C'mon, not all Muslims are terrorists

            Well, it’s been fun being back. I was given the chance to help keep Connect Statesboro going during a transitional period, and the transition’s done. I’m handing off the reins to new editor Casey Altman, who’s way better at this layout stuff than I ever have been.

            I think I might be able to outplay her on a piano, though. And we’re probably about even at karaoke.

            That being said, this isn’t one of those sappy goodbye columns, though. I already had one of those back in February of 2009. Nah, this time around I’m going to be keeping a weekly column, and you’ll be able to watch my misadventures with Phil Boyum online every seven days or so.

            And I’m still pissed off about the uproar over the proposed Muslim community center a couple of blocks from Ground Zero. This isn’t the America I love, not by a long shot. It’s a wholesale celebration of ignorance, bigotry and racism by a group of people who are being played like a fiddle by demagogues.

            The group that wants to build the project are Sufi Muslims, for cryin’ out loud. Blaming a Sufi for 9/11 is like yelling at an Eastern Orthodox priest because Martin Luther nailed something to a cathedral door.

            (For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, broaden your mind and look it up. You’ll be a better person for it, promise.)

            It’s particularly telling that when the story first broke last December, no one had a problem with it. It wasn’t until the run-up to November elections that some folks decided to put on a big show about how patriotic they are while completely ignoring basic American values.

            I’m sick of hearing the “putting a mosque close to Ground Zero is insensitive” argument, too. If anything, it was especially sensitive — the group behind the mosque obviously assumed that their fellow citizens weren’t ill-educated, hyperventilating jackasses that would understand why it’s not a big deal.

            Several years ago, a local Muslim told me that there was a local mosque (I think he meant masjid, but at the time I would have been lost on the difference between the two). He wouldn’t tell me where it was, though, with the implication being that if that info got out, bad things could happen to the building and the people who worship inside.

            Sad thing is, I completely understand. And that was before the world was treated to video of angry mobs in Murfrees-frickin’-boro, Tennessee protesting a mosque, completely validating Osama bin Laden’s “America hates Islam” rhetoric.

            The Imam of the New York mosque is a guy who fervently believes that America’s form of government should serve as a model for Islamic states around the world. That’s why he was sent by the Bush administration on a speaking tour.

            Aside from political figures trying to use the issue for their own gain, I think the problem stems from one main misunderstanding. “Muslim” doesn’t mean “crazy terrorist” any more than “white guy” means “gun-totin’ racist redneck.” “Black” doesn’t mean “gang member.” “Editor” doesn’t mean “geeky guy who doesn’t sleep enough.”

            To many, Sept. 11, 2001 is still a big ol’ ugly raw wound. It hurts, and there’s plenty of people out there still angry and scared at the affront to our national dignity. It’s that fear that led to any number of heinous offenses committed in our name over the past near-decade, and that anger is now on display against people nationwide who have done nothing to deserve it.

            But what are we really afraid of? Radical Islam doesn’t really pose a serious threat to America. Given that I grew up during the tail end of the Cold War, when the Russians had enough nukes pointed this way to vaporize us all, a bunch of ill-educated religious extremists whose major accomplishment since 9/11 is becoming test beds for new and fabulously expensive American weapons just don’t inspire the kind of bed-wetting, knee-knocking fear that would justify, say, opposing a mosque.

            In fact, I’d bet that when the group trying to build the New York community center hears of something awful being done by fundamentalist Muslims, they probably do the same thing that I do when I see the protests over the center.

            They put their palm to their face, and go “c’mon, you guys, you’re making us all look bad.”