You show how narrow you can be! I'm sure parents are proud!

Those that actually step off American soil (and Cancun doesn't count), might notice that the dislike of the US is at an all time high (as I can remember in my lifetime), even in a country that is relatively neutral in terrorism issues such as Brazil (where I am now). It's sad to have to repeatedly explain to so many people that there are a variety of folks in the US and not all of us agree with our president's crusade. As many have said before, the sympathy we had after 9/11 has been squandered in our war on terror.

Such a well-researched and thought-out column! Where to begin?

"But this anti-Arab racism isn’t just manifesting itself in poll data."
Here is your first mistake: it isn't Arab racism; it's a dislike and distrust of radical Islam. There are over 1 billion Muslims in the world, and most of them are not Arab.

"As some of us know all too well, Pope Benedict XVI lashed out at Muslims around the world by quoting 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, saying “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman.”"

You are making the same mistake that the radical Muslim clerics made (although I don't think they were making a mistake), by completely misquoting the actual quote and taking it completely out of context.

The part you omitted is central to the Pope's point. The actaul quote ended with "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he spread." The Pope here is commenting on the quote that violence and religion and not compatible, and spreading religion by violence is certainly unacceptable. The main crux of the entire speech was a call to return reason to the realm of religion.

You also seem to completely ignore the outrageous reactions by the Islamic world towards this speech. There were riots in the street and a fatwa was issued in Pakistan the other day calling for Muslims to murder the Pope. I hope you see the irony in the demand from Muslims that we recognize Islam as a peaceful religion, or otherwise they'll kill us. Several churches in the West Bank were firebombed in the wake of the Pope's comments, and a nun in Somalia was killed. Rather than trying to be more "sensitive" to Muslims, we should not back down from making rational criticisms of extreme Islam when it is merited.

"Media personalities and politicians are weighing in on the subject as well. Bill O’Reilly of Fox News told viewers that “All young Muslims should be subjected to more scrutiny than Granny [at U.S. airports].”"

This is absolutely the right policy to take. Unforunately, our airline security is woefully inadequate. We search for the last greatest thing in plane hijacking, when it is obvious that the terrorists are adapting to what can be brought on an airplane. Just look at what the recent foiled plot in England was using for explosives. Instead, we should be searching for PEOPLE, not things. Officers at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel using psychological profiling extensively, and a plane departing from this airport has never been hijacked. While we shouldn't just single out all Muslims for higher suspicion at airports (I believe at least two of the suspected England bombers were white), we should concentrate more on catching people than catching objects.

"Over the summer, British and U.S. authorities claimed to have foiled a number of supposed terrorist plots. The men in question were always of Arab descent, but the evidence against any of them was scant."
First, the suspected terrorists in Britain were British citizens of Pakistani descent. They were not Arab. Learn the difference. Second, there was far more "scant" evidence against these would-be terrorits, including martyrdom tapes and the actual devices and explosives that they were going to use to blow up the planes. What would qualify as real evidence in your opinion?

"What we are seeing here is an epidemic of prejudice and hatred towards Arabs and Muslims."

You've only cited one example of the "epidemic of prejudice" towards Arabs and Muslims, and it was small example at best. Burning and lynching an effigy of a man who would kill you and me in a second if he wasn't hiding in a cave or hopefully dead is far different from the actual racial lynchings that took place in this country. You shame the memory of those who were lynched by making this comparison.

"With no denouncement of these words or actions from either side of the aisle, it appears that our society has deemed it tolerable to hate Arabs and Muslims simply for their ethnicity and religion."
Where is the denouncement from the world's Muslim of radical Islam? Whenever they say they are against terrorism, it is always qualified to include what we are doing in Iraq or the so-called "disproportionate" Israeli response in Lebanon.

"Yes, Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization, and Osama bin Laden can certainly be considered a violent fanatic."
That's the understatement of the century.

"But we cannot blame the actions of individuals on an entire group of people. Arabs and Muslims are not to blame for what happened to our country on September 11th."
No, but we can blame the specific group of people responsible, in this case radical Muslims.

Thanks for the column, Laura. I look forward to criticizing you soon.

The Muslims throughout the world are just showing the American people all kinds of love aren't they? They started attacking us in 1979, and it hasen't stopped yet. They have one plan for us and it is very simple, you either convert to Islam, accept second class citizenship in the dhimmi, or you die. It doesn't take a college graduate to figure out who are the racists!

