Recently, the crew of a US naval cruiser in the Persian Gulf was alarmed by the actions of some nearby Iranian speedboats, potentially sparking a confrontation. Commenting on the almost-incident, US Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson quipped, "I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins that they're looking forward to seeing."
Okay, is there anyone out there who hasn’t seen or heard the stereotype—the caricature—often enough to get his joke? I didn’t think so. In fact, in the past six years, we’ve heard some version of this joke so many times that it’s already come to feel old. There’s a whole battery of these jokes by now, with themes ranging from Islamic terrorism to… um, Islamic terrorism. And while America has a nice little collective chuckle over this, I can’t help but wonder if it would have been quite so funny if Thompson had made an equivalent joke about Jews, Mormons, or Baptists, for instance. I have to wonder why fair-minded, clear-thinking people aren’t up in arms over this.
I remember only two years ago when a politician referred to a young Indian-American as “macaca” and—though it never became entirely clear what the hell he was even talking about—his political career was effectively destroyed by a backlash against that single imprudent utterance. And last year former US President Jimmy Carter was hounded by the American press and accused of anti-Semitism for comparing the condition of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to life under South African Apartheid.
But speaking of Muslims as fanatics and terrorists is not even considered bad manners; it’s seen as a comic expression of the truth. Suggesting that it might be a bit more complicated—that it’s ridiculous and hateful to so simplify a group of people who comprise not less than 22% of the world population at last count, across nationalities, skin colors, political beliefs, socioeconomic levels, athletic abilities, educational backgrounds, language groups, intelligence levels, talents, personalities, local histories, sexual orientations, cultural backgrounds, varying degrees of faith and religiosity, and whatnot (you know, the ordinary human variety you might expect to find across nearly a quarter of humanity distributed around the globe)—gets you branded as an apologist for terrorism, if you’re not Muslim, and may well get you worse if you are.
I’m sorry, I really don’t understand the math here.
[Above: Random photos of Muslims]
It’s no wonder that the Muslims held up as media darlings in the US right now are
Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author
of Infidel, who (unwittingly) fuel the rhetoric of those who need to convince themselves that
Muslims have a greater capacity for “evil” or are in need of saving by the West. Having
listened to an interview with Ms Ali, it’s my impression that she
actually intends to deliver a more nuanced message of Muslim realities. But as a hopeful newcomer to the West, she perhaps doesn’t
realize how she plays into the hands of the haters, that her real
contribution is finally but to put flesh on the American Nightmare. I
understand that she’s a brave and intelligent woman who has surmounted
unimaginable horrors in her life. But presenting herself as an expert
on Muslims, when it’s not clear
that she knows much about the history
and culture of Muslims across the globe, and focusing exclusively on
the local cultural pathologies that caused the trauma she
suffered—important though it is—to the exclusion of a broader view or
deeper understanding, does nothing to humanize the
caricature of Muslims or advance the dialog. Few of her readers in
the US will read her pronouncements with any kind of informed
perspective or insight. Because most Americans frankly don’t want much
perspective and insight on Muslims. It’s well known that understanding
makes it
much harder to vilify and kill people. So the only Muslims who get
airtime in the States are the ones who say what we want to hear. It
lets us feel not just vindicated
but downright open-minded and receptive in our collective willful
ignorance.
Tis' the season for travel. Usha and I will be away for 15 days to Northeastern Europe: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Our mutually negotiated itinerary begins in Warsaw and takes in Krakow, Oswiecim (Auschwitz/Birkenau), Zamosc, Bialowieza Forest, Kaunas, Vilnius, Trakai, Riga, Sigulda, Tartu, Saremaa, Tallin, and more. Consequently, new posts may not happen at all (unless of course VP springs into heroic rearguard action). 
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