Muslims are Americans too

It might seem obvious to write in favor of religious tolerance; unfortunately, it is also necessary. Intolerance toward Muslims has become part of the new norm.

Though the national media seems to pick up on the story of anti-Muslim discrimination every few years, this particular strain of religious intolerance has been running strong for nearly a decade now, if not longer. In the year preceding 9/11, 250 Muslims wrote to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with enforcing equal-employment statutes, alleging cases of workplace discrimination. Since 9/11, the number of anti-Muslim workplace discrimination allegations has never dipped much lower than 500. This year, that number rose to 803 — more than the number filed in the year after 9/11. Muslims comprise less than 2 percent of the population but account for a quarter of complaints of religious discrimination in the workplace.

To some, anti-Muslim sentiment is something that exists “over there” — in the South, or in the deepest, darkest regions of Texas. While this might be a convenient myth, it doesn’t match up with reality. According to The New York Times, anti-mosque rallies have broken out in states from California to Tennessee. And, I need not mention that the Ground Zero Mosque controversy started in New York City, that bastion of tolerance and liberalism. (Ironically, Park51, popularly known as the Ground Zero Mosque, is neither a mosque nor at ground zero — it is to be a community center located two blocks from the World Trade Center site).

It’s hard to explain why anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise, but I suspect it has to do with our new definition of “politically correct.” “Politically correct” is the term we give to those statements that are acceptable in mainstream debate. For example, no one who wants to be taken seriously would go around making racist comments about African-Americans — these comments are out of bounds.

But, slowly, the boundaries of political correctness have expanded to include anti-Muslim comments. Newt Gingrich spoke out against Park51 by saying that it represented “an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization.” The idea that a Muslim cultural center — and, mind you, I spent a lot of my youth in Jewish community centers — represents a threat to American civilization is as sneaky as it is bigoted. It implies, without stating explicitly, that Islam and Muslims are a threat to America.

Others have explicitly said as much. For example, Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of the influential magazine The New Republic, recently wrote that “Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.” He has refused to back down from that comment, and he is still gainfully employed at The New Republic. In fact, Harvard’s Committee on Degrees in Social Studies recently honored him at a luncheon. I doubt he would still be respected in mainstream circles if he had made similar remarks about Christians or Jews.

Usually, the president — or some other respected national figure — would step in to call for tolerance or calm. But President Barack Obama has been so afraid of being called a Muslim himself that he has shamefully avoided taking a strong stance on the issue. For example, after stating definitively that Muslims should have the right to build a mosque at ground zero, he later qualified his statement by saying that they should not necessarily do so. In effect, he argued that Muslims should have the right in theory, but probably should not exercise that right in practice. What Obama forgets is that what makes America great is our commitment to freedom both in theory and in practice.

It is true that few of us would actually speak ill of Islam ourselves, but it seems that many of us don’t mind when others do. That’s why it’s important to speak out when we hear anti-Muslim rhetoric. We must watch our own words — and the words of others — so that we can enable rigorous debate without inciting hatred. That is, after all, what America stands for. It’s the America that my Muslim friends in Central Asia admired, and it’s the America that I love so much.