Seemingly inspired by the Michael Savage (Weiner) issue. I hadn't really thought much of the article until I got to page 2, the majority of which is featured below, which delved more into examples of politicians utilizing anti-Muslim speech without much hint of reprimand. That scares me. And since politicians are, ideally speaking, representatives of people, that bloooooows (for me).
Highlights:
Indeed, anti-Muslim feeling in the United States, far from cooling since the immediate aftermath of 9/11, has edged higher, polls suggest.
For example: 35 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of Muslims, up from 29 percent in March 2002, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The same survey shows a rise in the number of people who say Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence: 45 percent in 2007 versus 25 percent in 2002, although that figure has fluctuated over time.
"While anti-Semitism and racism against African-Americans, Latinos, and other groups still exists, Mr. Wessler and other observers say that well-known figures who say offensive and inflammatory things against these groups are almost certain to suffer consequences.
For example, Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson resigned his post as head of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York after suggesting in October that black people are less intelligent than other races. ABC executives decided this year not to invite actor Isaiah Washington back to the cast of the hit TV show "Grey's Anatomy" after he allegedly used an antigay slur. When presidential candidate Jesse Jackson failed to distance himself from anti-Semitic remarks made by Louis Farrakhan in 1983, his campaign suffered. Sen. Trent Lott (R) of Mississippi resigned as majority leader in 2002 after jokingly suggesting that America would be better off today had Strom Thurmond, the late South Carolina senator, won the presidency in 1948, when he campaigned as a segregationist.
On the other hand, presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani has endured little scrutiny for touting an endorsement this month from TV evangelist and onetime presidential candidate Pat Robertson, who has called Islam "Satanic" and the prophet Muhammad "a wild-eyed fanatic."
Several other radio and TV commentators regularly use similar language against Muslims without consequences, while conservative politicians have, in the view of some observers, sought to exploit anti-Muslim sentiment. Last year, US Rep. Virgil Goode (R) of Virginia sent supporters a letter expressing alarm that Rep. Keith Ellison (D) of Minnesota would take his ceremonial oath of office using a Koran.
Today's anti-Muslim sentiment is similar to American attitudes toward Japanese-Americans during World War II, says Jack Levin, a hate-speech expert at Northeastern University in Boston."
"At least twice, anti-Muslim comments have gotten media personalities fired. The National Review magazine dropped columnist Ann Coulter shortly after 9/11. In 2005, WMAL in Washington, D.C., fired radio host Michael Graham for calling Islam a "terrorist organization."
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