Reason # 1001 Why We Like Phil Mushnick

What are you saying - that Muslim converts do not get full "jihad" privelages right away.

This would be like converting to Catholism and not being able to go to communion for 5 years or joining a country club and not getting golf privelages right away.

 

21, we've never referred to anyone in this country with a religious modifer as the prefix. When was the last time you heard someone described as a Lutheran-American or a Baptist-American or a Unitarian-American?

If Mr. Mushnick is referring to Jordanian-Americans or Syrian-Americans or Uzbeki-Americans who also happen to be Muslims, he should say so.

But he doesn't, because there's no actual reporting in this racist little hypothetical.

"Muslim-American" is a meaningless phrase. When Mushnick writes "Muslim-American" what he means is "brown-skinned." Or, as Boom puts it, "someone with 2 camels in their yard."

If Mr. Mushnick wants to advocate racial profiling as a means of ferreting out "evildoers", then let him have the guts and the brains to call it what it is, and the rhetorical skills to make a case for it.

Let him also remember a time in this world when to be called a "Jewish-American" might have kept his own grandparents and parents out of this country entirely, or exposed them to the kind of ignorant bigotry he now so blithely espouses.

Oh, wait. Maybe he can give us an example of it himself, from 2004, and his piece on the debut of "Passion of the Christ":

THE first time I recall being told that I had Christ's blood on my hands I was 10. My friend Vincent's grandmother or his great aunt took me aside and broke the bad news. Then she threw in a kicker: Because I'm a Jew, she said, I can't go to heaven, only to hell.

The release of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" has resurrected the public, widespread and easily spoken biblical interpretation that places Christ's blood on my family's hands and tickets our souls for a one-way trip to hell.

Not far from my home stands the Jonas Salk Middle School. It's named for the man who developed the vaccine for polio. Salk, who died in 1995, was Jewish. Actually, he wasn't Jew-ish, he was a Jew. He's in hell? The school board named a school after a man who went to hell? The man who cured polio is in hell because he's an unrepentant sinner? But the serial murderer on death row who surrenders to Jesus has a shot at heaven? What would Jesus today say to followers who believe such a thing?

I didn't bother to pay for the whole article.

 

Jews in America are frequently referred to as Jewish-Americans, when the context requires the specificity....I would take it to mean the same as American Jews. It would be incorrect and silly to say Israeli-Americans.

In the context of the column, 'Muslim-Americans' seems to make sense.

 

The difference, though, is that Jews (with exceptions such as hall of famer Rod Carew) are not just members of a religion, but of a race that was born out religion. Referring to someone as a Jewish-American is more akin to calling someone Italian-American than Catholic-American. Just sayin'.

As for the article, Mushnick is supporting profiling of "muslims." I put that in quotations because you can't tell that a person is muslim just because they look to be of Middle Eastern descent. What he's really doing is supporting racial profiling of Arabs. I don't read Mushnick, so maybe others can tell me, but does he support racial profiling by police of African-Americans?

I think we all look back at the internment of the Japanese in America during WWII as a sad chapter in our nation's history. I have a feeling we may someday look back out our treatment of Arabs the same way.

I understand the problem and the threats we face from the Middle East. And I have no idea how to solve it. But maintaining personal freedom for law-abiding citizens and keeping the country safe is a terribly difficult balancing act. I say this with my family and friends in mind, that if it comes down to losing lives and living freely, or living safely under heavy-handed government rule, I choose freedom. I am not saying we should give up on fighting the terrorists, not by any stretch, but I do think we need to do a better job of balancing safety and freedom.

 

Again - we're not leaving our tooth paste home because of Christians.

 

OK, so you support profiling. I understand that, and there's an argument to be made for it (especially when you're not in the group being profiled). I wonder if you would feel the same way if we were at war with whichever country your ascendants are from and you were treated like a criminal for no other reason than having a last name that ends in -ski (I use that as an example, since I have no idea what your ethnic background is).

I'm a big believer in the old quote that "An attack on liberty anywhere is an attack on liberty everywhere." And, to me, an attack on the liberty of one ethnic group, is an attack on the liberty of all of us (I think this probably pertains to a broader scope of what is going on than just airport checks, but I think you understand my point).

 

Ya' know, if they don't want to go through the same security that everyone else goes through, tell 'em to ride their camels from NY to LA.

 

Tony - its carpets for coast to coast trips.

 

Another turd thrown in the soup.

 

Waiter, make that TWO turds. Thanks.

 

I've always wondered: How much damage does a carpet into a skyscraper cause?

 

This seems to fit the discussion