At this point I am sure everyone with a passing interest in current events has heard about the uproar over Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, appointing Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim, to the bench in his state. Rather than evade the public condemnation of his supposed plunging of a state into inevitable Sharia law, he has been characteristically vocal in calling the spade a spade and that such criticism comes from bigotry rather than a rational threat.
Of course he wasn't even that tactful with quotes such as "Ignorance is behind the criticism of Sohail Mohammed," as well as "Sharia Law business is just crap." In case his position was not quite clear enough, he also came and said what most progressives have been thinking since the emergence of the far right neocons at the turn of the century, "I’m tried of dealing with the crazies." I don't see eye to eye with the man on a number of issues, but the fact that he is forthcoming about his beliefs rather than hide behind the party lines makes him absolutely awesome and a true asset to American democracy.
But beyond simply addressing the exact words, at the heart of the matter is the reality that we wish to disenfranchise certain groups of Americans from political discourse and from entering positions of influence. With the hindsight of our past experiences with African Americans, Latin Americans, and even Catholic Americans, you would think that we would consider such discrimination against Muslims to be wrong in the same manner. Instead there are many in this country that somehow see Muslims as different than all of these other groups and somebody to be feared.
Most of the fear with the appointment of Mr. Mohammed is the assumption that he will decide cases based on Sharia, or Islamic law rather than upholding the laws of the state of New Jersey or of the constitution of the United States. Given the vows that any judge makes prior to taking office any judge should place his religion aside and make decisions based on the interpretation of law as it is written. Many cases concerning validity of law is made with multiple judges and thus one individual would not be able to impose his religious views and would quickly come under condemnation of his peers if his rational basis for judgments use religious dogma. The appeals system allows for further examination of a case and allow further decisions. A single Muslim on the bench, even if so inclined, would not be able to impose religious law.
Of course there is the assumption that all Muslims believe in Sharia law. It's always the extremists that make the news and their names linger on the tongues of the likes of Glen Beck and Bill O'Riley to reach the ears of millions of Americans. Muslims who come to the country, life peaceful lives and condemn the use of violence as a tool of conversion is simply not good ratings and tends to piss off the advertisers that pay good money to have a piece of those millions of entranced minds. Muslims want to kill us all..... buy a brand new Ford. The reality is though that most Muslims live amongst us like any other citizens. First generation immigrants often find ethnic enclaves where they can find companionship in a new world and gradually spread out across the country much like every other wave of immigration. The vast majority are peaceful individuals who keep their religion as a private matter and will interact with non-Muslims in their daily lives. They may condemn some of the actions of Israel, but don't wish for genocide against its people. Crime rates amongst Muslims are consistently low and many of those in the United States are educated and hard working.
The arguments we use against Muslims today are the same as those that we used with every wave of immigration when the balance changed from western European countries such as England, France, Germany, and Holland, to poorer and frequently non-protestant or even non-christian groups. In the mid to late 1800s, Irish, followed shortly by the Italians, fled famines and strife for the United States and quickly added to the Catholic population of cities such as New York, Boston and Chicago. World War I and the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman empires brought a huge influx of Easterners from the dominantly Catholic Poland, Hungary and Lithuania, as well as dominantly Orthodox nations such as Greece, Russia and Ukraine. From all of these countries came a large number of the Jews that have found their home in the United States in the last century. On the other shore, there were the beginnings of migration from various Asian countries. All of these groups were met with suspicion if not outright condemnation from those of the 'proper' god fearing American majority. They spoke odd languages, had strange customs and may or may not be controlled by a foreign power across the ocean.
One of the best, and often forgotten, examples we have from the past century was the election of John F. Kennedy to the presidency in 1960. A Catholic family of Irish ancestry, he was highly divisive, even amongst self identified Democrats, for his faith. There were serious articles in newspapers evaluating Kennedy's faith and the possibility that his election would be an impetus for the Pope to gain a foothold in American politics. The idea of a papal grab of power is silly in hindsight nearly a half century later, but this is the politics of fear that have gripped us. Instead of signs indicating "Irish need not apply" and any variation of signs indicating "Negros" were not welcome in certain establishments, we have a collective fear of our new Muslim populace
It's a matter of comfort levels and with change brings conflict. This is an ongoing matter and it is important when having that internal discussion about "is this guy a terrorist" it might be a good idea to consider your own background and that there is a very good chance that someone in your family was once one of those undesirables with little other purpose than to bring the country down. We moved past worrying about the Italians because a handful of them were in the Mafia, and we can move past this idea that all Muslims are terrorists seeking to impose their religious law on us.
Besides, didn't Oslo remind us that terrorists come in all shades of crazy.
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