911 has the hallmarks of a classic CIA "black flag" operation. More fitting that they hang in effigy George Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Laura Taylor is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Yes, this explains it all. Someone who expects her future livelyhood to be dues from others who actually do the work.
As an ex-Commie I feel I must tell you that parasites really aren't part of the working class.

Ms. Taylor,
This is absolutely the stupidist, ignorant, left wing tainted article I have read this week. You and your agenda should be proud. The majority of Americans aren't buying it.
You need to study Islam just a bit.

You've got to be kidding me. What a bunch of dhimmis you all are. Burning an effigy of Osama bin Laden is not "suspiciously similar" to lynching Muslims. How idiotic.

Alex,

the sympathy we had after 9/11 has been squandered in our war on terror.

Whatever. What does that "sympathy" amount to in concrete terms? Very little. The lunacy of the left: "Horrors! We've squandered international pity." (Even if that pity is little more than a front.) "Horrors! The Cambodians may not feel our pain!" "Horrors! The French like us even less than they did before!"

We are among the most tolerant people on earth. If you would bother to get out around the world a little bit (and I don't mean on some ecotourist excursion), you would realize that very few countries are as tolerant as the United States is. Very few even pretend to be.

Dear Alex

As someone who HAS visited (and lived in) places other than Cancun, I can tell you that your blurb about squandering sympathy is nonsense.

Brazil, and much of Latin America, displays the victim complex quite readily, blaming everyone - except themselves - for their problems. Did you know that Brazil has the infrastructure to build nu-cu-lar weapons? Yet they have problems feeding a large part of their population.

By the way, the Crusades were begun in RESPONSE to Muslim attacks - regardless of what you "think" or "feel".

Seems to me you're the one linking bin Laden's actions with "all" Arabs and Muslims. The effigy burners were quite specific about who's image they were burning an why. The King Fahd mosque was targetted for protest because it served as a refuge for 2 of the 9/11 hijackers.

Want to see real intolerance? Watch Leftists who've completely abandoned rationality and reality at their Krystalnaght-style street riots (euphemistically called "anti-war protests").
http://www.zombietime.com/hall_of_shame

Or consider Leftists taking chainsaws and bayonets to campaign signs; running down political opponents with their cars; setting fire to political opponents (as opposed to terrorists) in effigy; defacing war memorials; swiping yellow ribbons off cars; and supporting the fragging of American troops.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003801.htm

The hate-America Left can no longer couch their anti-American bias under the guise of tolerance for terrorists.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of biased contempt that the "intellectual elite" of our universities continue to show towards anyone that isn't a card carrying member of the ACLU, CAIR or similar organization. How does hanging an effigy of Osama, who was directly responsible for 9/11, equate to hatred of all Muslims or Arabs? Were they carrying signs calling for the extermination of all Muslims? After all you routinely see such signs calling for the extermination of all Jews and destruction of Israel at CAIR sponsored events, but I have yet to see a major paper or university op-ed condemning these displays. You speak of everyone who isn't like you as being hate filled, violent and the cause of the problems. Yet when was the last time you saw Christians bomb and Mosque, or Jews behead a Muslim for propaganda, or Conservatives threaten the children of Iran? Surely they would be justified because that is the typical Muslim response to anything that can be found offensive, and it's hard to listen to anything coming out of the UN, Iran or Venezuela without being offended. I work with several Arabs and am proud to call them my friends, but when they are expressing concern over the path that the Muslim population as a whole is taking then obviously there is a serious problem that goes beyond what Christians, Jews and any other group might have done to them at sometime. How is it that when Israel withdrew from Gaza, as the Palestinians had been demanding, they left a healthy economy and very low crime rate. After being under Palestinian self rule the crime and murder rates are through the roof, there is no economy, and there are warring factions in the street killing each other. How do you dispute that there is an obvious cycle of violence in the mainstream Islamic world?

your hero stalin would be very proud of you.

I've always disliked this idea that "not all muslims are terrorists" is somehow a rebuke of....well anyone. were all germans in the SS? are we supposing a world where if all muslims aren't terrorists we can't criticize islam or try and find terrorists?

the war against the west is carried out on many levels. on some levels is terrorism, on other levels it is people like CAIR who routinely try to suppress our freedom of speech. on other levels it is people like those in dearborn michigan who hold mass pro terrorist rallies. All are required in the fight against the west.

