A MESSAGE FOR THE MERCHANTS OF HATE: STEP ASIDE Yesterday I pledged not to comment any more on the Park 51 Mosque issue. I have made my views quite clear. Personally, I would think an interfaith center on this site would be an acceptable solution. But, I also think that the developers of this project have every right to proceed with their plans although I question the "wisdom" of the project to use our President's words. I say let people of New York resolve this matter themselves. What bothers me is the effort by parties on both sides of the political spectrum to exploit this issue for cheap political advantage. Even some of our iReport colleagues have stooped to this same low. Today I came across this article from the LA Times written by Jonah Goldberg. The article entitled " Liberals and the Myth of the Anti-Muslim Backlash" should give us all some pause for reflection that despite the demagoguery associated with this debate, we remain a highly tolerant nation. Let's reflect on the word "tolerance" rather than "hate". Those who promote "hate" over "tolerance" will expose themselves and their bigoted hypocrisy. They know who they are. The article begins: Here's a thought: The 70% of Americans who oppose what amounts to an Islamic Niketown two blocks from ground zero are the real victims of a climate of hate, and anti-Muslim backlash is mostly a myth. Let's start with some data. According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600% in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the increase is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on Sept. 11. Now, that was a hate crime. Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. The following year, the number of anti-Islamic hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. And the number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since. Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like a anti-Muslim backlash to you? Let's put this in even sharper focus. America is, outside of Israel, probably the most receptive and tolerant country in the world to Jews. And yet, in every year since 9/11, more Jews have been hate-crime victims than Muslims. A lot more. In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as there were anti-Muslim, again according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim ones by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America? Because there isn't one. And there isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. Yes, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on the Internet. Absolutely, some Americans don't like Muslims. But if you watch TV or movies or read, say, the op-ed page of the New York Times - never mind left-wing blogs - you'll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the "Taliban wing of the Republican Party") than you will toward Muslims. No doubt some American Muslims - particularly young Muslim men with ties to the Middle East and South Asia - have been scrutinized at airports more than elderly women of Norwegian extraction, but does that really amount to Islamophobia, given the dangers and complexities of the war on terror? For 10 years we've been subjected to news stories about the Muslim backlash that's always around the corner. It didn't start with President Obama or with the "ground zero mosque." President George W. Bush was his most condescending when he explained, in the cadences of a guest reader at kindergarten story time, that "Islam is peace." But he was right to emphasize America's tolerance and to draw a sharp line between Muslim terrorists and their law
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