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| A target? Some observers say Muslim-Americans, like these worshipers at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Ohio, are the
subject of hate speech. Melanie Stetson Freeman – staff/file |
Does U.S. tolerate anti-Muslim speech?
The latest flap: Radio-show host says Muslims should be deported, sparking a backlash.
from the December 4, 2007 edition
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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.
"You see more hostility towards Muslims now than you did the year after 9/11," says Shahed Amanullah, editor of a Muslim web-zine, AltMuslim.com. He and other observers point to America's failure to capture Osama bin Laden, the continuing difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and news of terrorist plots overseas as reasons why many Americans feel hostile towards Muslims.
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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