"A poll done earlier this year by the Washington Post and ABC News found that 46 percent of Americans think poorly of Islam today, along with 33 percent that believe Islam helps to cause violence against non-Muslims. A more recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that nearly 40 percent of Americans admit to feeling at least some prejudice against Muslims and 22 percent wouldn’t want to have Muslims as their neighbors. Is this what tolerance passes for in a post-9/11 society?"

You mistake pragmatism for intolerance. Is it not reasonable to expect that a large number of Americans might have a poor opinion of Islam, given the propensity of muslim "activists" to engage in violent acts of terrorism?

You say that muslims and Arabs are not responsible for what happened to our country on 9-11, but that is an intellectually dishonest claim. Though only a limited number of Arab Muslims actively participated in the attacks, it was the culture and teachings of Islam that fostered the atmosphere in which the 9-11 terrorists were enabled to act. I noticed that you did not attempt to refute the assertion that most terrorists are muslim, and wisely so. The fact remains that the vast majority of terrorist attacks carried out in the world are done in the name of Islam, and are not condemned by the so-called majority of the muslim ummah, the elusive "moderates".

Lastly, I take offense to your baseless attacks on such groups as the Minutemen, giving them the blanket label of "racist". If I didn't know better, I might suspect you of being "intolerant" of their belief that border security is a serious issue and that existing immigration laws should be enforced.

That's a very bizarre leap in logic. Burning an effigy depicting Bin Laden is racist simply because Bin Laden is Arab? One could state that it was racist if they were burning the effigy because the effigy depicted an Arab. However, they're burning the effigy because Bin Laden is the head of a terrorist organization that has pledged to destroy America. Labeling anybody that would participate in such an event as racists is slanderous. I know you're young and still under the mind-dimming effects of your left-wing lunatic professors (most of whom are incapable of holding down a real job in a capitalist economy and thus cling to academia like a security blanket while railing against the evils of capitalism/America/Bush), but you should be aware of the damage you do to public discourse in this country when you label someone a racist just because their views are contrary to yours. With age and distance from the communist brainwashers that infest your school, I'm sure you'll come around to the conclusion that you must fight enemies that want to kill you no matter what their skin color may be.

Laura,

If you think this is an issue of race, and that 9/11 was not the fault of Islamists, you might as well get fitted for a burqa. What size are you? My grandmother can do wonders with fabric. Please look up the word "Dhimmi" and get back to us.

This article is a huge bunch of liberal B.S.! Ms. Taylor, you need to get your head out of the sand. 46% of Americans think poorly of Islam and 33% believe that Islam causes violence against nonmuslims? So you're assuming that 46% and 33% of Americans are intolerant racists? Did you ever stop to think that there may be legitimate reasons WHY many Americans feel this way? Try opening up YOUR mind a bit and follow what's happening in the world.

200 innocent people killed in Bali by a MUSLIM suicide bomber, Buddhist Monks in Thailand being beheaded on a regular basis by Muslim extremists, innocent people getting machetied to death over in the Philipines by Muslims, school children in Beslan, Russia getting murdered by Muslim terrorists, 3,000 innocent people on 9/11, who have NOTHING to do with the policies of their government, getting murdered by 19 crazed Muslims, school books in Saudi Arabia that refer to Jews and Christians as pigs and monkeys, also Christians, Buddhists and Hindus over in Saudi Arabia getting jailed and sometimes executed for practicing a faith other than Islam, churches in Gaza getting firebombed by Muslim extremists, this is not to mention all the death and embassy burning that happened around the world only because certain people in the Western world decided to exercise their fundamental right to free speech. I could go on and on and on with examples but I've already taken up too much space. The record speaks for itself maam and it wasn't exactly Swiss people committing all these crimes. Now this is all despite of America and the western world bending over backwards to appease the Muslim world. So is it a wonder why so many Americans are fearful, distrustful and even angry toward Muslims? It should NOT take an observant person to realize that if we are not vigilant enough here in America, these same atrocities will happen right here in our homeland on a regular basis, all in the name of Islam.

It is also ludicrous for you to believe that hanging Osama Bin Laden in effigy is a racist action against Arabs and Muslims. First of all Bin Laden is a cold blooded killer who has caused mountains of sorrow all over the world. If there is anybody who deserves to be hung, it is him. Any Arab or Muslim who is offended by this is on the wrong side of civility just as I would be if I were offended at seeing justice being carried out against the likes of Eric Rudolph and Fred Phelps.

