Adding insult to nation’s injury
http://www.msnbc.com/news/629131.asp
The anti-Arab backlash is decidedly un-American — and quite American
By Robert Jamieson Jr.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
What would have happened if a group of Norwegian Americans were being sought in the bloodiest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil? Would we, as Americans, lash out at people with blue eyes and fair hair? Put bullet holes in their churches? Or leave phone messages at their workplace saying they ought to be eradicated or deported back to Scandinavia? Probably not.
BUT ACROSS THE country, Muslims and people of Arab heritage have found bullet holes in their mosques, death threats on answering machines and obscene graffiti on walls — all of it blaming them for Tuesday’s tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The unfocused rage, directed at Muslims and Arab Americans, adds insult to our nation’s injury.
It also goes against the democratic ideals we say binds us as Americans — ideals we proudly hold up for the whole world to see.
The anti-Arab backlash is decidedly un-American — and quite American.
Just look at history.
During World War II, hard-working Japanese American citizens were kicked off their land and forced into internment camps.
More than a half-century later, we still had not learned from that ugly past.
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