Posted on 07/11/2007 1:58:29 PM PDT by Baladas
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has told NAACP members that it is particularly important to respect the civil rights of Muslim Americans at a time when U.S. troops continue to fight terrorism in the Middle East.
Making Muslims "feel fully included in the work and spirit of America is part of making America a better country," Chertoff said Tuesday night in an address to the civil rights group's 98th annual convention.
Society has "fought too long and too hard for the rights of African Americans to turn our backs on the rights of Muslim Americans," he said
(Excerpt) Read more at clickondetroit.com ...
Good job Chertie ! /s
These Islamic terrorists only want instantaneous urban redevelopment. What is your problem.
Nothing he said is wrong or even remotely undesirable.
We should respect the civil rights of Muslim Americans. The problem is that the Liberal Left and the NAACP (not mutually exclusive) both use this issue of “respect” and “civil rights” as a means to excuse unlawful and undesirable behavior.
However, in literal terms - respecting any person’s civil rights includes full and aggressive prosecution under the law when such persons violate those laws, or are officially recognized as being suspect of violations. In other words, our “civil rights” include the means for the government to investigate and prosecute, and just because someone is a Muslim or an African American, or both, does not make them exempt from such procedures. Of course, that is a technicality the Left feels free to ignore, except when they want to go after someone.
Oh, and I do recognize that Islam itself is a flawed religion, in which a propensity for violence and anti-social behaviors exists in spades. This, in itself, means that a disproportionate number of Muslim Americans will find themselves under suspicion for terrorist activities or sympathies. The Left would have us believe that terrorism, crime, and other social ills should be and are proportionally distributed over all races and religions, but statistically this doesn’t hold up. Approaching the investigation of crimes, terrorism, etc, using a flawed theory that Christians and Buddhists are just as likely to be terrorists as Muslims are or vice versa, is a dangerous and idealistically blind approach that’ll cause us to stretch resources unnecessarily thin trying to cover persons who are least likely to commit acts of terrorism.
Anyway, Muslim Americans should just get used to being under a microscope. If they think it is unfair, perhaps they should work on modernizing and moderating their extremist religious elements. Mosques with extremist clerics should be shunned, donations to religious organizations that support extremist views should be stopped, and they should assist in the investigations of terrorism among their own kind in an effort to weed out the agitators, and agents of terror. Instead, it seems as if Muslim Americans will boycott a company for what they consider to be lewd or lascivious advertising, but they won’t boycott a mosque whose cleric is proven to have participated in the advocation of and execution of an act of terror that results in the rape or murder of innocents.
I guess, my sympathy toward Muslim Americans is more one of intellectual recognition that we should observe and respect their civil rights, but I am always opposed to special rights for minorities of any flavor, even though I’m technically a minority myself. Being a Muslim American does not entitle them to freedom from suspicion. In fact, it places them smack dab in the middle of a class of people who are automatically suspects. However, their claims that being suspects or suspected is a violation of their civil rights is wrong. As a class, Muslims in America can be classified as “suspect”, but they are still innocent until proven guilty. That is their civil right that we’re protecting, however, they aren’t protected from investigation by their ethnicity or religion, and while it may seem like harassment - as long as all the forms and laws are observed in the due process of the investigation, they have no grounds for complaint.
If you won't have them, then another [islamofascists] will.
Hmmmm... I don't think so. I could not possibly say that about my brother-in-law. He's pretty "American" for a man born in Pakistan.
It is obvious that Chertoff does not think respect goes both ways.
Muslims and illegals don’t have to respect US citizens.
We are in deep doo doo.
Islamofascists are a direct threat to the nation, not the average run-of-the-mill Muslim American (at least any more so than your average run-of-the-mill non-Christian).
I'm not a fundamentalist Christian and I don't trust anyone whose religion is based on a book that wants me and my family converted or dead, somehow I consider them a threat.
Governments are charged with dolling out punishments, not the unwashed masses/mob.
Some freepers have stated that Muslim Americans do show their solidarity but the media doesn't report it--they may have something there.
Still, from this end, it seems that Muslim Americans can do more to tie themselves more into this nation (people) so that it isn't so easy for some to ostracize them and lump them in with the islamofascists.
Our government is of, by and for the "unwashed masses" as you so elitistly call them.
Yes, it is ridiculous but some here can't deal with anything other than black and white ergo in their minds all Muslims are terrorists.
Lots of those here who consider all Muslim Americans as traitors could be atheists or non-Christians.
For African American, you have a point. But in the case of the article, it is specifically about those Americans who are Muslims—so in this case Muslim American is warranted.
That’s NOT what they said, that’s what Chertoff implied.
We all know liberals can think in all those colors, coz’ they’re so special and smart.
My reply was in answer to poster Williams question related to happenings here on FR, it didn’t have anything to do with “sources.”
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