writing on Islamic frenzy, Kristof (NYT) asks, "Is this America?"

[MBS]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

For a glimpse of how venomous and debased the discourse about Islam has become, consider a blog post in The New Republic this month. Written by Martin Peretz, the magazine’s editor in chief, it asserted: “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.” Mr. Peretz added: “I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.” Thus a prominent American commentator, in a magazine long associated with tolerance, ponders whether Muslims should be afforded constitutional freedoms. Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews? How do America’s nearly seven million American Muslims feel when their faith is denounced as barbaric?

This is one of those times that test our values, a bit like the shameful interning of Japanese-Americans during World War II, or the disgraceful refusal to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe. . . .
. . .
Above all, bravo to those Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders who jointly denounced what they called “the anti-Muslim frenzy.”
“We know what it is like when people have attacked us physically, have attacked us verbally, and others have remained silent,” said Rabbi David Saperstein. “It cannot happen here in America in 2010.” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick put it this way: “This is not America. America was not built on hate.” “Shame on you,” the Rev. Richard Cizik, a leading evangelical Christian, said to those castigating Islam. “You bring dishonor to the name of Jesus Christ. You directly disobey his commandment to love your neighbor.”

Amen.

[Demeter]

1. Well, Kristof, this is the America YOU Helped Make

[scarletwoman]

3. Are you sure you're thinking of the right guy? This is Nick Kristof, not Bill Kristol.

I don't read Kristof regularly, but it seems to me he's more often on the side of the angels than not. For years he almost singlehandedly kept calling attention to the genocide in Darfur when no one else was talking about it.

My apologies if it is indeed Kristof that you mean and he has in fact written apologias for the plutocracy that I'm not familiar with.

sw

[MBS]

4. " " " " n/t

[Doctor_J]

2. It's Glenn Beck's America

which is where we all live now.