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The Water Cooler Title: Tea Party Nation Head Wants Muslim-Free Congress Should Congress should be a Muslim-free zone -- despite the U.S. Constitution's ban on religious tests for public office? According to Salon, which links back to earlier sources, Tea Party Nation leader and founder Judson Phillips, a Tennessee attorney, thinks so. Salon cites a blog post by Phillips calling for the ouster of Minn. Rep. Keith Ellison, whom Phillips incorrectly calls the only Muslim in Congress (there are two). Ellison, elected in 2006, took his oath of office with his hand resting on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran. Phillips writes: There are a lot of liberals who need to be retired this year, but there are few I can think of more deserving than Keith Ellison. Ellison is one of the most radical members of congress. He has a ZERO rating from the American Conservative Union. He is the only Muslim member of congress. ... Salon's Justin Elliott writes: Phillips has not withdrawn the post or apologized. It's hard to imagine that this would not have made more of a splash if Phillips had targeted, say, a Jewish member of Congress for being Jewish or a Mormon member for being Mormon. Robert Wright makes a similar point while looking into the fallout over ex-NPR, now-Fox newsman Juan Williams' nervous-about-Muslim-garb comment last week. Wright, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, blogged for The New York Times: Suppose Williams had said something hurtful to gay people instead of to Muslims. Suppose he had said gay men give him the creeps because he fears they'll make sexual advances. NPR might well have fired him, but would Fox News have chosen that moment to give him a $2-million pat on the back? I don't think so. Playing the homophobia card is costlier than playing the Islamophobia card. To make his argument, Wright turns to American Grace, by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, and their theory about the decline of prejudice via friendship or "bridging" -- getting to know someone different than yourself. Putnam and Campbell surveyed thousands of people about their relationships and their views of other groups -- then returned a year later to ask the exact same people the same questions. It turns out that anyone who had made a new friend, neighbor or co-worker from a different faith in the intervening year had a measurably higher or warmer opinion of that new person's religious group. Wright says, The bridging model explains how attitudes toward gays could have made such rapid progress. A few decades ago, people all over America knew and liked gay people -- they just didn't realize these people were gay. So by the time gays started coming out of the closet, the bridge had already been built. Unfortunately, this is not working for Muslims -- yet -- says Wright because unlike gay people, they are not threaded throughout the country. The population of Muslims is so small, and so concentrated in distinct regions, that there weren't enough such encounters to yield statistically significant data. And, as Putnam and Campbell note, this is a recipe for prejudice. Being a small and geographically concentrated group makes it hard for many people to know you, so not much bridging naturally happens. That would explain why Buddhists and Mormons, along with Muslims, get low feeling-thermometer ratings in America. Can it change? Last month, USA TODAY's Mimi Hall looked at what progress had been made between the USA and the Muslim world since President Obama's speech in Cairo 18 months earlier. Not much, experts told her although several noted the uniform condemnation of a plan (later abandoned) by a Florida pastor to burn a Quran. One who saw progress-- Ellison. He told Hall, Every now and again fear will take root and purveyors of that fear will command the public square, But even with these ugly events, people are stepping up" and joining together to condemn the bigotry and acts of hate. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Ellison's a punk, and THATS why he should be throw out of Congress.
There are no replies to Comment # 1. End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
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