Muslim-Smearing Will Win Us the White House!

[Indy]

Right but the problem is that the GOP/FOX are making no distinction as to "radical." The line has been erased so that Muslim by itself means guilty.

Even when it's a renowned scholar like this author or an aide to the Secretary of State, if you're Muslim, you're smearable now to this crowd. With no evidence other than your religion. They also don't make any distinction between Sunni or Shiite or Sufi--hey, they're all terrorists, right?

Here's a bunch of things I found out in just one minor search that I'm guessing 99% of Americans don't know, from of course PBS:

No. Only about 15 percent of the estimated 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide are Arab. According to the Muslim Journal, 30 percent of Muslims live in the Indian subcontinent, 20 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa, 17 percent live in Southeast Asia, and 10 percent live in the former Soviet states. There may be as many as 50 to 70 million Muslims in China, alone.

Most Americans hear Muslim and think: Arab. Hell most Americans think Iranians are Arabs. The biggest Muslim population resides in... Indonesia.

But to the point I'm unclear as to what the long-term strategic payoff is thought to be by demonizing so many demographics here in the U.S. so blatantly. Clearly the white-only vote is no longer enough to win the White House.

[eynon81]

[NAB]

[eynon81]

[John Galt]

"asians are big on science"

you do know that's racist right

[Lobster]

I never understood the perception of muslims as a different race automatically equated to arab in the first place. A lot of the people in majority muslim countries bordering the mediterrannean could easily pass as portuguese, spanish, italian, greek, southern french, etc, and vice versa. There are many "darker" skinned, black haired/black eyed europeans, and many "lighter" skinned, clear eyed "arabs". A lot of the people that consider themselves arab approach it from a cultural perspective, not necessarily a racial one, though it did become synonymous after a while. The inner sea was a crisscrossing highway for trade and population exchange for thousands of years. Genetically the population of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia for example are largely of berber stock, with only minimal arab admixture, but self-identified berbers are a minority. The vandals had as much if not more of a genetic impact on Tunisia than the arabs did. That's not even getting into Turkey and south russian turkic areas, central asian muslim populations (like iranians, afghans), pakistani/indian muslims, indonesians, etc. The conception of muslims in general as "brown" people is completely arbitrary, more cultural than a concept with any basis in genetics. Which is why I find the concept of "islamophobia" ridiculous. Just call it what it is, xenophobia. The people attacking Islam because it is "foreign" would find some way to attack it regardless. When you use the concept of islamophobia you're actually legitimizing the idea of the religion somehow being linked to racial identity, something intrinsically part of their being, as if being muslim is a genetic trait, and being attacked for that trait equivalent to being attacked for something as out of your personal control as skin colour.

[Indy]

[John Galt]

it's only been in the last decade that they have trended democratic

but yes, it's still racist to make positive stereotypes. i'm sure many asians are f**k dumb people

[eynon81]

[The Dharma Bum]