I fear for the life of my family and loved ones at the hands of these Islamic terrorists. But in order for us to win this battle against Islamic extremism, we must come together and fight it head-on and recognize it for what it is instead of catering to it by falling into this political correctness trap. Unfortunately, there are people in this world who fail to see the nature of the enemy we're fighting and it is those people who are holding this nation back. I would hate to see you as being one of those people.

This article is ridiculous!

Alex must be only eleven, or suffers from short- and long-term memory problems. Check newspapers from around the world The warm fuzzy feelings he claims existed after 9/11 lastd less than a week - before we took any action at all. In Muslim-dominated areas of the world, people celebrated in the streets. And 9/11 was just the last in a string of terrorist attacks (all by Muslims) on Americans that began in the kumbaya years of the Carter administration.If America is so "disliked," how come there's always a line for green cards?

Where to start on the idiocy reflected in this article? Hmm..perhaps here.."One group of three men in Texas was arrested for nothing more than having a large number of cell phones, which they claimed to have bought to resell at a profit. These men weren’t terrorists, they were capitalists." Obviously Ms. Taylor does not understand that cell phones are being used to detonate bombs in Iraq, and they can be used for that same purpose here in the U.S.
Okay..they say ignorance is bliss and she continues to demonstrate that with "On September 10th, a group of more than 100 racists, mostly from far-right groups like the Minutemen, Save Our State (SOS) and the United American Committee (UAC), gathered to “commemorate” the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th by hanging Osama bin Laden in effigy in front of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California. Participants at the event hung a noose around the effigy of bin Laden, then proceeded to beat the figure. That sounds suspiciously similar to a lynching. Does that remind anyone else of a less-than-stellar period in our country’s racial history?" Now she equates hanging an enemy of America in effigy (does she understand what that word means?)to lynchings done by OTHER terrorists to living human beings in our past.
She writes, "However, the U.S. government is not making arrests of men who pose a legitimate threat to our nation. Rather, they are arresting men of Arab descent and deeming them terrorists to constantly remind Americans of this threat and keep the nation paralyzed by fear." That's right, those roundups of men of Arab descent for no reason are going on round the clock. And of course the only reason for doing this despicable action is to keep the nation "paralyzed by fear." HA! Where have I heard this mantra before? I'm not paralyzed by fear, and no one I know is either.
The denoument of her article ends with "Arabs and Muslims are not to blame for what happened to our country on September 11th. We can no longer couch our own prejudices under the guise of patriotism." Excuse me? Yes, Arabs and Muslims ARE to blame for what happened. They were Arab, and they were Muslim. Do I blame ALL Arabs and ALL Muslims? Of course not. Do some Muslims blame ALL Americans for not converting to Islam and believing in that ideology? Yes. Sorry to be the bearer of those sad tidings Ms. Taylor. Wake up and smell the coffee. It's done.

If a group hung George W. Bush you would've run a picture on the front page!

Please provide a rational argument that connects evidence (the hanging of OBL in effigy) to your conclusion (racism/prejudice on the part of those involved).

Simply saying the one after the other does not suffice.

---

:::However, it appears that some of us have forgotten these grammar school lessons. We have turned our fear of living in a post-9/11 society into intolerance towards Arabs and Muslims. A poll done earlier this year by the Washington Post and ABC News found that 46 percent of Americans think poorly of Islam today, along with 33 percent that believe Islam helps to cause violence against non-Muslims. A more recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that nearly 40 percent of Americans admit to feeling at least some prejudice against Muslims and 22 percent wouldn’t want to have Muslims as their neighbors. Is this what tolerance passes for in a post-9/11 society?:::

