Posted on 12/02/2006 12:10:44 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters)- When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.
The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."
Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."
At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.
"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland
"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.
"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."
The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an interview afterwards he had been surprised by the response.
"The switchboard went from empty to totally jammed within minutes," said Klein. "There were plenty of callers angry with me, but there were plenty who agreed."
POLLS SHOW WIDESPREAD ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENT
Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification.
Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
A poll carried out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, found that for one in three Americans, the word Islam triggers negative connotations such as "war," "hatred" and "terrorist." The war in Iraq has contributed to such perceptions.
Klein's show followed a week of heated discussions on talk radio, including his own, and online forums over an incident on November 22 involving six Muslim clerics. They were handcuffed and taken off a US Airways flight after passengers reported "suspicious behavior" that included praying in the departure gate area.
The clerics, on their way to a meeting of the North American Imams Federation, were detained in a holding cell, questioned by police and FBI agents, and released. Muslim community leaders saw the incident as yet more evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice.
IGNORANCE SEEN AS KEY PROBLEM
Several American Muslims interviewed on the subject of prejudice over the past few weeks said ignorance was at the core of the problem.
"The level of knowledge is very, very low," said Mohamed Esa, a U.S. Muslim of Arab descent who teaches a course on Islam at McDaniel College in Maryland. "There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and some people think they are all terrorists."
Hossam Ahmed, a retired Air Force Reserve colonel who occasionally leads prayer meetings for the small Muslim congregation at the Pentagon, agreed. "Ignorance is the number one problem. Education is of the essence."
There are no hard figures on how many Muslims have been subject to harassment or prejudice and community leaders say that ugly incidents can prompt spontaneous expressions of support. Such as the e-mail a Minneapolis woman sent to CAIR after the imams were taken off their flight.
"I would like to ... help," the e-mail said. "While I cannot offer plane tickets, I would be happy to drive at least 2 or 3 of them. My car is small, but at least some of our hearts in this land of the free are large."
And optimists saw signs of change in the November 4 election of the first Muslim to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has 435 members.
Democrat Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old African-American lawyer, did not stress his religion during his campaign for a Minnesota seat, but said his victory would "signal to people who are not Muslims that Muslims have a lot to offer to the United States and the improvement of our country."
I don't want them to wear armbands or be confined to camps. I want them removed from this country, plain and simple. I don't care if they are naturalized citizens or citizens of immigrants or not. The supposed 'religion' is a disease of the worst kind and needs to be erradicated.
ATTAINING "CRITICAL MASS"
Among every four humans in the world, one of them is Muslim.
Islam is now the second largest religious group in France, Great Britain and USA!
There is no point in beating around the bush. The fact is that Islam is a militant, intolerant, incendiary religion whose adherents, whenever they establish "critical mass" of about 10 percent of a given population, begin to foment violence, revolt and Jihad --- in essence, a declaration of war on Western Civilization. A World War Three!
Battleground Europe...
Do the Math, Stupid!
Every Western woman in Europe is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman In the same countries is producing 3.6 children." The "youths" get ever more numerous, the non-youths get older. The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades. (from Masada 2000)
A ten dollar bill is in the middle of a crossroads. To the north, there is Santa Claus. To the west, there is the Tooth Fairy. To the east, there is a radical Muslim. To the south, there is a moderate Muslim.
Who reaches the ten dollar bill first?
Answer: the radical Muslim. All the others are mythical creatures.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Slight difference, eh?
As a group they have not inspired much confidence for ability to do anything positive in the last 1500 years or so.
LOL --- the undeniable truth.
Really? Methinks we've had a pretty good education over the past five years.
We're not "ignorant"...we're enlightened.
I forgot to add : Klein's hoax suggestions sound a LOT milder than what these vicious creatures really are doing to nonmoslems in places they're trying to conquer like the Sudan and the Molluccas...or in Egypt and other places where nonmoslems have been reduced to dhimmitude...maybe even parts of European countries where the native nonmoslem women are having to cover their heads or dye their hair blonde to avoid being harrassed, attacked, gangraped, and even scarred for life.
did you have the pig races last night? I thought it was a great idea.
"IGNORANCE SEEN AS KEY PROBLEM"
Yeah, that's it! It's just us poor old dumb crackers who aren't smart enough to understand the wonder that is Islam.
LOL! I should really read Mark Steyn more often. Which column was that from?
When a Leftist says you are "ignorant", what he really means is "you are not sufficiently indoctrinated into believing the Party line"
I think it's a joke I can remember for retelling purposes.
It may have re-inforced prior perceptions that al-Rueters has decided to ignore:
9-11
The WTC attack in 1993.
The videotaped beheadings of innocent people.
The killing and mutilation of servicemen in Somalia.
The bombings of the US Embassies in Africa.
The bombing of the USS Cole.
The shooting of 6 Jewish women in Seattle.
The running down of pedestrians in San Francisco.
The treatment of women in Islamic culture.
The demands by Muslims for us to conform to their way of life or die.
The Madrid bombings.
The London bombings.
The slaughter of Christians by Islamists in Darfur.
The bombings, killings, rapes of innocent men, women and children who are also Islamists.
The killings of innocent Christians in the Phillipines.
Virtually every one of the thousands of terrorists attacks through the world over the past few decades perpetrated by Muslims.
I could go on, but you get the picture. And throughout all of this, so-called Muslim leaders and organizations, like al-CAIR, are silent about the atrocities. But, they have no problem calling us bigots, racists because we do not trust them and we do not trust them precisely because of their lack of criticism of radical Islam.
They have no problem telling us all these problems are our fault. Their reactions show that Muslim leadership supports these atrocities.
Gee, I wonder why so many of us do not trust Muslims?
al-Reuters has decided once again to show us exactly whose side they are on.
Yeah. 9/11 had nothing to do with them.
Several American Muslims interviewed on the subject of prejudice over the past few weeks said ignorance was at the core of the problem.
Oh, I don't know that I would call muslims "ignorant." "Savage" maybe ... Wait! They're talking about US????
"There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and some people think they are all terrorists."
Not "all." Only the live ones.
"Ignorance is the number one problem. Education is of the essence."
Then maybe you'd better to to educatin'. Cuz you got some realllllllly stuuuuuuuuuuuupid ragheads runnin' around. As for me, I learned all I needed to know about islam on September 11, 2001.
There are no hard figures on how many Muslims have been subject to harassment or prejudice
But we can generally conclude that whatever the number, it is not high enough.
"My car is small, but at least some of our hearts in this land of the free are large."
"My car AND MY BRAIN are small ..."
"... Muslims have a lot to offer to the United States and the improvement of our country."
They can help rid it of those pesky trappings of civilization, like running water, equal treatment of women, and a woeful lack of beheadings.
It is the nature of Islam to kill or to use force. It is a form of coercive irrationalism
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