When the rights of one group are conveniently ignored for political gain, everyone suffers. You don’t have to be Muslim to be offended by the right wing reaction to the proposed community center 2 blocks north of the former site of the World Trade Center. If we stand by and allow Newt Gingrich to claim that all Muslims are Nazis, or Sarah Palin to call the first amendment “intolerable”, we allow them to trample on the Constitution, and on America’s ideals.
How can we expect immigration reform to become a reality when there are people willing to paint everyone as “others” and pit us against each other? Newborn babies become anchor babies and then terror babies, and suddenly the 14th amendment must be repealed to save us all. It’’s a tried and true tactic: divide and conquer. And they are winning — we have doubled the number of border patrol agents, quadrupled the hours spent patrolling the border, increased deportations and decreased crime along the border, but legalization and family reunification must wait until the right wing noise machine quiets down. Except, it’s never going to quiet down.
The debate over the Muslim community center should not be seen as a brief reprieve from the hysteria about “anchor” babies and repealing the 14th amendment, rather as yet another symptom of the sickness of xenophobia that is gripping our country in these hard economic times. We are all Americans, and we should all be standing for tolerance and respect for all of our communities.
Categories: Fighting Hate, Uncategorized, comprehensive immigration reform
Tags: ground zero mosque, immigration reform, muslim, world trade center