1. Tolerance must be subject to rational inquiry. If you were to insert the adjective "Jihadist" in front of every instance of "Muslim" and "Islam" above, there would be shock that those numbers would be so low. Consider a metaphor:
- You're back during the Civil Rights movement. You live in Europe (already rather 'post-Christian' at that point) and so you aren't that familiar with Christians. However, the only times you hear of them (not malicious representation mind you) are in connection with the KKK and lynchings. Moreover, suppose that most Christian leaders that appeared on public media would fail to condemn said murder/violence. You will become intolerant. Is it rationally incomplete? Of course. Such a conclusion is based on a small sample set of data. Of course, in this scenario, preaching unequivocal tolerance would simply be a priori reasoning and even less rationally complete.
- However, would the biggest problem at that time have then been Europe's resulting distrust of Christians? Or perhaps the unjust oppression of African-Americans..?
-> Therefore I ask you: what is the biggest problem - that Americans don't feel a lot of tolerance for the Muslim world, or the murder of civilians worldwide by Jihadist Islam? [saying that intolerance makes us more like the enemy is not an acceptable answer; dislike and distrust is a far cry from bombing schoolchildren]
2. Given the moral fervor you've generated here, I'm curious if you condemn folks when they crack jokes about the South and generally express extreme distrust of folks down there. Or of Red States in general. A rather silly point, I admit, but still relevant.
3. Let's put those numbers and resultant actions in the context of history. After all, the Japanese internment wasn't *that* much worse than increased profiling and some unkind words..?

---

:::Beyond that, is a mock lynching any way to commemorate those who lost their lives on September 11th? I suppose a simple vigil or memorial would not have been adequate for these groups.:::

General principle: if you want to engage in non-prejudiced discourse, holding the folks you disagree with in contempt is not a consistent way to start.

However, it looks like you may have hit upon a correct conclusion by way of poor reasoning.

Example: for as long as I can remember, vigils and memorial services for the murdered of the Civil Rights movement (MLK, et al) have included reminders of *why* they died and that their struggle against racism and inequity is not yet complete. Sometimes in acts of extreme rhetoric. Simply remembering the death with silence and candles is not sufficient, because it fails to acknowledge that the murdering force that produced the death still exists - from this perspective, *not* calling out that evil at that time constitutes contempt for the murdered.

And so with the murdered of September 11th. While you may disagree with the severity of the expression (hanging OBL - in and of itself something that takes a great deal of work to disagree with), it is rooted much more deeply in *this* spirit than in prejudice. The key element of the act is the hanging in effigy - performing it in front of a mosque is likely evidence of prejudice, but the location is secondary to the act itself (or have you ignored the words of the organizers of the event?).

---

Your goal is to help identify and thereby weed out intolerance against Muslims. In order to achieve this goal, the Islamic world has as much work to do as the West. The refusal of many (nearly all that I have seen) Muslim leaders to categorically condemn Jihadist terrorism and civilian murder makes them intellectually complicit with those acts (see Hezbollah loading rockets with shrapnel to maximize Israeli civilian casualties, et al) - a complicity that I would joyfully see them cast away publicly.

Alas.

Let's put your comments in a perspective of histroy. 1930's Germany lets say. You can't blame the German people for the anti-semitism of Hitler. You cannot hold them accountable for the trains and the terror that he perpetrates. Let's not hang Osama in effigy but let us take the Islamo Facists at their word when they threaten to kill us and do all we can to stop them.

Quote:

What we are seeing here is an epidemic of prejudice and hatred towards Arabs and Muslims. With no denouncement of these words or actions from either side of the aisle, it appears that our society has deemed it tolerable to hate Arabs and Muslims simply for their ethnicity and religion.

Laura Taylor....at what point do we begin to confront the true culprit? How much more blood has to be shed before we do?

Is it too insensitive to point out that the Koran sends out murderers?

You may not like these facts - but the truth is - "No Koran - No Islam"

The Koran commands all Muslims:

Cahpter 9, verse 123 states...

009.123 O ye who believe! fight '''the unbelievers''' who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you. [[[ when ye go abroad 004.094 - the Unbelievers are unto you open enemies 004.101 ]]]

008.039 And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah 009.029 Fight those who believe not in Allah

008.067 It is not fitting for a prophet that he should have prisoners of war [slay them first] until he hath thoroughly subdued the land. {Treason in all non-Muslim nations and a clear violation of Geneva Conventions

033.061 They shall have a curse on them: whenever they are found, they shall be seized and slain without mercy. {Genocide

008.065 O Prophet! rouse the Believers to the fight. {which is what the imams are doing in their mosques....oh....and don't forget...[[[ when ye (Muslims)go abroad - the '''Unbelievers''' are unto you open enemies ]]]

047.004 Therefore, when ye meet '''the Unbelievers''' in fight, smite at their necks. Behead them! and the Muslims are commanded to initiate the fight} 002.216 009.039 throughout the earth} 004.101 004.100

Are getting this Laura Taylor?

