Latinos

Last night I watched the actress and Hilary Clinton’s surrogate, America Ferara on the Bill Mahar show. He asked her why, when 99 percent of Black voters are against Donald Trump, not nearly as many Latinos are? She pondered the question for a while and then said that Latino voters are Americans and as such have many different positions on politics (the same argument could have been used for African Americans). My personal experience, based strictly on my observations and understanding of how the world works, leads me to a more nuanced explanation, though in the final analysis, America is right. We tend to paint everything with too broad a brush stroke and overlook the finer points. What we refer to as Latinos really are people from different countries, cultures, ethnicities and races who have only language as a common thread. Some even come from families that have been in this country longer than most of the Europeans. The “Latinos” in southern Florida for the most part are immigrants and descendants of people who fled Cuba after Castro’s Communist revolution. They were from the upper-middle and upper class with the greater majority of pure European decent. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz (though he is not from southern Florida) are examples. They tend to be strongly anti-communist and fiscally conservative. The Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and others from the Caribbean are greatly influenced by their heritage of slavery. Even immigrants from one country, Mexico, come from different ethnicities and cultures. Most come from rural areas and are indigenous descendants of the Maya with work habits that would put the “Protestant Work Ethic” to shame. These are the Mexicans doing predominantly farm work and other menial labor. Other Mexican immigrants are of primarily European descent who tend to be from urban areas, better educated and more affluent. These various groups have settled in different parts of the country, can have different physical appearances and varying social and economic concerns. Thus their politics are all over the place. Those of pure European decent tend to be less concerned with bigotry, since it is only language that separates them and in one generation that difference disappears. Puerto Ricans are US citizens and not that concerned about immigration but worry about things like wages and poverty. The indigenous are concerned with all the issues; immigration, wages, education, bigotry etc. An effective strategy to win over the Latino votes needs to do more than highlight bigotry and must speak about things that are also of concern to most Americans, addressing initiatives in the Constitution, “establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense promote the general welfare (this is one the Right often overlooks), and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” (I’m following the recent trend of waving the Constitution established at the Democratic Convention). Unlike the very successful Republican “Southern Strategy”, whispering to the prejudices of the Southern whites, the Latino strategy needs to be much broader and appeal to our “better angels”.

Things that Scare Me

Things that Scare Me My parents lived much of their lives under a Soviet regime and seven years toward the end of the war as refugees in Germany. I was quite young during this era but do have some direct memories though most of my observations are second hand through my parents. Also having this past in my history, I am more attentive to news and stories regarding the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The recent move further right in our country and some of the accompanying rhetoric scares me because I see some similarities with this past. HOMELAND: After 9/11 one started hearing more and more about the “Homeland” from politicians of all stripes. This reminds me of the Nazi oft invoked term “fatherland”. “AMERICA FIRST” Donald Trump’s “America first” slogan has a bit of a ring of “Deutschland, Deutschland uber ales” (spelling?) the Nazi motto, meaning Germany above all else. The Germans executed this creed to the letter. Laws, both international and domestic, morals and society as a whole would not stand in the way of the Fatherland. Israel’s right has somewhat of the same philosophy when it comes to what they believe is their God given land. FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN THEOCRACY: During the German occupation the French motto; Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, was changed to “work, family, homeland”. This could have been adopted by the right in our country without the blink of an eye. Work a cornerstone of the “Protestant Ethic” is now a central theme: “Bring jobs back”, “paychecks instead of handouts”, “get young Blacks jobs to solve all social ills”. The policies implemented under the guise of “religious freedom” really are moves to insert “Christian values” into our policies much as the move in the early fifties added “in God We Trust” to our currency and “Under God” to our pledge of allegiance. I have seen a slow Republican shift in this direction starting with the politization of the Christian Fundamentalists some decades ago. When asked about the three words that bet describe him, the vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said “Christian, Family Man and Republican”. What happened to American? REPORTING YOUR NEIGHBOR: With the threat of heinous criminal acts by a group of “Radical Islamist Terrorists” (though in his acceptance speech, Donald Trump dropped the “radical” piece of that statement and just called it Islamist terrorism) the government at all levels is now advocating “if you see something report it”. This is reminiscent of the Soviet dogma. As a good citizen, it was your duty to report any anti-communist activities or comments. In fact, to not report it was a crime. As a result, brothers were reporting brothers, sons their mothers and workers their coworkers. The Siberian Gulags were full of people falsely accused because someone didn’t like them or wanted to gain some sort of advantage. DOCUMENTATION: Europe allows citizens from its member countries to travel across their borders without documentation. We, on the other hand, need more and more documents, IDs to vote and passports to travel to countries we never needed them to visit before. Under Stalin’s rule one even had to get documented government authorization to travel within the country, never mind outside. ISLAMAPHOBIA: The Nazis, to rally support invented a common foe, Jews. The Republicans are doing the same today in this country with Muslims. XENOPHOBIA: Patriotism is a very healthy and beautiful thing. Excessive, blind and misguided patriotism is dangerous. Today the right has stolen patriotism, waving flags and reciting slogans. Flag waving was vigorous during Nazi rule in Germany. A friend wrote me the other day saying that it is difficult to have meaningful discussions with Democrats because if you disagree with them they accuse you of racism. The same can be said of the difficulty having meaningful discussions with the right. If one disagrees, they are accused of being unpatriotic. Some time ago I was watching Morning Joe where there was started a discussion on the lowering of qualifications for entry into our military. Joe Scarborough, a Republican and host, said we had a military made up of “the best and brightest”. When a guest asked by what standard? Joe got very angry and started chanting “USA, USA, USA………” thus ending the discussion. Having said all this, I am still optimistic about our great country. One of our main strengths is our ability to correct. As long as we allow the pendulum to swing, we will go a bit too far left and a bit too far right but always turns around and we spend most of the time near the middle. The things we need to be careful of are the policies we put in place which inhibit our ability to adjust or slow us down so much that we lose the ability to properly respond to the rapid changes occurring in the world.

