At Ground Zero anti-Islam rally, man harassed for looking vaguely Muslim.

[bugfragged]

This is not a pleasant thing to wake up to on a Monday morning.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/23/ground-zero-hate/

At an anti-Islam rally yesterday at Ground Zero, a person of color wearing a skull cap and wandering through the crowd was targeted with insults and nearly attacked by protesters for the offense of looking vaguely Muslim. The videographer summarized the episode this way:

A man walks through the crowd at the Ground Zero protest and is mistaken as a Muslim. The crowd turns on him and confronts him. The man in the blue hard hat calls him a coward and tries to fight him. The tall man who I think was one of the organizers tried to get between the two men. Later I caught up with the man who’s name is Kenny. He is a Union carpenter who works at Ground Zero. We discussed what a scary moment that was for him.

Glenn Greenwald observes that the video “shows some extremely ugly stuff that’s been unleashed.” Watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaNRWMN-F4&feature=player_embedded

[rfranklin]

1. The guy in the hard hat should be in Afghanistan...

He could mix it up with those Taliban dudes.

[dkf]

2. Great "peace" mosque this thing is going to be.

Such genius analysis on what this country needs to create better relations with the Muslim community.

[Karenina]

3. "The crowd got rid of that guy pretty quickly."

No matter he's a Union Member. No matter he's a New Yorker. He's an easily identifiable "Other" who had no "right" to be there. He "offends their sense of the sacred, heartfelt feelings, sensitivities," by his mere presence. So they turn on him with NO questions asked. A rabid, raving mad, racist mob.

Unions in NYC have been white supremacist hotbeds for decades. Police, fire, construction... Don't take my word for it.
As various communities have been accepted as white, they have gained access to dominant culture status.

What we are witnessing is the subjugation of the cognitive to the emotionally arousing. Add the bad acid and alcohol of America's racist legacy and :nuke:

The clip clearly exposes the equation, Muslim=N*****.

[ToppleTheTeaParty]

4. I bet when...

Christian suicide bombers start boarding planes for Muslim countries, they won't be laughing over there.

Bush & his Saudi buddies have sure unleashed a 21st Century Holy War. All for oil. Pitiful and disgusting.

[Quantess]

5. Well now, that would be an interesting turn of events.

I'm no expert on Christian fundamentalists, but suicide bombing is not their style.