Crying Wolf -- The US Anti-Muslim Backlash That Wasn't

11/5/02 | No Left Turn

[No Left Turn]

As Americans settle in for the long haul in the war on terrorism and continue to lament the victims of September 11, 2001 and radical Islam's other recent casualties, the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR), the most visible Muslim interest group in America, has other things on its mind. It seems the group is not happy with the way things are going for its members.

CAIR's website lists, among other things, the latest "outrages" perpetrated against Muslim-Americans, and to date the site lists more than 1,700 "Anti-Muslim Incidents" that have been reported to the group as of early this year. It's not clear whether the number represents a cumulative amount reported to the group over the years, or an annual figure.

By looking at the site, you get the sense that the Muslim community in America is under siege. The most evident attempt to portray this point is CAIR's report, The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States, an annual report on anti-Muslim incidents in the US. But while the report comes strong out of the gate with a Muslim-as-victim message, its own statistics and anecdotes undermine its emotional reasoning.

Declaring that "an increasing number of Muslim community members reported claims of mistreatment," the report includes a hefty list of various discriminatory and threatening behavior directed toward Muslim Americans. But a closer look at the numbers shows that out of the many millions of Americans who count themselves as Muslim, those registering complaints with CAIR amounted to a whopping 366, a number so far below 1% of the Muslim population segment that it's not worth calculating. And a closer examination of the listed incidents leaves the impression that the group is laboring very hard to portray its constituency as an oppressed people.

If you think that even a few incidents of intolerance are too many and that playing the violin for some 300 injured spirits is a hard-hearted way to approach the world, allow me to point out the lameness of the complaints.

The predominant complaint type is denial of accommodation, coming in with 37% of the complaint total. Given that large percentage, there must be some juicy stories, right? Well, this is about as rough as it gets: "A doctor said he was initially informed that he could not go to the mosque on Friday." The doctor objected, "but agreed to work out an extended lunch break arrangement." The horror.

Other weak tea complaints, which, by the way, are not corroborated or verified, include, "complaints from individuals whose employers offered them pension plans but refused their request to invest their funds in halal business ventures, which do not violate the teachings of the Islamic faith." According to CAIR, these principles require that investors share in profit and loss, receive no interest, and that they refrain from investing in businesses such as liquor, pork, casinos, pornography and interest-based financial institutions. How is it possible not to offend people who are offended by money market investments?

Like the good doctor's tale from above, many anecdotes counted as complaints in CAIR's statistics have been rectified or rendered into non-events, according to the report.

A teacher complained he was denied religious accommodation to attend Friday prayer. Initially, he was told there was no policy to address his request. Later, however, the superintendent's office agreed to reconsider the issue.

A job applicant was reportedly told that her hijab (headwear) might be against company policy. An official with the retail store's headquarters later sent a letter stating that the woman would be welcome with her hijab.

Following complaints, a man received a memo stating that his supervisor would make sure that no profanity was used at work and that his request to reschedule his work hours to attend Friday prayer would be respected.

Still other anecdotes illustrate an appalling lack of sensitivity by Muslims toward non-Muslim co-workers and to the secular society they willingly decided to join. For instance, "An employee claimed his manager took down Islamic materials hanging on his office door." If the doors next to his have a Star of David and a Crucifix on them, I'll back his complaint. My guess is they don't.

There are many anecdotes describing the plight of Muslim employees seeking additional work breaks for Ramadan and time off on Fridays for prayers. Many also involve men refusing to shave beards despite seeking employment in the food service industry, where body hair is a sanitary concern.

Still other complaints seem to have nothing to do with the person's practice of Islam. Try to find the religious issue in the following complaint: "An employee reported harassment by her training manager. She was injured on the job and believes the company is trying to stop her from getting workman?s compensation."

Schools made up the second largest place of occurrence for complaints (15%), next to the workplace. Check out these hate crimes:

A ninth grader believed it would violate her faith to exercise with boys in gym class.

Students have been asked to stop holding Friday prayer in school. The principal said the disruption from students leaving the class was too much.

My favorite complaint comes from Herndon, Virginia, where a father of three complained his kids were forced to take music lessons despite their family's religious objections.

Just going on the CAIR website (www.cair-net.org) gives one the sense of a people enduring constant threat. There's talk of tolerance, but it's mostly directed at non-Muslims, who are admonished to not be racists and fully accommodate Muslims, even if that means enduring beard hair in your Big-Mac. There's little talk about tolerance for rules of a secular society, and no acknowledgement of certain realities like the fact that public schools these days do not tolerate prayers from any religious groups.

