Saturday, August 12, 2006

Islamophobia


People don't realize that there are a lot of Muslim refugees in Oklahoma.
(for example: did you read "Reading Lolita in Tehran"? She studied in Oklahoma) .

After 9-11, they became nervous. One Sandwich shop in Tulsa put up the flag and the newspaper article about how they were citizens.

And one of my patients mentioned her daughter had dated an immigrant's son, and that if the government rounded up Muslims, she said she'd hide them on her ranch.

Finally, my patients who worked at the 24 hour Walmart noted that a lot of the Muslim women, wearing scarves and not very good at English, would shop late at night when they didn't have to face crowds.

But a lot of these things are NOT new with immigrants.
My husband, an immigrant and a US veteran, always flew the flag.

Too shy to shop in crowds? In South Philly, when I grew up, there were women who moved to the US years before but still only spoke Yiddish or Italian (and shopped at local stores run by fellow Jews or Italians).

Islamophobia? One doubts that suspicion of Muslims is any worse than suspicion of Japanese in WWII...and that suspicion was widely dispelled by Japanese American soldiers fighting in Italy...

And my grandfather was once investigated for pro German sentiments in World War I...he used to sing songs in German...what saved him from arrest was probably that his son was in the home guard. (see Photo) So the investigators decided that his songs were what he said they were: merely a love of good music.

So my advice to CAIR and others who shout "Islamophobia", could I suggest that they way to prove they too can be good Americans is to fly the flag, rally to the side of the US in this war against radicals, and to have their sons join the government?

Yes, some have done this...but not enough.

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