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Once You've Sanctioned Torture, Anything Else is Possible
Racism Thrives
By SHARON SMITH
03/01/06 -- -- Those who worry that the world's Arab and Muslim
populations pose a threat to free speech in Western democracies need
not fear. The first Amendment remains intact-particularly, it seems,
when it comes to the "right" to inflict racial slurs. Indeed, the
last few weeks have witnessed a spate of pundits and politicians
exercising their right to freely engage in racist demagoguery
against Arabs and Muslims without repercussion.
Celebrity hatemonger Ann Coulter did not disappoint the rabid crowd
at the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. last month. The highlight of
Coulter's address, sandwiched between speeches by Dick Cheney,
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Newt Gingrich, was, "I think
our motto should be post-9-11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces
consequences.'" Journalist Max Blumenthal remarked, "This
declaration prompted a boisterous ovation" from the overflow crowd.
Fifteen minutes later, Blumenthal asked Frist his opinion on the "raghead"
characterization. Frist responded, "I wasn't there so I better not
comment." No major newspaper reported on Coulter's racial epithet to
the more than 1,000 Republican Party stalwarts.
The "raghead" comment is consistent with an article Coulter posted
on her website, which reads in part, "Jihad monkey talks tough;
jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that's
offensive. How about 'camel jockey'? What? Now what'd I say? Boy,
you tent merchants sure are touchy."
Last week, the level of xenophobia surged on Capitol Hill when
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, along with Frist and
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, whipped themselves into a (bipartisan)
frenzy to block Dubai Ports World from replacing a British company
in running six U.S. ports.
As the Washington Post reported, "The lawmakers said they feared
that national security might be compromised by letting a Middle
Eastern firm manage key U.S. ports."
Raising the level of melodrama, Clinton argued that the port
management deal would "turn over our sovereignty to another
country." New York Republican congressman Vito Fossella compared the
port deal to an "announcement that Dubai was to take over security
at our airports."
Schumer told reporters, "How can we turn over one of the most vital
areas in our nation to a country with a significant nexus of
involvement with terrorists?"
Although Schumer argued in a February 22 USA Today op-ed piece that
Congressional opposition "has nothing to do with the fact that the
United Arab Emirates...is an Arab nation," the Democrats' media
attack dogs were already cut loose.
That same day, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called for
"corporate racial profiling," quoting Jan Gadiel of 9/11 Families
for a Secure America: "Our borders are wide open. We don't know
who's in our country right now, not a clue. And now they're giving
away our ports."
Even Dowd admitted that election-year politics played a role in the
Congressional mutiny. "Lawmakers, many up for re-election, have
learned well from Karl Rove. Playing the terror card works."
Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Henninger argued, "It gave the
Democrats an opportunity to get to the right of the president on a
terror issue, and attack him for being soft on terror."
It is now acceptable-indeed, commonplace-to racially stereotype and
denigrate Arabs and Muslims. And there is no outcry against the
curtailment of their civil liberties and rights.
A December 2004 Cornell University opinion poll showed 44 percent of
Americans approved curtailing some civil liberties for all Muslim
Americans-including registering with the federal government, close
monitoring of mosques by law enforcement agencies and racially
profiling citizens of Muslim or Middle Eastern heritage.
Interestingly, a recent Gallup World Poll of predominantly Islamic
countries showed that overwhelming majorities said they favored the
right to freedom of speech in their own countries.
As journalist Robert C. Koehler remarked, " Maybe we should be
careful about making common cause with born-again free speech
advocates who never showed any tolerance for it until it became a
handy club for bashing Muslims." He added, in the current
atmosphere, "It's OK to torture them because they've already been
dehumanized en masse. Anything could follow."
Sharon Smith's
new book is
Women and Socialism. She can be reached at:
sharon@internationalsocialist.org
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