009.044 Those who believe in Allah and the Last Day ask thee for no exemption from fighting with their goods and persons. And Allah knoweth well those who do their duty.

002.216 Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing [war] which is good for you and that ye love a thing [peace] which is bad for you?

004.104 And slacken not in following up the enemy: If ye are suffering hardships, they are suffering similar hardships.

Kill all of the terrorists - and the Koran will only send more....

009.039 Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place. [[[ when ye go abroad - the Unbelievers are unto you open enemies ]]]

005.033 THE PUNISHMENT of those who '''wage war''' against Allah and His Messenger IS: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet.

019.083 Seest thou not that We have set the Evil Ones on against '''the unbelievers''', to incite them with fury? Seest thou not?...that it is the Muslims who are the ones being incited with fury?...against '''the unbelievers'''? Seest thou not???

Beheadings ? Gang Rape ? Crucifixions ? Genocide ?

While you're busy kicking Christianity - KNOW this.....

You can not present one single New Testament Scripture that teaches humans to be violent with each other - not one!

Why?

Because none exist. That is a fact - a fact that is bare before this whole world -because the New Testament is available to ALL for fact checking.

No one can present ANY Christian Scripture that promotes violence between humans - because none exist! not even one.

And so - with that being made clear - back to the CULPRIT of the bloodshed that has only just begun [It's going to get a lot worse]

When will you people who use your energies for defending Islam instead of exposing it - wake up?

When you and your family are being raped and beheaded?

Don't fool yourselves --- That which men sow - we will surely reap! All of us will!

Remeber that! the next time you drive by your 'frendly' local mosque.

Jesus said to Pilate:

Jhn 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou [Pilate]couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee - hath the greater sin.

If you defend murderers - especially that which is creating them - you have blood on your hands - whether knowingly - or in ignorance - you still have bood on your hands.

If not for the likes of the many voices such as yours Laura Taylor - The abomination that took place at the Beslan School would not have happened.

Shame on you!

Question for the 'moderate' Muslims:

How does one call their own 'allah' a liar - and still get to be a Muslim too?

Or does your Koran have no authority over you?

hmmmm

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,440340,00.html

try to read and actually understand. iwon't be holding my breath.

The abject failure of the Muslim community to denounce terror, the killing of so many innocents (including their fellow Muslims), the constant failure to accept their responsibilities, the endemic anti-semitism ...

The wonder is that there is so little prejudice against Arabs.

Personally, I would rather be feared and respected than liked. While the rest of the world is hiding under their beds America will once again make sure the rest of you are all safe and can continue to whine and complain about how we go about it. Meanwhile, the so called "moderate" muslims had better wise up and deal with the terrorist among them. How can anyone tell the difference? The future of the civilized world is a little more important than someones delicate feelings. Remember, all your rights are meaningless if you are blown up.

I suggest you educate yourself on the history of Islam and jihad before opening your mouth. But hey, you make a great Dhimmi. Mohammed would be proud.

"Arabs and Muslims are not to blame for what happened to our country on September 11th."

Ok, tell us, who is to blame?

Yout screed is neither persuasvie nor convincing. That you have to cite the Pope and an Israeli ambassador as proof of an epidemic of anti-Arab racism in America just shows how weak your arguement really is.

BTW, how doyou know that those people who hung OBL in effigy are racists? Did you talk to them personally? Are you engaging in stereotyping?

It is amazing. People like Laura do not realize that since 911 there have been over 5000 Muslim terrorist acts. What is she smoking? Under shria law she will have to keep her mouth shut.

Do you remember the Paris riots? I guess it's okay to torch cars for three weeks in a row if you're Islamic. It's okay to burn embassies because you don't like some cartoons. It's just fine to hang the pope in effigy but not Osama? The pope made a comment they didn't like and now he has a fatwa on his head. Osama caused the deaths of 3000 people and an effigy is unacceptable?

About the t-shirt. The message wasn't the issue and it is disingenuous of you to say that it was. The language that it was printed in was the issue and the officer made that clear.

What about the Indonesians that kill school girls because they aren't Muslims.

Explain FGM to us please. What about honor killings? Maybe you could look up the word taqqiya and report back to us on what you learned?

Gee it doesn't sounds like the Americans are the intolerant ones.

To paraphrase.....
What we are seeing here is an epidemic of hatred from Arabs and Muslims. With no denouncement of these words or actions from either side of the aisle, it appears that our society has deemed it tolerable for Arabs and Muslims to hate us simply for not becoming adherents of their religion.

