[blind-democracy] Mother and Apple Pie aren't all that American, either

  • From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:07:07 -0700

Christians versus Muslims versus Atheists versus Agnostics...
None of it is American. Apple Pie, Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwiches,
Soda Pop and Big Macs. None of it is American.
Try instead, The Great Spirit, Maize, Tobacco, Roast Bison and Elk
Steaks. Now we're getting closer to America. Black hair, Copper
Skin, Deer Skin Clothing, Bear Skin Rugs. And fish for the taking
from the clear, sparkling streams. America, the Land of Plenty.
America, a Time before Time mattered. A Land of People satisfying
their human needs rather than slaving to enrich the gold and silver of
the White Man from over the Great Waters.
America, a Land of People. A Land void of the likes of Donald Trump
and Ben Carson and Hilary Clinton.

Carl Jarvis

On 9/29/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > What Trump and Carson Get Wrong: Islam Is as American as Apple Pie
________________________________________
What Trump and Carson Get Wrong: Islam Is as American as Apple Pie
By Joshua Holland [1] / The Nation [2]
September 28, 2015
Not content with alienating single women, Latinos and the LGBT
community, the two front-runners for the Republican nomination indulged in
some naked Islamophobia this past week.
Donald Trump told an audience member at one of his events that he'd "look
into" either expelling America's Muslim population, or the existence of
Jihadi training camps on US soil, depending on how charitably one viewed
the
exchange.
Then Ben Carson appeared on Meet The Press, where he told Chuck Todd that
Islam was inconsistent with the Constitution and said that he "would not
advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation."
This kind of bigotry won't hurt these candidates in the primary. A YouGov
poll earlier this year found that only one in five Americans-and one in
seven Republicans-held a positive view of Islam. And according to Public
Policy polling, only half of Iowa Republicans "think the religion of Islam
should even be legal in the United States." Ben Carson reportedly saw his
donations spike after his interview with Todd.
But this kind of callous disregard for a minority that's faced serious
discrimination-and no small amount of violence-should hurt. The candidates
reinforced a central tenet-perhaps the central tenet-of anti-Muslim
bigotry:
That Islam is an inherently foreign religion that's incompatible with US
citizenship. This view is common among shouty people who protest outside
mosques and politicians who push those Constitutionally sketchy bans on
"Sharia law."
In that sense, claims that Barack Obama is a crypto-Muslim are really a
proxy for the belief that he was born in Kenya and is ineligble to be
president. A poll earlier this month found that 66 percent of Trump's
supporters said Obama is a Muslim and 61 percent thought he was born
overseas. (Perhaps we shouldn't give Trump, an avowed "birther", the
benefit
of the doubt in his exchange with that guy in the audience.)
It's a belief based on the kind of widely debunked "history" peddled by
David Barton, a popular figure on the tea party circuit who claims that the
United States is a "Christian nation" founded by men whose theology
resembled Mike Huckabee's.
But while Muslims are a small minority, Islam is just as American as
Christianity. It's true that a significant share of Muslims living in the
U.S. today were born abroad, but it's also true that from the very
beginning, Islam has always been part of the social fabric of this country.
In fact, it's possible that Muslims got here before the first Christians.
According to the PBS special, some historians believe that Muslims first
arrived in the Americas in the early 14th century, after being expelled
from
Spain. Others say that Christopher Columbus referred to a book written by
Portuguese Muslims who had navigated to the "New World" in the 12th century
during his 1492 voyage.
Those are controversial claims. But it's clear that Muslims arrived here in
significant numbers in the 16th century, along with large-scale European
colonization. Some came voluntarily, but many more were brought here
forcibly to work as slaves.

According to the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 10-15 percent of
all
slaves were Muslims, many of whom were "literate and highly educated," and
"kept the spirit of Islam burning even while enslaved."
Several Muslims fought for America's independence with distinction under
George Washington. Greg Considine, a sociologist at Rice University, wrote
for the Huffington Post that one soldier believed to have been a Muslim,
Peter Buckminster, "etched his name into American history at the Battle of
Bunker Hill by firing the shot which killed Great Britain's Major General
John Pitcairn." Muslim-Americans fought in the War of 1812, in the Civil
War
and in every major conflict since.
From the 1870s until 1924, when the United States severely restricted most
non-white immigration, new arrivals from the Middle East-mostly from Syria
and Lebanon-swelled the Muslim population. Their descendants have been
Americans for many generations.
Thirty years later, when the US once again opened its doors to new
immigrants, a new wave of Muslim immigrants arrived here from Africa, Asia
and the Middle East.
At around that time, the rise of the African-American Muslim Nationalist
Movement led to huge numbers of new converts. According to Gallup, 35
percent of Muslims in America today are black-the largest group within the
most ethnically diverse faith in the United States.

