For Japan comparisons in the mosque debate, there's a more apt example...

[JHB]

...look to the Immigration Act of 1924, particularly the Asian Exclusion Act and its effect on Japanese politics.

(I first posted this in another thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8961703
but once I was done it seemed more appropriate for an OP)

Unrestricted bigotry against Japanese, especially on the West Coast, had been a source of friction for years. Of course, the Japanese weren't alone on the receiving end of this, but it coincided with Japan's rise to industrialization and status as an international power. This prompted claims by the usual suspects that Japanese immigrants were actually an advance force to attempt to take over here (the forerunner of the "fifth column" line during WW2, and echoed today by that "Aztlan" business about Mexicans).

The act came at what proved to be a critical time in Japanese history, before the militarist forces that launched the invasion of China and started the Pacific war took power. I'm simplifying, of course. This can and has filled books. There were a lot of forces at work within Japan at this time, but it's worth noting...

Passage of the Act was taken as a tremendous insult in Japan, and was demagogued still further. It undercut the more internationalist and (in general) more liberal elements in its politics, and strengthened the notion that it was nationalism and military strength that was needed to be taken seriously by the West.

So thanks to demagogues (and a culture that took white supremacy as given) over here, people and organizations that could have acted as a counterforce to the rise of the WW2 militarists was lost.

And now we have a case where internationalist-minded Muslims(the point man from a sect that has been persecuted by the same groups that call the US "the Great Satan") are being rejected out of hand by the same sort of forces that were all up in arms over the "yellow peril" back then.


..."doomed to repeat it."

[JHB]

1. Kicking for afternoon crowd.

Maybe someone will take a bite.

[steve2470]

2. k and r nt