post 9/11 hate, suffered the tragic irony that he had brought them to the US for greater religious tolerance, and was murdered here, by a hate-fueled white guy, (as cruelly and irrationally as were Coptic Christian victims of ISIS, in brutal executions we appropriately deplore). In response to these acts of terrorism there aren't wholesale smears of white males, because 'white privilege' includes the right to be viewed as individuals. Admitted murderer, Craig Hicks, doesn't represent all atheists; Anders Breivik doesn't represent all Christians. Numerous hateful perpetrators of violence identify as Christian, as there are atrocities committed by self-identified Muslims. But our culture responds distinctly, depending on the religion and color of the perpetrators.
Muslims won't simply disappear. So what do we expect will come of the mass disdain toward them, sometimes chillingly characterized as the "Muslim problem"--all too resonant with the "Jewish problem", an expression that presaged genocide. Muslims, above all, grieve each horrific tragedy, in particular, those perpetrated by self-professed Muslims. They grieve because they are decent human beings. Additionally, they feel constant suspicion and hatred as they try to live their lives while absorbing the shame and blame now heaped upon all Muslims, worldwide. They are damned for whatever they do or don't do.
Innocent, good people, living constructive, productive lives, are smeared, harassed and assaulted. This would be deplored if Jewish men were compelled to hide their yarmulkes to feel safe, and if those Jewish women who cover their heads for modesty, as some Muslim women do, were in fear to wear their preferred religious garb. I have felt compelled to stand up against people being attacked, even murdered, on the basis of snap judgments. I've reached out to the families of people I didn't know, across the country, and I've spoken and written about their losses. What Would Anne Frank Say?
I believe she would remind us that people screaming something does not make it true. She would denounce leaders legitimizing bias, and cuing one another that this is in accord with the tenor of the time. I believe she would decry the power of propaganda, and would point out the tremendous disparity between the Nazi stereotypes of Jews, and real Jews, like her, who were destroyed. The classic Nazi caricature of the "Ugly Jew" has particular impact for me, compared to any photo of Anne. Having started my journey consumed with matters of beauty and acceptance, I am struck by how successfully demagogues implant the most extreme of mass false viewpoints, and also how the characterizing of groups as ugly is inherent to 'Otherizing', and is a consistent element of genocide.
I can imagine Anne and Yusor as friends and I pray that their dignity and their beliefs ultimately defy what befell them, and move us closer to their visions. If Anne, Yusor, and vast numbers of others could, they would surely warn of, and beg us to stand firm against, a very slippery, very dangerous slope, and would remind us what happens next, and next, and next, as an all too familiar progression unfolds incrementally but inexorably--the progression that starts with offhand remarks, then stereotypes, then slurs, then diatribes, then what?
Anne Frank Islamophobia Muslims Islam Hate Crimes
Substitute "all Jews" for "all Muslims" to recall how terrifyingly incendiary this language is. Will those screaming the stereotypes take responsibility when people accept their cues and assume they have license to target innocent Muslims, "multi-culturalists", and others? Do they care how innocent people, even children, bear the brunt of the climate they incite?
Rana Sodhi dedicated himself to fighting hate after losing two brothers, both killed for wearing turbans, an article of the Sikh faith. Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim victim left for dead and blinded in one eye, made a mission of fighting against the death penalty for the man who had hoped to take his life. The family of a Coptic Christian Egyptian man, killed in post 9/11 hate, suffered the tragic irony that he had brought them to the US for greater religious tolerance, and was murdered here, by a hate-fueled white guy, (as cruelly and irrationally as were Coptic Christian victims of ISIS, in brutal executions we appropriately deplore). In response to these acts of terrorism there aren't wholesale smears of white males, because 'white privilege' includes the right to be viewed as individuals. Admitted murderer, Craig Hicks, doesn't represent all atheists; Anders Breivik doesn't represent all Christians. Numerous hateful perpetrators of violence identify as Christian, as there are atrocities committed by self-identified Muslims. But our culture responds distinctly, depending on the religion and color of the perpetrators.
Muslims won't simply disappear. So what do we expect will come of the mass disdain toward them, sometimes chillingly characterized as the "Muslim problem"--all too resonant with the "Jewish problem", an expression that presaged genocide. Muslims, above all, grieve each horrific tragedy, in particular, those perpetrated by self-professed Muslims. They grieve because they are decent human beings. Additionally, they feel constant suspicion and hatred as they try to live their lives while absorbing the shame and blame now heaped upon all 
Muslims, worldwide. They are damned for whatever they do or don't do.
Innocent, good people, living constructive, productive lives, are smeared, harassed and assaulted. This would be deplored if Jewish men were compelled to hide their yarmulkes to feel safe, and if those Jewish women who cover their heads for modesty, as some Muslim women do, were in fear to wear their preferred religious garb. I have felt compelled to stand up against people being attacked, even murdered, on the basis of snap judgments. I've reached out to the families of people I didn't know, across the country, and I've spoken and written about their losses. What Would Anne Frank Say?
I believe she would remind us that people screaming something does not make it true. She would denounce leaders legitimizing bias, and cuing one another that this is in accord with the tenor of the time. I believe she would decry the power of propaganda, and would point out the tremendous disparity between the Nazi stereotypes of Jews, and real Jews, like her, who were destroyed. The classic Nazi caricature of the "Ugly Jew" has particular impact for me, compared to any photo of Anne. Having started my journey consumed with matters of beauty and acceptance, I am struck by how successfully demagogues implant the most extreme of mass false viewpoints, and also how the characterizing of groups as ugly is inherent to 'Otherizing', and is a consistent element of genocide.
I can imagine Anne and Yusor as friends and I pray that their dignity and their beliefs ultimately defy what befell them, and move us closer to their visions. If Anne, Yusor, and vast numbers of others could, they would surely warn of, and beg us to stand firm against, a very slippery, very dangerous slope, and would remind us what happens next, and next, and next, as an all too familiar progression unfolds incrementally but inexorably--the progression that starts with offhand remarks, then stereotypes, then slurs, then diatribes, then what?
Anne Frank Islamophobia Muslims Islam Hate Crimes