Estimates vary widely, but there are somewhere between one and six million
muslims in the United States. According to a 2004 survey by Zogby
International, they tend to "have a favorable outlook on life in America,
and wish to be a part of the mainstream." Almost six in 10 hold at least an
undergraduate degree, making them the most educated faith group in this
country. Many work in professional fields. America's Muslim community is
believed to be the wealthiest in the world. They have high rates of civic
participation, and there's no evidence that they embrace extremism at a
higher rate than Christians or Jews.
According to Gallup, Muslim women are among the most educated in the
country, and work outside the home at a slightly higher rate than American
women as a whole. One in three have a professional job. The gender pay-gap
among American Muslims is smaller that that of any other group.
The Pew report prompted Bret Stephens and Joseph Rago to write in The Wall
Street Journal that "America's Muslims tend to be role models both as
Americans and as Muslims." But to varying degrees, they have always faced
discrimination and persecution at the hands of America's Christian
majority.
Muslim slaves were often forced to practice their religion in secrecy. Many
were forcibly converted to Christianity. In his book, The Crescent
Obscured:
The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815, historian Robert Allison
notes that some anti-Federalists at the Constitutional Convention of 1787
didn't want to include religious liberty in the Bill of Rights because it
would protect the Islamic faith-an argument echoed today by people like Ben
Carson, or Representative Jodi Hice (R-Georgia), who wrote that Islam "is a
complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First
Amendment protection."
Sadly, Islamophobia isn't just a problem on the right. In the Yougov poll
cited above, 43 percent of Democrats said they held an unfavorable view of
Islam, and Pew found that "a majority of Muslims say a friend or family
member has suffered discrimination since the September 11 attacks." Casual
Islamophobia is often tolerated in a way that bigotry toward other
minorities is not.
It's time for this to stop. After 400 years in the Americas, and having
helped build and defend this country, we need to accept that American
Muslims are just as American-and just as loyal-as anyone else.
Joshua Holland is Senior Digital Producer at BillMoyers.com [3], and host
of
Politics and Reality Radio [4]. He's the author of The 15 Biggest Lies
About
the Economy [5]. Drop him an email [6] or follow him on Twitter [7].
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [8]
[9]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/belief/alternet-comics-brian-mcfadden-martin-shkreli
s-free-market-pharmacy
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/joshua-holland
[2] http://www.thenation.com
[3] http://billmoyers.com
[4] http://alternetradio.podbean.com
[5] http://www.powells.com/partner/32513/biblio/9780470643921
[6] mailto: joshua.holland@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[7] http://twitter.com/JoshuaHol
[8] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on What Trump and Carson
Get Wrong: Islam Is as American as Apple Pie
[9] http://www.alternet.org/
[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > What Trump and Carson Get Wrong: Islam Is as American as Apple Pie