The idea that Americans be offended by people who want to exterminate them is pure racism. Pointing out that Muslims justify attacks by their religion is also racist and Islamophobic.

When the pope pointed out that Muslims have indeed spread their religion by force, that was insensitive and racist. Muslims felt the need to point out they are not violent by killing people who disagreed with them. To resist this Muslim right of self-expression would be racist.

We need to look to Islamic countries for examples on tolerance. Iran, for example, is a shining example of freedom, unity, and truth. There you are allowed to agree with everything the state says. Muslims can live freely there, so long as they subscribe to Shi'a Islam. This is very difference from racist America, where you can believe what you want.

Why is it so hard for the masses if ignorant, racist Americans to understand? When Muslims want to kill us, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION. When Americans want to defend ourselves, that's racist.

America needs to surrender and die. Any other course of action would be racist, sexist, anti-Muslimist, and every other kind of ist.

so where are all these peaceful muslims protesting the killing of women,children,infidels,Jews,infidels,more children,etc.etc.etc.WORLDWIDE!!!!(they crucify children who they kidnap into slavery
( http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52181 )
WHERE HAVE ALL THE "PEACEFULL" MUSLIMS GONE???
O Yeah,that's right,they can't speak out or they will be beheaded! sounds good. so keep bringing on that dhimmitude,dude.

So hanging an effigy of the face of terrorism and mass murder is racist? You openly call them racists. Is there scientific proof that race even exists? And if it does, "Muslim" is still not a race. And you compare them to a lynch mob. Your blanket accusation calling these people racists is pretty bad. You probably should have just left that whole paragraph out of the article, it really serves no purpose. Isn't Cornell an Ivy League school?

Do us all a favor before sharing anymore insites. Read the koran and hadiths and get a clue what islam really is about before you start calling racists. Islam is not a race, or a religion, but an hateful cruel barbaric cult that encumpasses a belief system, civil "law", and imperialism by violence among other things which are incompatable with modern democracy.

We are not fighting them in the streets of america...yet.
Europe is another story. educate yourself asshat.

Just look at how many people are trying to get in to America as apposed to those who hate it and are leaving.

Everyone of those "America Haters" would love to live here and enjoy the freedoms for which Americans fight and die.

It's too late for Eurabia and elsewhere. Liberal Socialism is giving way to sharia and fear of offending people of the religion of peace. You don't want to offend the peacful muslims as they will get violent if you think they are violent.

Libs will continue to stick their head in the sand till they feel Ahmed's knife cutting through it.

As our "elites" and politicians do nothing but mouth platitudes about our enemies, appease them at every turn, and do nothing to counter the enemie's propaganda spewed forth every day from countless directions, we will see more and more of this. Many of our citizens are coming to recognize that our best interests aren't being served, National Security means nothing but getting re-elected. The tenured "elites" at our universities slaver and drool as they dream the demise of the United States and the rise of a one world, Socialistic government.

What they fail to realize is that their fellow travellers, the Islamists, have other ideas. To the OBL's of the world they are nothing but useful idiots, the same role they filled for the Soviet Union. Do they believe that the Islamist would let this dream come true? Do they believe that they will be spared? Or is it more likely that they will share the same fate that their academic counterparts met when they decided to hitch their wagons to Khomeini? How long did they and their dream last after the Iranian revolution??

Until we face up to the threat we face, the direction the threat is coming from, and have the moral courage to name that threat, we will see more and more outraged citizens showing, well, their outrage. Here in the West we have exactly one Leader that has that moral courage and unfortunately he is in Australia and not the U.S. A multi-ethnic country is a wonderful, delightful place, a multi-cultural country is a violent, hateful place, and like lemmings, we in the U.S. are following the EU into the cesspool.

Do you always equate a religion with a race? What race is Catholicism? Buddhism? Hinduism? Agnosticism?

Wouldn't concerns about Islam include suspicions of non-arab muslims, such as those living in the Balkans, the Persians of Iran, the Indonesians, the central asians, etc, etc??

Are your own stereotypes, perhaps, showing? Do you believe all Muslims are arabs?

Would hanging an effigy of President Bush be an act of racism against caucasions?

