From a new article, After 'hate-crime' melee, calm eludes Quaker school, comes this bit of disturbing information:

National hate-crime experts contend the fact that such an alleged attack could take place at a school like Guilford - voted by Newsweek as the "hottest for social conscience" in 2006 - is a reflection of how deeply distrust of Islam now permeates the United States. For data, they point to polls, such as one done by CBS last April. It found that 45 percent of Americans now have a negative view of Islam - more than 9 percentage points higher than in the tense months following the 9/11 attacks. And a Washington Post poll found that the number of Americans who believe Islam stokes violence has more than doubled - from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent in March 2006.

"What we have here is a climate where Islamaphobia is not only considered mainstream, it's considered patriotic by some, and that's something that makes these kinds of attacks even more despicable," says Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the University of California at San Bernadino.

In fact, being "accused" of "being Muslim" is enough to require presidential hopeful Barack Obama to take steps to assure voters that he is indeed Christian. Chapati Mystery writes an excellent Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama to express his disappointment:

I am writing to you from Hyde Park, Chicago, as your constituent and as a long-term supporter. I admit that I have been severely disappointed by your response to the stories peddled across right-wing sites that you attended a "Madrasa" in your youth. Ever since the story broke, I had been waiting for your response and hoping that you will lay bare the fundamental prejudice and hatred underlining that story.

[...]

I was hoping that the response would not be to proclaim the horror of being insinuated a "Muslim" (Is it really such a terrible shame that one was born a Muslim?). I was hoping that you'd point out that the word "Madrasa" simply means "school". That every school in the Islamicate world has that word in its title - even the American or British. You could have shown them this school in Marrakesh or this school in Doha . You could have refused to further the Islamophobia taken root in American society by stressing your appreciation of the cultural heritage you acquired in Indonesia. You could have simply said, "While I am a Christian, I resent the implications in being branded a terrorist-sympathizer merely by association with Muslims. There is no direct correlation between a Muslim and a terrorist despite the demonizing efforts of certain groups. One cannot pass judgement on billions of people and their faith without recalling the histories of Jews in Europe or Africans in Americas."

*sigh* Well said. It's not like we haven't already gone through this same old story with dozens of other ethnicities, or even sexual orientation. When will some one stand up and say, "The fact that you _accuse_ me of being X, points to your own ignorance and bigotry. There's nothing shameful about being X."

Apparently not any time soon.

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