Bob now says that when he meets a Muslim he can't help but feel suspicious, since there is so much support for terrorism among Muslims. Is he justified in thinking this way? This is the question he put to callers. All of his callers think so (meaning he's whipping up the fear, and probably resulting violence, which seems to be his goal). I think differently of course, and I told him why.
I didn't say all that I had wished to say, so I sent him a quick email with a couple of additional points, which I reproduce below.
Your fear mongering of Muslims is quite sad. U.S. foreign policy has lead to the death of millions of Muslims over the last 30 years. The starvation campaign in Iraq. Pushing Saddam into a war with Iran, wherein we supplied him the weaponry and logistics support. Maybe a million dead Iraqi's since 2003. Just like the Germans feared the Jews, in the same way you attempt to whip up support for more violence against Muslims by engendering more fear.
Your argument is that polls show that Muslims support terrorists groups. Well, so do Christians. Leaving aside your support for the Nicaraguan Contras, who killed 40,000 civilians or so and all of your other support for U.S. terrorism, look at Lebanon, where Christian suicide terrorists have emerged to expel occupying forces. This poll shows that 80% of Christians supported Hezbollah, the group that pioneered suicide bombing in the 80's.
So now it is time for you to ignore the facts Bob, and spread the fear. You're like the prophets of Ahab, telling the King exactly what he wanted to hear. I suppose Elijah was "hating Israel" when he criticized Ahab's behavior.
2 comments:
I think your Jew and Hitler analogy is quite a stretch, and your assertion that it's evidence that Bob intends harm on Muslims is completely off base. How do you know his motives? When you make the leap from poking holes in his reasoning is you see it to asserting you know his motivation is to cause harm to Muslims, I think this a reflection on your starting bias (everyone has one, I'm not meaning to be derogatory) and not self evidence from the facts.
Wrong on all counts, Jonathan. An assertion that an analogy is a stretch shows me nothing. You need to show how it is a stretch. My statement is perfectly factual. Jews were feared by the Germans and the Germans were egregiously persecuting them. That's a perfect parallel for Bob's behavior towards Muslims. Muslims are dying by the thousands every month, yet Bob fears them.
As far as his motives, this is a blog. I can speculate about someone's motives here. It's not the basis of my argument about how his position is irrational. Your speculation that this reflects my starting bias is not something you can prove or have proved, but it's fine if you want to express it here.
Post a Comment