Our Culture vs Their Culture

We humans have a weakness in that the familiar appears normal to us and the unfamiliar abnormal. As a young boy, looking through the National Geographic Magazine (as young boys do) I noticed how strange women in Africa wearing many neck rings to elongate their necks or Indian women wearing nose rings looked. As I became a young man I began to see similarities between these customs and ours in the West. How different is stretching ones neck with neckbands from enlarging the breasts with implants or puffing up lips with Botox. Though the methods differ, the aim is the same, to enhance beauty. Wearing rings in the nose, which we now do in the West, in my eyes is no different than wearing rings in the ears. Wearing hijabs is strange to us but yarmulkes normal, though are cultural/religious. Modesty is locally defined. A woman with her head uncovered will be persecuted in Iran and Saudi Arabia. We look at this as primitive. A woman on the beach topless in the US today will be persecuted because she is not adhering to local customs of modesty. In Europe topless bathing is a common practice and we are thought of by some as primitive. Many years ago, while visiting Morocco, a majority Muslim country, we stayed at a modern hotel for western tourists in Marrakech. European women routinely sunbathed at the pool topless. The hotel adhered to the European standard of modesty. I strongly suspect were they to remove their bottoms they would be asked to leave. Customs are not only differ geographically but also temporally. In the early nineteen hundreds women here went to the beech covered from neck to toe as do some Muslim women today. In the fifties they wore one piece bathing suits whereas today bikinis are the common beach ware. During the “Dark Ages” women in Europe covered themselves, including their heads, much as do women in some of the Muslim cultures today. Some time ago I was watching a program featuring a primitive tribe somewhere in the mountains of Southeast Asia. They were interviewing a young teenage girl who was dressed in a colorful skirt but breasts uncovered. She was sitting very modestly on a rock with her legs crossed; so elegant in her manners, speech and movement, she could have been the daughter of proud, cultured western parents. When we see customs from different cultures, we should think about our own and ask how different are they really from ours particularly at some point in time?

Why do they Hate us (and Want to Kill us)?

