Over at Spirit 21 Shelina Zahra Janmohamed tackles a familiar theme.
In the run-up to the days marking the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, George Bush decided that the War on Terror was the wrong war. The latest war was the War against Islamic Fascists. I carried out an unscientific poll of a group of my flabbergasted friends and colleagues who felt that this new terminology was an oxymoron (a George-Moron?), a contradiction in terms, designed to create an image in people’s minds that Muslims are fascists. It’s not a meaningful term, nor a helpful term they told me. It’s too muddled up with Italian history. And, most worryingly of all, it is part of what now seems to be open season on Muslims. It seems you can say anything you like these days about Muslims without being held to account.
These loaded comments, blanket discrimination and characterising of Muslims is dangerous. For Everyone. And Everyone needs to be worried. In a sick Orwellian fashion they are building up a portrait of a Muslim villain, a de-humanised monster that lives in our midst. A scapegoat and a legitimate target. Will the next step be for Muslims to carry identity cards with little yellow crescents on them? Let’s not go down that road again.
I’m not opening the comments as we have a thread going on this subject anyway. You can go over to Spirit21 and talk about it.