There's also little respect for the America's struggle to preserve its way of life in the face of Islamic fascism. The CAIR site prominently displays media reports that one could assume the group agrees with. Based on these articles, one can surmise that CAIR sees victory in America's backing away from a policy of photographing and fingerprinting Middle-Eastern-born Canadians entering the US, even though Canada barely vets its own immigrants. You would also be safe in thinking that the organization is very much against the use of force to disarm Iraq, preferring instead, "non-violent means involving the UN," a quote from a possible Muslim candidate for office in one of the articles featured on the site.

The group also seems suspect of the recent attempts by the US government to send positive message spots to broadcast outlets in the Islamic world, touting US tolerance toward Muslims living in America. Ironically, CAIR's own statistics prove the US case, and given Islamic regimes' treatment of religious minorities within their borders, anecdotes of beard shaving requirements in the workplace are more likely to incite giggling than rage.

The strikingly positive thing about the report, though I doubt CAIR can see this, is the ludicrously low number of incidents and the extremely low bar an anecdote must clear to be considered a complaint. It should be noted that the site has a prominently displayed area where a person can click and instantly register his or her complaint, and still the number of incidents last year could not surmount the 400 mark, and the total complaint number is still below 2,000, which is still a small fraction well below 1% of the US Muslim population.

The 2002 report, which will include the period following the September 11 attacks, is up next. If the non-incidents that found their way into the 2001 report are an indication, the group should have a field day spinning a nationwide anti-Islamic conspiracy out of the few isolated and highly publicized anti-Muslim incidents that followed the largest terrorist attack on US soil. In the meantime, I'll continue to play the violin for those registering these complaints, even though it may lead to my being reported to the CAIR website -- by a certain father in Herndon, Virginia.

[lelio]

A ninth grader believed it would violate her faith to exercise with boys in gym class.
Do these people not know the phrase "When in Rome..." And people complain about the Ugly American abroad.

[Gorzaloon]

*shrug*

In their culture, lying to the Infidel is a virtue.

Whatever they say needs to be marginilized, discounted, and ridiculed.

[swarthyguy]

CAIR is a terrorist front. They should be banned.

[crazykatz]

BTTT

[crazykatz]

BTTT

[Puppage]

Wow. That's a wonderful point. Makes the "Ugly American" look like a Boy Scout.

[jiggyboy]

If I thought they would show up immediately, I'd "freep" the site with whines such as "increased police presence has prevented me from blowing up synagogues of the Jewish pigs" and so on.

[No Left Turn]

You're right. The people making these complaints appear to make little attempt to assimilate.

[dead]

Bump to read later

[Right in Chicago]

More of the same PC nonsense...

And the liberal media and the left will eat it up - read the new book 'Tea With Terrorists' by Craig Winn and Ken Power for unbelievable insight to that 'peaceful' religion that is Islam - the kiling of Infidels (clearly identified as Christians and Jews in the Qu'Ran) is only mentioned about 10 times in the Qu'Ran - who are we to spew such hate (that was sarcasm by the way )

[300winmag]

There's little talk about tolerance for rules of a secular society, and no acknowledgement of certain realities like the fact that public schools these days do not tolerate prayers from any religious groups.

Wrong-o! The Dearborn, Michigan public schools have prayer rooms for muslims, with the school days scheduled around prayer times and feast days. The democRATS that run the school system say that this is not taxpayer support of a religion because, well because they say so.

They also know that muslims vote, whine, and on occasion, snipe at people.

[spodefly]

Thanks for the compendium of Muslim Whine, NLT.

I personally (and I am sure that I speak only for myself here) am sick of these whiney, ungrateful, dip$hits. If their brethren keep killing innocents around the world, and the supposed 'peaceful muslims' keep whining about their so-called mistreatment while never speaking out against the true horrors their fellow muslimes bring into the world, they will soon get a taste of real discrimination.

They don't know what backlash is ... yet.

[dead]

I knew a Muslim guy once, who thought that perhaps people didn't like him and junk.

What has happened to our tolerance?!?!?!

[SeenTheLight]

Great article NLT! As a wannabee writer myself, I would encourage you to send this somewhere for posting if you haven't already. That's what I started doing and now I have a semi-regular gig---not paid unfortunately but I get to vent!

It's about time someone laid out the case about the whining Muslims. How about that woman (can't remember the state---E. Coast?) who insisted that her driver's license photo be taken with her veil still on, covering everything but her eyes!

FRegards,

STL

[Michael2001]

Good post.

[dead]

bttt

[Aquinasfan]

Good post.

[dead]

bttt