What Trump and Carson Get Wrong: Islam Is as American as Apple Pie
By Joshua Holland [1] / The Nation [2]
September 28, 2015
Not content with alienating single women, Latinos and the LGBT community,
the two front-runners for the Republican nomination indulged in some naked
Islamophobia this past week.
Donald Trump told an audience member at one of his events that he'd "look
into" either expelling America's Muslim population, or the existence of
Jihadi training camps on US soil, depending on how charitably one viewed
the
exchange.
Then Ben Carson appeared on Meet The Press, where he told Chuck Todd that
Islam was inconsistent with the Constitution and said that he "would not
advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation."
This kind of bigotry won't hurt these candidates in the primary. A YouGov
poll earlier this year found that only one in five Americans-and one in
seven Republicans-held a positive view of Islam. And according to Public
Policy polling, only half of Iowa Republicans "think the religion of Islam
should even be legal in the United States." Ben Carson reportedly saw his
donations spike after his interview with Todd.
But this kind of callous disregard for a minority that's faced serious
discrimination-and no small amount of violence-should hurt. The candidates
reinforced a central tenet-perhaps the central tenet-of anti-Muslim
bigotry:
That Islam is an inherently foreign religion that's incompatible with US
citizenship. This view is common among shouty people who protest outside
mosques and politicians who push those Constitutionally sketchy bans on
"Sharia law."
In that sense, claims that Barack Obama is a crypto-Muslim are really a
proxy for the belief that he was born in Kenya and is ineligble to be
president. A poll earlier this month found that 66 percent of Trump's
supporters said Obama is a Muslim and 61 percent thought he was born
overseas. (Perhaps we shouldn't give Trump, an avowed "birther", the
benefit
of the doubt in his exchange with that guy in the audience.)
It's a belief based on the kind of widely debunked "history" peddled by
David Barton, a popular figure on the tea party circuit who claims that the
United States is a "Christian nation" founded by men whose theology
resembled Mike Huckabee's.
But while Muslims are a small minority, Islam is just as American as
Christianity. It's true that a significant share of Muslims living in the
U.S. today were born abroad, but it's also true that from the very
beginning, Islam has always been part of the social fabric of this country.
In fact, it's possible that Muslims got here before the first Christians.
According to the PBS special, some historians believe that Muslims first
arrived in the Americas in the early 14th century, after being expelled
from
Spain. Others say that Christopher Columbus referred to a book written by
Portuguese Muslims who had navigated to the "New World" in the 12th century
during his 1492 voyage.
Those are controversial claims. But it's clear that Muslims arrived here in
significant numbers in the 16th century, along with large-scale European
colonization. Some came voluntarily, but many more were brought here
forcibly to work as slaves.
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 10-15 percent of
all
slaves were Muslims, many of whom were "literate and highly educated," and
"kept the spirit of Islam burning even while enslaved."
Several Muslims fought for America's independence with distinction under
George Washington. Greg Considine, a sociologist at Rice University, wrote
for the Huffington Post that one soldier believed to have been a Muslim,
Peter Buckminster, "etched his name into American history at the Battle of
Bunker Hill by firing the shot which killed Great Britain's Major General
John Pitcairn." Muslim-Americans fought in the War of 1812, in the Civil
War
and in every major conflict since.
From the 1870s until 1924, when the United States severely restricted most
non-white immigration, new arrivals from the Middle East-mostly from Syria
and Lebanon-swelled the Muslim population. Their descendants have been
Americans for many generations.
Thirty years later, when the US once again opened its doors to new
immigrants, a new wave of Muslim immigrants arrived here from Africa, Asia
and the Middle East.
At around that time, the rise of the African-American Muslim Nationalist
Movement led to huge numbers of new converts. According to Gallup, 35
percent of Muslims in America today are black-the largest group within the
most ethnically diverse faith in the United States.
Estimates vary widely, but there are somewhere between one and six million
muslims in the United States. According to a 2004 survey by Zogby
International, they tend to "have a favorable outlook on life in America,
and wish to be a part of the mainstream." Almost six in 10 hold at least an
undergraduate degree, making them the most educated faith group in this
country. Many work in professional fields. America's Muslim community is
believed to be the wealthiest in the world. They have high rates of civic
participation, and there's no evidence that they embrace extremism at a
higher rate than Christians or Jews.
According to Gallup, Muslim women are among the most educated in the
country, and work outside the home at a slightly higher rate than American
women as a whole. One in three have a professional job. The gender pay-gap
among American Muslims is smaller that that of any other group.
The Pew report prompted Bret Stephens and Joseph Rago to write in The Wall
Street Journal that "America's Muslims tend to be role models both as
Americans and as Muslims." But to varying degrees, they have always faced
discrimination and persecution at the hands of America's Christian
majority.
Muslim slaves were often forced to practice their religion in secrecy. Many
were forcibly converted to Christianity. In his book, The Crescent
Obscured:
The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815, historian Robert Allison
notes that some anti-Federalists at the Constitutional Convention of 1787
didn't want to include religious liberty in the Bill of Rights because it
would protect the Islamic faith-an argument echoed today by people like Ben
Carson, or Representative Jodi Hice (R-Georgia), who wrote that Islam "is a
complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First
Amendment protection."
Sadly, Islamophobia isn't just a problem on the right. In the Yougov poll
cited above, 43 percent of Democrats said they held an unfavorable view of
Islam, and Pew found that "a majority of Muslims say a friend or family
member has suffered discrimination since the September 11 attacks." Casual
Islamophobia is often tolerated in a way that bigotry toward other
minorities is not.
It's time for this to stop. After 400 years in the Americas, and having
helped build and defend this country, we need to accept that American
Muslims are just as American-and just as loyal-as anyone else.
Joshua Holland is Senior Digital Producer at BillMoyers.com [3], and host
of
Politics and Reality Radio [4]. He's the author of The 15 Biggest Lies
About
the Economy [5]. Drop him an email [6] or follow him on Twitter [7].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [8]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[9]

Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/belief/alternet-comics-brian-mcfadden-martin-shkreli
s-free-market-pharmacy
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/joshua-holland
[2] http://www.thenation.com
[3] http://billmoyers.com
[4] http://alternetradio.podbean.com
[5] http://www.powells.com/partner/32513/biblio/9780470643921
[6] mailto: joshua.holland@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[7] http://twitter.com/JoshuaHol
[8] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on What Trump and Carson
Get Wrong: Islam Is as American as Apple Pie
[9] http://www.alternet.org/
[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B




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