After a certain point tolerance becomes stupidity. You cite the poll results that show American distrust of islam and frankly I'm surprised and concerned that the numbers are that low. Islam is a threat to the free world. You don't have to take my word for it though, read the koran and listen to the ummahs, they are shockingly blunt in stating heir goals of destroying the west and Israel. Look at the violence perpetrated in Europe by [Muslim] "Youths." This is what blind multiculturalism and political correctness will bring you.

Certainly it's best to try to understand those who are different and even to turn the other cheek. However, there comes a point when continued blind adherence to multiculturalism requires one to completely ignore reality. Every day muslims around the world muslims are killing people on a large scale in the name of islam but I must continue to believe that islam is "the religion of peace"? Sorry, not gonna happen. You pretend all you want but I'll keep my eyes open.

Ms. Taylor makes some reasonable observations, but by and large the Muslim community in this country has continued to thrive since 9/11 -- and rightfully so. The poll numbers she cites are, quite frankly, not much different than the percentage of Americans that harbors Anti-Semitic feelings. The real issue of concern is the failure of the alleged "silent majority" in the Muslim world to speak out against the savagery and hatred espoused by the Islamofascists against the U.S. and the West.

First of all notice that this has nothing to do with either equality or tolerance. Hanging OBL in effigy does not affect all Arabs. Does hanging Bush in effigy cause some damage to all Americans, and should it therefore be outlawed? Of course not, and nor would we, because when some idiot hangs Bush in effigy it won't incite violence. You don't care about tolerance, you only care that Muslims don't get violent (p.s. don't say that they would get violent, or else they will) and so you only care about not offending muslims because they are willing to kill if you do. Republicans aren't, Christians aren't, and neither are any other decent respectable Americans no matter who you hang in effigy. But if you hang a terrorist in effigy, somehow Muslims might find it offensive? Are you stupid, or just a liberal arts major?

You say: Dan Gillerman, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, went so far as to say that “while it may be true —and probably is — that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim.” Forget about the second part of his statement for now and consider the first half. He only thinks it’s probable that not all Muslims are terrorists, as though it remains a possibility that every follower of Islam is a terrorist.

No wait a second, you can't forget about the second part. The second part is the one that matters. you are getting hung up on the first part, when it is the second that matters most. The fact does remain that terrorists are predominantly fanatical muslims. That is the entire key to the argument. Arguing about what could possibly be just a miswording of his statement on the first part misses the point entirely.

You also wrote: On September 10th, a group of more than 100 racists, mostly from far-right groups like the Minutemen, Save Our State (SOS) and the United American Committee (UAC), gathered to “commemorate” the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th by hanging Osama bin Laden in effigy in front of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California.

How do you know they are racists? Because you don't agree with them. That makes them racists automatically? So if you are against illegal immigration like the Minutemen, that makes you a racist automatically? Try getting out of your preppy college for two seconds and come down to Arizona once. You spend more than a week here and you'll understand why the Minutemen are necessary. Get in an accident here, and you have a 50% chance that the person you hit will not have a license or insurance and if it's on a side street, they will sometimes just jump out of the car after an accident and run away. But please lecture on about how people you've never met, in a state you've never lived in are racists because you don't understand their purpose. I thought this was the narrow-mindedness you were trying to combat?

Alex the wuss non-original thinker said....
"As many have said before, the sympathy we had after 9/11 has been squandered in our war on terror."

The rest of the world liked us best when our country was on our knees wheezing from the sucker-punch of 911. When we stand up and defend ourselves they start crying like the pack of whiners that they are.

The MidEast countries will hate us no matter what we do because they are gereen with envy. I'll rather have their hate&fear then a false love&disrespect any day.

---- Participants at the event hung a noose around the effigy of bin Laden, then proceeded to beat the figure. That sounds suspiciously similar to a lynching.

What we are seeing here is an epidemic of prejudice and hatred towards Arabs and Muslims. With no denouncement of these words or actions from either side of the aisle, it appears that our society has deemed it tolerable to hate Arabs and Muslims simply for their ethnicity and religion.----

And yet every allowance is made for burning the pope in effigy, and threatening to kill people over a set of frackin' cartoons for God's sake. Savages who revere a pedofile (see Big Mo and Aisha) There is NO equivalence. Welcome to second class citizenship .....the new overlords will respect those who surrendered least of all.

Aren't they similar to the left-wing racists that burn effigies of Bush and trounce on Israeli flags?
Uh huh, I thought so.

Its called freedom of expression, college girl. You dont have to like it, but they have the right to do or say it.