...of course some will still attempt to slander all Muslims for the poor acts of the few.
I've a few Muslim friends. Two of them live here in Jefferson City. They are both extremely mild mannered, polite, and quiet gentlemen. I've come to appreciate their overall demeanor and they take my ribbing of them being 'terrorist A-rabs' quite well. Of course, they've known me for years now, and understand that the running joke is not actually at their expense but at the expense of stereotypical midwesterners who like to eye down my buddies as if they are actually going to suddenly take off their shoelaces and attempt to strangle the nearest immodestly-dressed white woman on the street while screaming 'ALLAH AKBAR!'
In nearby Columbia, I had another friend who owned a small string of coffee shops in the region. The location in Columbia was known as 'OSAMA's ', - though Osama is a very common name in the Middle East, it's a cultural lightning rod in the Middle West. Osama's is continually vandalized, despite the fact that it's in the middle of the downtown area near the MU campus in the center of a city containing ~80,000 citizens.
This behaviour and the comments I often run afoul of here at JU are embarressing reminders of how culturally isolated many of us still are and how susceptible we can be to manipulation by others looking for traction for their political views. The continued fearmongering (Terrorist Muslims are going to take over the world and mass convert you all!) would be highly entertaining if the true believers weren't so strong in their convictions - using 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings as springboards to protect and advance popular political bullshit propaganda. This is the reason why it is very difficult to speak sanely with those parroting the 'Terrorist Muslim' mantra. I have a very difficult time trying to divide the ignorant from the politically motivated - it seems just a bit too convenient that every time this issue comes up, those pushing 'Muslims are after us ALL!!!' usually:
A) Don't actually know any Muslims,
Are incredibly localized...and
C) Voted for the same President twice because they were a part of the ABD (Anyone But a Democrat - no matter how bad the candidate is!) crowd . A President, who, though he was elected twice, is less popular then his father who served only one term.
Only one in four Americans believe President Bush is a better president than his father, George H. W. Bush, a new CNN poll has found.
Six in 10 said the elder Bush, who served one term from 1989-1993, did a better job in office, according to a poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.
Poll: More Americans Prefer Bush's Father
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/21/bush.poll/index.html?eref=yahoo
I thought of Osama and the Khans when I read the below article and checked out the poll. It's nothing they don't already know, but it may serve to remind them that they are part of a religion of peace, and to forget their resentment against those that treat them as Magna Ultra Extremist killer Muslims, instead of who they really are - people.
UK survey at odds with Government over terror
Thursday November 16, 2006
By Robert Verkaik
LONDON - Claims by MI5 and the Government that large numbers of young Muslims support terrorism are countered in a new survey that shows less than 1 per cent of the Islamic community sympathise with the actions of the 7/7 London bombers.
The findings are published in the wake of a speech made by Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, in which she said that opinion polls indicated that over 100,000 of British citizens consider the July attacks were justified.
The new survey: Muslim views: Foreign policy and its effects, was carried out across the Muslim community in October and concludes that there is almost no support for terrorism amongst the Muslim community with just 1 per cent of those surveyed supporting the 7/7 London bombings.
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