COLUMN: American intolerance of ‘the other’
I enjoy watching the narrative of news being shaped and changed according to the desires of a small minority of the country as much as the next guy, but right now I think we may be a bit off track.
The Islamic cultural center being built near Ground Zero is one of the “hot topic” issues in the news today.
And why wouldn’t it be? It’s filled with threats, ultimatums, an apparent conspiracy, and dubious characters. In fact, to an objective Fox News observer, one may very well think that the building of the cultural center is one of the worst ideas to ever form in the mind of man.
Take, for example, the handlebar-mustached almost Quran-burner.
A man who obviously holds season tickets to the amateur version of Nascar reaches into the spotlight and manages to stay in that light for days, threatening Islam nations with a holy book burning unless an imam agrees to move the location of the mosque.
Luckily, he calls it off right in the nick of time.
Or at least it would have been in the nick of time had he not waited until a copycat took over to do it in another part of the nation … and if he had not waited until al-Qaida had already used his exact “demonstration” as a recruiting device by showing how intolerant and hateful America is by burning their most sacred word.
Then, of course, there’s the ubiquitous Glenn Beck. The defender of the constitution seems to have himself caught in the midst of his own debate.
While Mr. Beck has, generally, agreed to the rights of the Muslim community to build and have a mosque in this area, he seems to deny this right when it comes to one specific Muslim: the imam who wants to build it.
It would seem that, in Mr. Beck’s world, having possible sketchy ties to people that may or may not be involved in other areas that quite possibly could be sinister in nature is enough to disqualify him his first amendment right to freedom of religion.
(Seeing as how Rupert Murdoch of Fox News has similar ties to people just as shady as he, maybe his right to freedom of speech and press should be revoked as well).
Unfortunately for myself, and the rest of America, Glenn Beck seems to reserve the right to decide which individuals can and cannot have access to the first amendment.
Let’s not fool ourselves, this controversy has nothing to do with the shady connections of the person funding the project, nor does it have anything to do with the proximity of the center to Ground Zero as so many have been fond of asserting.
If proximity really was the issue, why have there been angry protests (and possible arson) in Tennessee over a mosque being built there? (Or is Tennessee too close for an Islamic center as well?)
Forget proximity, forget the imam, and forget Ground Zero, for that matter. In my opinion, this whole thing all boils down to good old-fashioned intolerance of “the other.” Allow me to introduce you to the theory of “the others”:
“We” in the US are white, male (though “we” have female ,white, wives), we were born here (wherever here is) and we have privilege (that in fact “we” do not see as privilege) in US society.
“They” (also known as “the other”) are anyone else who does not fit that description, unless “we” actually, by whatever circumstance, know an individual “they” and like him, in which case, that individual is seen as “not like” those who, in fact, are just like him.
Here is one of the problems of the “the others” way of thinking:
Regardless of what one of “the others” wants, “we” feel inclined to be un-trusting and revile against it.
Regardless of what someone that belongs to “us” wants or expresses, we accept it, no matter how deplorable it is.
Don’t believe me?
Just two blocks from Ground Zero, a man is trying to build a church.
What’s wrong with that?
That man is notorious for his vehement loathing of Muslims, homosexuals, and Mormons, as well as a few other select groups.
While trying to keep Ground Zero free of offensive and insensitive material, we protest a man trying to build a center for all religions and creeds. At the same time we quietly accept the ranting of a man who believes that Mormonism is the religion of Satan, homosexuals are the abomination of the world, and Islam the religion of pedophiles.
But that’s OK, he’s one of “us.”
Ben Zaritsky is a senior in journalism and communications. He can be reached at ben.zaritsky@aggiemail.usu.edu