I’m Jewish, and I disagree with the Muslim bashing that’s been going on
I’m Jewish by birth, agnostic by choice, and I have a strong interest in Jediism and Greek Mythology.
President Obama recently referred to
“… the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation…”
Well, message boards and article comment sections all over the internet are flying with all sorts of criticism of Obama’s claim. Sadly, many of these people are claiming that Muslims have contributed nothing whatsoever to this great country of ours.
But the fact is that Obama does have a valid point.
The Sears Tower, which was the tallest building in the world for 25 years, was designed by a Muslim guy named Fazlur Khan. Khan was known as the “father of tubular designs for high-rises.” The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat named its lifetime achievement award, the Fazlur Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal, after him.
Ayub Khan Ommaya was a neurosurgeon who invented the Ommaya reservoir, which delivers chemotherapy directly to brain tumors. He was Muslim.
People should be judged as individuals. There are good and evil people in all religions. Some of the professional people that you come across in your day to day life are probably Muslim, and you don’t even know it. Doctors. Lawyers. Bankers. Teachers. Scientists. Entrepreneurs. Muslims are well represented in all of these professions.
Bash Obama all you want. I certainly do. But I bash him as an individual. Bash any individual all you want. But please don’t bash an entire religious population because some of its members are evil.
In July 2010, Charles Bolden, the administrator of NASA, said that Obama had told him that the primary purpose of NASA was “to reach out to the Muslim world.” If Obama really did say that, then he was wrong. The real purpose of NASA is to teach all of humanity about the universe in which we live. So that would be a good reason to bash Obama, if he really did say it.
In September 2012, after four U.S. citizens were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration falsely said that the attack was a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video at YouTube. That’s certainly a reason to bash Obama.
In September 2012, the Obama administration phoned YouTube to complain about an anti-Muslim video. That’s certainly a reason to bash Obama. Ben Wizner of the ACLU said that of this, “It does make us nervous when the government throws its weight behind any requests for censorship.” Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said of this, “I am actually kind of distressed by this… Even though there are all these great quotes from inside the White House saying they support free speech….by calling YouTube from the White House, they were sending a message no matter how much they say we don’t want them to take it down, when the White House calls and asks you to review it, it sends a message and has a certain chilling effect.”
In June 2013, Rasmussen conducted a poll to find out what people considered to be the “nation’s top terror threat.” Reporting on the results of the poll, Rasmussen wrote: “Among those who strongly approve of the president, more fear the Tea Party than radical Muslims.” That’s a good reason to bash people who strongly approve of Obama. And it’s a good reason to bash the terrorists who happened to be Muslim. But it’s not a good reason to bash all Muslims, or to claim that they have contributed nothing whatsoever to the building of this country.
I’ll close with this statistic that may surprise a lot of people: in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, nearly 80% of Muslims voted for Bush.