"Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims." He writes, "This is a statement of fact, not value."
and you might guess that quote comes from--
a) A fundamentalist preacher of a small religious sect in Florida. OR
b) glenn beck's latest rant. There is nothing Fox will not broadcast! Or
c) "a seminal force" at Harvard's Social Studies Program, and more importantly, the editor of an influential and respected magazine.
But wait, before you answer... there's more! He also said:
"I wonder whether I need honor these people [Muslims] and pretend they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse."
Islamophobia, it ain't just from poorly educated fundie rednecks. The quotes come from the famous Marty Peretz, editor of The New Republic. There is nothing here that is any less toxic than Rev Terry (the burn book guy, not to be confused with the cool burn man folks in Nevada) and his rants... just the same thing from another man who happens to have many strong connections to the political, academic and religious establishment.
Screw the establishment.
Politico did a story about the big money behind the current wave of anti-Muslim hysteria.
There's...
big money behind the mosque opposition, as highlighted by the relationship between Horowitz’s Los Angeles-based nonprofit Jihad Watch — the website run by Spencer "dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology play in the modern world" — and Joyce Chernick, the wife of a wealthy California tech company founder.
Though it was not listed on the public tax reports filed by Horowitz’s Freedom Center, POLITICO has confirmed that the lion’s share of the $920,000 it provided over the past three years to Jihad Watch came from Chernick, whose husband, Aubrey Chernick, has a net worth of $750 million, as a result of his 2004 sale to IBM of a software company he created, and a security consulting firm he now owns.
A onetime trustee of the hawkish Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Chernick led the effort to pull together $3.5 million in venture capital to start Pajamas Media, a conservative blog network that made its name partly with hawkish pro-Israel commentary and of late has kept up a steady stream of anti-mosque postings...
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
Washington Institute for Near East Policy, or WINEP, is the "think" tank spin-off of AIPAC, a lobby for Israel's Policies based in Washington DC. It basically is, in practice, a lobby for war and occupation. It should be noted that Marty Peretz also sits on the Board of WINEP. He also is a frequent speaker at AIPAC Policy conferences. His extremism is welcomed there.
Chernick also gave substantial funds to the ADL, the Defamation League, and it is no wonder that its leader, Abraham Foxman, is now a leader in opposingthe Muslim Community Center a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.
Which brings me to this question. why the hell is it, that while many a halfway decent congresspeople, who would not be caught dead applauding at any event that featured Rev Terry "burn Quran" Jones... and would never attend any Glenn Beck events, even if they do attract thousands... these very same respectable politicians beat down the doors at every annual AIPAC policy conferences held each Spring in DC (it is said that the only other event in Washington that attracts more congrespeople is the State of the Union speech). Their agenda is clear. Make war easier, and to dehumanize the people whose homes are being demolished at a fervent pace, even during "peace" talks, whose water is made unfit to drink as a direct result of Israel policy. This Lobby is doing all within its power to stoke war with Iran, even while defends Israel's continued rejection of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty and its introduction of Nuclear Weapons into the Middle East. It is also doing all it can to prevent even the very modest pressure the Obama administration places on Israel to stop building Illegal settlements. (see diary: Congress tells Obama to Shut-Up)
so screw this establishment. Let's tell our congresspeople we don't want them hangin' with people who promote war and racism. if we don't confront this establishment, they will end up killing us all.
Instead of going to the next aipac event, maybe these politicians can instead hang with the students at Brandeis University (Marty Peretz's Alma Mater), many of whom denounced his racist rhetoric (this brings to mind an incident that happened locally, when an anti-Muslim extremist, Daniel Pipes, was invited on the UC Berkeley campus by Hillel, a liberal Jewish group decided it had enough, and officially unaffiliated itself from the sponsor of this trash. There was an in-depth story of how the American Jewish establishment is quickly losing the support of many, especially Jewish youth, from the New York Review of Books). Or maybe these politicians might instead spend some time listening to Palestinians? Or maybe they can stay home and spend time with their spouses and loved ones... The constant appeals to racism that come from the luminaries at aipac events, Marty Peretz being just one example of many, should make it a controversial event, not the place that all politicians want to be seen.
A few rich and powerful people would like to divide us so that we might make it easier to make war. What we know is that we...Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, atheist, etc. ... we have much more in common with each other than we do with those few who would call us to war. why would a data entry worker in Fresno, CA want to make war with a data entry worker in Tehran who only wants to live his life in peace? Unless there is a massive campaign of hate and disinformation, war is not an easy sell.
We must reject the rhetoric of racism, and we must confront and challenge the institutions that help its spread. We need to protest both the religious-based haters and the more secular campaign of hate and support of war and militarism. (see a list of recent protests of AIPAC, here)