Since Ellison's election, Goode and many other politicians and pundits have been demanding changes in immigration law to decrease or to stop the immigration of Muslims to the USA, as if the Ellison's ancestors have not been residing in the territory of the USA since the eighteenth century.
Such proposals constitute an unsubtle statement that Muslims have no
place in America. Muslims seem to us somewhat exotic, and are,
therefore, easy to stereotype. Dumping on Muslims is fun, cheap, and
easy.
The unwillingness of American and Western societies, in general, to
confront naked Islamophobic incitement recalls so many pathological
actions associated with the development of modern anti-Semitism in
Central and Eastern Europe that we Americans must ask ourselves whether
Islamophobia is the New Anti-Semitism.
Unabashed Islamophobe Robert Spencer, who has strong associations with
neocon organizations and leaders, routinely mischaracterizes Islamic
religion and cultures.
The title of his book, Islam Unveiled, is strongly reminiscent of
Eisenmenger's classic anti-Jewish text, Entdecktes Judentum (Judaism
Unmasked). [1]
Rampant Racism in America: This time it's Muslims who are the demonized enemy
Now that the Stalinist/Maoist regimes have collapsed or evolved toward
capitalism and no fascist states with imperial ambitions exist (besides
the United States and its few allies), the American Empire needed to
find a new "enemy" to replace Stalinists and Nazis.
Much of the soft power employed by the leaders of America’s "top down
democracy" stems from psychological manipulation of "the mob".
Mobilization of the masses against a common enemy "threatening the very
existence of the American Way" has long been a staple in the United
States’ ruling elites’ ongoing push to monopolize the world’s wealth,
power, and prestige.
And who better to vilify than Islamic people? Many are dark-skinned and
live in developing nations, meaning their lives are inconsequential in
the prevailing moral calculus of the West.
The Middle East is predominately Islamic, its sands are oozing with
crude oil, and it is home to Israel. From the perspective of the
Empire, what better region to target than the Middle East?
As for Western Imperialism...
Western exploiters and invaders are culpable of far more frequent and
grievous war crimes than the Middle Easterners who are defending
themselves, their resources, and their people.
If the majority of the people controlling the corporate media had a
shred of moral decency they would focus their efforts on informing
their viewers, listeners, and readers of the vast number of war crimes
committed by Israel and the United States.
They would start portraying the "terrorists" as the resistors of
oppression they truly are. They would make a distinction between the
various Middle Eastern resistance groups’ legitimate attacks on their
occupiers’ militaries and the war crimes they commit against civilians.
And they would devote most of their remaining substantial resources to
the inundation of news consumers with stories, photos and video footage
depicting the tragic and gruesome civilian suffering and death.
As it is, the Western corporate media shamelessly serve the Neocons by
perpetuating a virtually endless cycle of hatred and violence. They
incite and feed Islamophobia and they fabricate a plethora of false
justifications for the malevolent actions of Israel and the United
States.
But then in a fascist nation, corporations are wedded with the state,
militarism is the state’s primary focus, scapegoats and enemies are
essential, and the function of the Fourth Estate is to provide the
propaganda to control the masses. [2]
'Liberal' Writers Become Born-Again Neocons and Islamophobes
The British literary scene is dominated by three writers: Martin Amis,
Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan. They are the vanguard of British
literary neocons. They believe Islam is the greatest threat to 'our'
civilisation.
All three have considered the central dilemma of our time: terror.
Indeed, Amis has issued something of a manifesto on the subject he
terms "horrorism".
In their different styles, their approach and opinions define a
coherent position. They are the vanguard of British literary
neoconservatives - or, if you like, the "Blitcons".
Blitcons come with a ready-made nostrum for the human condition. They
use their celebrity status to advance a clear global political agenda.
The Blitcon project is based on three one-dimensional conceits. The
first is the absolute supremacy of American culture. Blitcon fiction is
orientalism for the 21st century, shifting the emphasis from the
supremacy of the west in general to the supremacy of American ideas of
freedom.
The second Blitcon conceit is that Islam is the greatest threat to this idea of civilisation.
Rushdie's suspicion of and distaste for Islam is obvious in his novels Midnight's Children, Shame and The Satanic Verses.
In Shame, Rushdie describes Islam as a mythology that cannot survive
close examination, but in The Satanic Verses it becomes an abomination.
The novel imagines a rival life of the Prophet Muhammad, complete with
historical details and every orientalist stereotype imaginable.
As the product of the paranoid delusions of a violent, sexually
perverted businessman, The Satanic Verses suggests, Islam runs contrary
to every decent value known to man.
The third Blitcon conceit is that American ideas of freedom and
democracy are not only right, but should be imposed on the rest of the
world.
There is an exercise beyond the reach of any of the Blitcons. There are
exotic creatures they cannot imagine in their fictions and diatribes:
the generality of Muslims, people who believe in something other than
the Blitcons' understanding of Islam. [3]