This was a question posed to me the other night at a family gathering by a non-Muslim assuming that I, as a Muslim had some special insight into the minds of an irrational, vicious cult. To answer that question we first needs to understand who “they” are. Unfortunately the Right Wing media, wanting to stoke Islamophobia and fear to gain a political advantage, paints the “they” with a very broad stroke as Muslims. (I read the reporting on the recent Bangladesh massacre in the New York Times, PBS, BBC, Aljizeera and Fox. It’s interesting that Fox was the only one leading off with an Islamophobic “dog whistle” in the first sentence reporting that the terrorists were heard saying Allah Whakbar, which translated means God is Great, equivalent to something like “praise the Lord”). The Right even insist that the President call terrorism “Islmaic”. In analyzing who the “they” are lets first look at Christianity which most of us are more familiar with. Christianity, though consisting of many groups (Manicheans, Copts) can be divided into the two major groups, the Catholics and Protestants. The Protestants in turn have many sub groups such as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Methodist, Baptist, etc. Among the Baptists are the Southern Baptists and the extremely homophobic and Islamophobic Westboro Baptists, a radical sect, and various Evangelical splinter groups (though I’m not sure all Evangelicals are Baptists). When the Westboro Baptists Church pickets the burial of a gay soldier killed in War, we don’t think, or the media reports it, as a Baptist, Protestant nor Christian act. We attribute the action rightly to the Westboro Baptists. Now the non-Muslim members of the family gathering would say “but they don’t kill people”. OK, let’s look at another case. Many of the Fundamentalist Protestant, especially those believing in “Armageddon” in their life time, are Zionist and supporters of the Israeli Right and the occupation of Palestine. The Bible is their justification, seeing that these lands were given to the Israelites by God. (In fact I would venture to bet that a larger percentage of Evangelical Fundamentalists are Zionists then are American or Israeli Jews.) When Israel attacks Gaza or Israeli terrorists kill Palestinians (In the last ten years there have been 129 Israeli children killed by Palestinians and more than 1,500 Palestinian children killed by Israelis), we don’t say that Christians are Zionists and support the oppressive, and illegal occupation of the West Bank and through this support are in part responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the displacement of millions. If we said it at all, we would rightly say that some Evangelicals are supportive of Israeli aggression. And we don’t expect people to explain this action as Christians but as human beings. (I believe it is the Methodist Church that is divesting itself of investments in companies whose products are used to uphold the occupation of the West Bank. We don’t say that Protestants or Christians are divesting their holdings, but the Methodist Church.) Let me start by admitting that I know very little about Islam and having lived all my life in predominantly Christian areas, know more about Christianity. Now getting to Muslim’s responsibility for terrorism, as with Christianity, Islam also consists of many groups and sects. The major division is between the Sunni, by far the majority, and the Shia. The Sunni are more like the Protestants in that they believe there is no intermediary between them and God, whereas the Shia have the Ayatollahs and the Catholics the Popes as intermediaries. One of the factions, the Wahhabis, a small minority of Sunnis, though the state religion in Saudi Arabia, has the most fundamental interpretation of the Quran. The Salafis, a violent subset of the Wahhabis which I believe came into being with the start of European colonialism, took an even more of a fundamentalist interpretation and used religion to justify violence. The Muslim Brotherhood split from the Salafis and became more political and less violent though still fundamentalist. The Islamic State of Syria (ISIS) follows the Salafi interpretation of the Quran and since that is not the interpretation of the Shia nor the vast majority of Sunni Muslims throughout the world, it is totally inappropriate to expect non-Salafi Muslims to explain or feel guilty for their actions no more than it is for Baptists, never mind Christians as a whole, to explain the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church or the Zionism of some fundamentalists.

The Donald's Mentor Bibi

In Recent months Donald Trump has been compared to Hitler and Mussolini. I don’t think it’s a good comparison. However, there is another who he resembles more. Donald wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. – Bibi has built many walls to keep Arabs out Donald is going to have Mexico pay for it. – Bibi is having Palestinians pay with their blood, sweat and tears. Blood, emergency vehicles having to travel tens of miles out of their way to get a patient to a hospital; sweat, having to carry water miles since palestinians are not allowed to dig wells deep enough to hit water (Jewish settlers are); tears, brought on by families having to live on opposite sides of the walls. Donald wants to keep Mexicans out. – Bibi keeps Arabs out. Donald wants to deport Muslims. – Bibi herded Muslims into Gaza and then set up a blockade to control them. Donald believes in disproportional punishment (Milania, presenting Donald at a rally, said that he is tough, you push him once, he will hit you ten times). – Since early 2006 there were 129 Israeli and 1,573 Palestinian children killed. (The ratio is about right). Donald wants to punish the relatives of terrorists. Bibi bulldozes homes where terrorist families live. Donald wants to patrol Muslim neighborhoods. – Bibi Patrols Muslim neighborhoods. Donald wants a white Christian state. – Bibi wants a white (Ethiopian Jews don’t do so well in Israel and Sephardic, non-European, Jews are second class citizens) Jewish State. Last but not least, both Donald and Bibi want to use whatever means necessary, regardless of international law or morality, to defend the homeland. It is uncanny how closely The Donald’s rhetoric resembles Bibi’s actions. I think he studies Bibi’s speeches and plagiarizes shamelessly.

