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."
There is nothing I would like more than these savages to allow me to worship whomever I want in peace and I'm perfectly willing to allow them to do the same.
The problem is they want to kill me.
You either do not understand that the WOT is a WOC- "war of civilizations", or are not serious yourself.
#60 above---line should read "scenario of internment into his show THAT legitimizes......."
I never even thought of fried pork rinds until Pres G H W Bush said he likes them. Now I pick up a sack of fried pork rinds each time I go food shopping. I don't know why, but they are not popular and I do draw some looks at the checkout. They are most excellent, like bacon lite.
How are you going to tell the difference until it's too late. What do you want to do about them?
Every time they bend over they pass gas.
#32 is a link back to the article. I messed up.
"There are plenty of peaceful Muslims"
Name one, other than yourself of course...
Right, and you also must have missed all the Muslim outrage at the atrocities being committed by that small minority who had high-jacked their religion as well.
So, it's not that they're obnoxious scum, it's that the rest of us are "ignorant?"
I'm sorry , but I know all I need to know about the followers of that stone-age belief system (I refuse to term it a "religion" and sully the reputations of genuine religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, etc.)
When they refuse to stand up and denounce the hating and the killing, and start identifying and turning in existing cells within the country, then they are complicit.
Got a kid to donate? Got a skyscraper to donate? Thimk dammit!!!
Perhaps Jerry Klien should read what Muzzies themselves say their goals are in America. Jews didn't invade Germany and threaten to take it over and convert everyone to Islam and establish sharia law, and destroy our constitutional republic.
Comparing Muslims in America to Jews in Hitlers Germany is just plain wrong.
The Muslims in America would be the equivelant of Hitlers Armies in America in 1938, setting up and getting ready for war.
Muslims coming into America have an agenda, as spelled out by CAIR. They are not here to co exist, they are here to take over and convert the USA to Islam and establish sharia law.
Klien needs to wake up and quit being a Islamic apoligist, and quit being suckered by the lying Islamic apoligists who are decieving Americans as to what they are and what their blood cult teaches.
Which is why Barrack HUSSEIN Obama will never be elected Pres of the USA. I despise when someone ignorantly bashes a religion, so I suggest people not familiar with Islam read the Koran so that they may have plenty of justifiable reasons to distrust Islam. It is a war manual written by a soldier intent on empowering and glorifying himself, nothing more.
BTW, I don't fear Islam as much as I fear the PC-Gestapo in this country that refuses to admit who our enemy is and deal with them accordingly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
