Hmm…well, let’s see. Muslim extremists once tried to blow up the World Trade Center. Muslim extremists blew up a Marine barracks in Beirut. Muslim extremists finally did blow up the World Trade Center. Muslim extremists blew up 190 people in Spain. Muslim extremists shot and blew up people and shit all over Mumbai for three days. A Muslim extremist tried to blow up an airplane with explosives in his shoe. A Muslim extremist tried to blow up an airplane with explosives in his underwear. Countries all over the west are always arresting Muslim extremists for hatching plots to kill more people and blow up more shit. And so on and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
But Williams is only nervous about Muslims in airplanes because they’re different from him!
Oh, yeah…and because of 9/11, as if that meant anything. :rolleyes:
Still, wouldn’t it be swell if only there was some way to look at a Muslim and tell if he was an extremist. Oh, well, there’s not…so fuck it! Let’s all stick our heads in the sand in the name of political correctness (or, as I like to call it: *idiocy[/I!, at least in this case) and pretend that we’re under no greater threat from Muslims than we are from New Zealanders. And then let’s pretend that there’s absolutely no reason for anyone else to perceive potential threats from the Muslim community, and that way we can look down our noses at them for being so stupid and politically incorrect. And then while we’re pretending anyway, we can pretend not to hope that no Muslims ever blow our asses up either.
I swear I couldn’t make up some of the shit that I that read around here sometimes.
Oooh, ooh, that’s so fucking scary. Tell me SA, what are your chances of being killed by an inattentive driver over the next year? Do you spend your days ranting about how seeing an automobile makes you nervous? Or is it just the muslim drivers that make you nervous? You need to get a grip on your overly emotional response to what are actually miniscule risk factors.
To you and your like, 9/11 is just a convenient excuse to indulge your fear and bigotry, kinda like bin Laden and his ilk did.
It’s been nearly ten years. You’ve indulged enough. Everyone’s indulged enough. It’s time you started worrying a little more about the drunk who is actually going to kill you with his hurtling 4,000 pound juggernaut of Detroit iron, and a lot less about people you don’t know that you see on the street and who dress a little differently than you.
I’m not overly emotional at all, I’m just illustrating that you are way off base when you pretend that someone like Williams is overreacting because of 9/11 and 9/11 only.
Tell that to all the people who’ve been killed in terrorist attacks since then.
Why?
Do you have any idea how many people drive drunk and never hurt anyone?
Sheesh! Overreact much? What an asshole. I bet you get wary driving past bars at 2:00 a.m. too.
I have absolutely no problem with people who dress diffferently than me. And as a matter off fact, I’m good friends (don’t start) with a family of Muslims from Morocco and for whom I have played a fairly significant role in changing their opinion of Americans for the better.
And I’m friends with some of their friends too.
Yep, it’s true. And they’ve gone home now but when they were here they would wear their customary clothing when we went to restaurants or the mall or to Wal-Mart (which they loved for some reason) and I would happily glare at anyone who gave them dirty looks.
So don’t give me any shit about having problems with people who dress differently than I do, mmkay?
And while we’re at it, don’t give me any shit about Juan Williams or anyone else experiencing pangs of nervousness upon seeing Muslims on their plane. It natural. It’s normal. It’s understandable. And I’d wager that many if not most Muslims in America, even if they’d prefer it were otherwise, understand it as well.
Indulging in those fears when the actual threat is miniscule is cowardly.
Don’t try to tell me you and Juan Williams and many others aren’t indulging in them, you’re wallowing. Heck, you, Juan and the like are actively promoting those fears. Does it do your vision of America’s greatness proud to literally be a cowardly fear monger?
I find it disgusting myself.
If you must quiver unreasonably, have the decency to quiver in private.
I’m not promoting anything. I’m just saying it’s stupid to deny human nature and to revile someone for experiencing it. You’d have a point if Williams had been openly hostile or insulting, but he wasn’t.
No one’s denying human nature. Some are engaged in pandering to its darker side, and have been for the past decade. Conservatives, such as yourself, like to deny that, but that doesn’t change the reality.
You’ll occasionally hear homophobes complain about gays shoving their orientation in their faces because holding hands with someone of the same sex, that’s shoving it in someone’s face while holding hands with someone of the opposite sex, why, that’s just normal behavior.
My biggest issue with what Williams said is really that. He claims that dressing in Muslim garb is “first and foremost” identifying as Muslim rather than just being an expression of sartorial comfort the way everyone else’s garb is. Wearing what you’re comfortable wearing isn’t a political statement.
“I am scared of you because you don’t blend in.” “I am scared of you because you don’t look like everyone else.” “I am scared of you because I ascribe motivations to your laundry that you don’t necessarily have.”
It’s ugly stuff. And some on the right are defending it as a rational fear while others on the right are saying “Why does it have to be rational?” Frustrating, ugly stuff. We can be better than this.
This is utter nonsense! What the hell is wrong with you people? There are population groups all over this planet that don’t look and dress like Americans and they don’t trigger this kind of anxiety. You are totally - and conveniently, in my opinion - ignoring the fact that people of their religion…a religion characterized by the clothing they’re wearing…have indiscriminately blown up, shot, beheaded and otherwise murdered thousands and thousands of people around the world who have done them no harm and who are the number one threat of violence to people in most of the civilized countries on the face of the planet - and to a fair number of the uncivilized ones. People are not wary of Muslims because they dress differently! The notion is idiotic and I can’t believe anyone intelligent enough to learn how to speak and type could claim they are.
This is not to say that Muslims are bad people or that they deserve to be treated badly and subjected to abuse, but again the idea that people feel threatened by them simply because of the way they dress is utterly ridiculous.
nice caveat at the end there. you still sound like a frightened racist. Don’t forget, Christians are just as famous for their violence as the Muslims are. Its just convenient to forget that I suppose.
For me, it’s stoners at the movie theaters.
They may light up a spliff in the back while I’m there, and burn the whole place down, with me in it! :eek:
I’ve refrained, so far, from yelling out, “possible FIRE hazard!!!” when I see them back there.
But what with the frequent examples of people freaking over women with headscarves, and dudes with egyptian accents, and the whole hearted support for this sort of behavior from conservatives, I’m thinking maybe it’s OK now to express my fearful feelings in a crowded theatre.
Damn stoners anyway…
I have to give SA credit when it’s due. He’s right. People have irrational fears. And people have the right to express them. In fact, when it comes to social issues, it is vital that you express them, or we as a society can’t get over them.
The trouble comes about when you bandy them about like a badge of honor, and use those expressions of fear as a means of bonding with likeminded individuals.
-Not that anyone’s ever done that.
Besides, fear based organizations have traditionally been a source of good things for all Americans.
Where would we be without lynch mobs and their like?