The Noble Quest for Profit

I have been following the current presidential primary race with great interest and have noticed a theme I had previously observed and commented on. Whenever Donald Trump has pointed out to him discrepancies between his proposals and actions he falls back to “I’m a businessman”. A couple examples: He talks about China taking manufacturing jobs while at the same time some of the paraphernalia he hawks at his website is in fact made in China. His response is that he is a businessman. When question about his bankruptcies, avoiding repayment of debts, he says that’s what businessmen do. The amazing thing is that the majority of the public accepts and forgives almost any acts in the pursuit of profits by a business, large or small. To use a popular phrase “that’s what they do” Companies leaving a particular local to move to a state with lower wages, leaving thousands of people unemployed, in quest for a greater profit are not criticized because their act is done in the spirit of business. Companies leaving the country are not viewed as unpatriotic but just as doing business. (In fact it is not the company but a politician or party that is blamed.) Unions on the other hand, attempting to improve the lot of workers are viewed as un-American. So a commercial enterprise’s quest to better itself and thus its owners through tax avoidance, endangerment of their workers, pollution of the environment, fraud, acts of disloyalty to its employees or by whatever other means is OK, but a questionable act on the part of a poor person trying to put food on the table, is viewed as horrific. Business is deemed noble, whereas labor is viewed as base. The ultimate success is to rise up from being a mere worker, even if the worker is a rocket scientist, to starting a business, even if it is shoveling manure. The business community must be commended for the effectiveness of the publicity campaigns over the centuries that have instilled this attitude in us.

Right Wing Islamophobia

I live in New England and have recently spent 3 weeks in South Carolina. Being a Yankee, a somewhat progressive liberal, an immigrant and a Muslim, I have my biases. To try to open my mind, I decided to listen to a Fox News talk show with segments by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck while in the car down south. One of the first shows I listened to featured a guest who was an extreme right wing separatist Member of British Parliament. He spoke about the ills of the influx of immigrants from the Middle East. He gave a reasonable and eloquent speech about the desire for uniculturalism and the issues with multiculturalism and how Britain can accept immigrants but needs to insure it maintains its culture. (I will discuss this in the next blog.) In the segment the MP whose name I don’t recall, discussed the problem Muslim immigrants create in Norway, especially rape. He cited a statistic that indicated that 100% of rapes are perpetrated by Muslim immigrants. ( In fairness I don’t recall if he specified Rape with assault or not), referring to statistics released by the Oslo police. However, listening to the eloquent MP, I got the impression that rape is a large problem and all rapists are Muslim immigrants. I decided to see if I could find more information on the Oslo rapes. I started thinking about the reasonableness of that statistic, considering factors like the Nordic countries tendency to be more progressive on sex and thus there is no need to resort to rape whereas Muslims tend to be more puritanical with sex outside of marriage frowned on. But even with that, 100% seemed very unreasonable. I looked up “Oslo Rape Statistics” on the internet and found and article in Loonwatch.com by Farah Khaled about the claim that all rapes in Oslo were perpetrated by Muslim immigrants. Following quote is the first paragraph from Khaled’s article: Earlier this month, Arutz Sheva, an Israeli website popular with Kahanists, an outlawed movement that is gaining prominence with the rise of the extreme right in Israel published ‘Norwegian Minister Links Norwegian Rape Wave To Israel’ by Gil Ronen. The story purported to shed light upon a conspiracy involving a Norwegian minister who ordered the truth about an Oslo police report detailing rape statistics to be hushed up, otherwise Israel may use the report against Norway because the rapists were Muslims. Ronen offered no evidence for his claims except to cite an Israeli blogger who writes a Hebrew blog, one Yehuda Bello whom he claims understands Norwegian and has contacts in Norway. Ronen wrote: Bello reports that from January to late October, 48 rapes were confirmed to have been carried out in Oslo alone, 45 of them by Muslims. 48 rapes were confirmed to have been carried out in Oslo alone, 45 of them by Muslims The article went on explaining Norway’s reluctance, they being anti-Semitic and in the midst of quarrels with Israel, to openly blame the rapes on Muslims. The following is the result of Khaled’s inquiry: Shortly after Arutz Sheva published the Oslo rapes report in early December, I wrote to The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police asking them to verify Gil Ronen’s claims. I received the following reply from Elisabeth Lund a Senior Adviser to the Ministry: Statistics regarding assault rapists: The Oslo Police District has given a report of rapes in Oslo in 2010. The report shows that for all types of rape, except assault rape, European perpetrators are in the majority, and they are mostly Norwegian. Assault rapes covers only five identified unique person. These have all a foreign origin. The number is however, so low that it does not provide a basis for drawing conclusions with regard to country of origin. Two of them were very young (under 18) and two had severe psychiatric diagnoses and cannot be regarded as representative of their ethnic culture. It is highlighted in the report that generalizations like “Oslo’s rapists are foreigners”, which have been seen in media, are wrong. The report gives no statistics regarding religion of rapists.” Yours Sincerely, Grethe Kleivan Deputy Director General Granted, the article I refer to may also be a fabrication but at least it quotes a signed document (maybe false) with a name. On the internet these days who knows, anyone, including myself, can write anything. Sean Hannity did not question the guest and accepted, as I am sure his million like-minded listeners, this as further evidence of the evils of Islam and its practicioners. I continued listening to the radio station whenever in the car. I realized the right was promoting fear and Islamophobia but did not realize the vitriol and volume. It was a good but painful experience.