Arabic Signs Panic Virginians
The AP is reporting that a program operating near Richmond sponsored by the Virginia Interfaith Center is raising eyebrows and causing some members of the citizenry to worry that secret Terrorist messages are being left across the city.
The small beige signs bearing black Arabic script have been appearing all over town on buses and at colleges.
The signs, which below the Arabic script carry English translations and comments that indirectly caution against jumping to conclusions, are part of a campaign by A More Perfect Union, a program of the Virginia Interfaith Center, and are aimed at dispelling some of the public’s fears toward the Muslim community. Organizers hope to eventually expand the program statewide.
Of course, the signs are not a secret terrorist message, but an attempt to soften the image of Islam. The idea is to get Virginians more at ease with seeing Arabic script and not to automatically associate it with terrorism.
“As people see Arabic, they immediately make an association with terrorism,” said the Rev. C. Douglas Smith, executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center, a nonpartisan coalition of faith communities that work for change through education and advocacy. “That’s probably because since Nine-Eleven, not only is fear overwhelming us, but that’s how we’re being trained to think.”
This campaign is, however, a most disingenuous and, ultimately, insidious one.
Insidious in that, should this campaign truly work to make Americans cease to be alarmed at signs of Islam, we will surely be giving Islamofascists succor and freedom. It can do nothing but assist Islamist extremists to tear down American defenses and allow them to more freely roam about our country to commit their murder and mayhem at will given cover by all lack of alarm at Islamic activities.
The AP story gave us a perfect example of its disingenuousness, as well.
Bias toward the Muslim community is a continuing problem across the country and in Virginia, said Imad Damaj, president of the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs.
“There’s so many lazy, unexamined assumptions about all of us and how we react to people,” Damaj said. “We need to challenge ourselves.”
Schoel said history has proven that Americans can learn to let go of irrational fears toward other cultures.
“After World War II, when people saw Japanese script it was scary,” she said. “But now we see it and it’s fun, it’s hip, it signifies a cool culture.”
“That’s a huge turnaround.”
Sure it’s “fun, it’s hip” and “cool” to become fond of Japanese symbols now because Japan is an ally and has gone from a militaristic, monarchy to a democracy. THAT is why it is now “cool” and “hip”, not because Americans have successfully “challenged” themselves about Japan, but because Japan has itself changed to be more deserving of interest and respect. The Japanese people have given us a reason to become at ease with their culture. The Japanese have gone out of their way to become a respected, benevolent people and have joined the civilized nations in commerce, entertainment and culture.
Islam has most certainly not given Americans any reason whatsoever to trust it or become at ease with it and the Virginia Interfaith Center knows this full well, hence the disingenuousness.
This program acts as if it is we Americans that must somehow change, to accept Islam better, to be more “tolerant” of it, instead of Islam’s to show us why we should be more tolerant of it. Islam has not done a single thing even to meet us half way to convince us that it is, in truth, a benevolent — or even benign — ideology.
Americans have absolutely no reason whatever to become at ease with signs of Islam.
Not one single reason.
This obsequious campaign by the Virginia Interfaith Center should be opposed until Islam gives us a reason not to be biased against it and displays of its symbols.
| More from Warner Todd Huston
Stumble It!
December 19th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
It looks like a stop sign, but it doesn’t say STOP, so I don’t suppose there is any reason at all to stop there.
And of course, the Islamhuggers don’t intend to stop there.
December 19th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Yeah, “bias” against muslims is just running amok in America so much so that muslims continue to flock to this country. All these whiney muslim organizations can do themselves a favor by coming out loudly and forcefully against terrorism instead of trying to play the “victim” in hopes of getting political concessions and shaming people into silence with their phony charges. When they do this kind of garbage I trust them even less.
December 20th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
You think the Virginians have an issue. Try being British. Anyone living within cooee of the centre-western counties are assailed with signs in……. WELSH! After 2000 years the English still can’t make head nor tail of place names with forty-seven letters and only three of them vowels and the signs are everywhere. The welsh are true terrorists. They are single handedly the mainstay of the steel industry, using huge amounts of the stuff to litter sign posts at every corner.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:33 am
“of all the religions, islam has probably done the least murdering”
Ah, man. Thanks for the humor. We needed to lighten up this thread.
“Least murdering”!! You need to become a comedian.
Funny stuff.
Of course, the problem is that you are SERIOUS in your brainwashed, multiculturalism. So, far from being “funny” your post is just sad and an alarming indication of how badly educated too many people are on the cancer that is Islam.
I am sure that your Muslim “friends” seem nice, but make no mistake. You’d be the first person they’d behead if they were to get their way in society and institute their wretched Sharia laws upon us all.
Islam will not be fit for civilized men until it has a reformation. And it has not ever had a reformation to date.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:30 am
“ok buddy i wasnt trying to use perfect grammar”
I did not say a word about your bad grammar! Feeling self-conscious?
Still, your comedic touch rolls on. You said “i would love to try to have a civilized debate with you” which you preceded by using the word “bullshit” and followed by calling me all sorts of names.
In short, I’d call your claim of wanting a “civilized debate” an outright lie in light of your uncivil conduct here so far. Further, you display a woefully prosaic lack of class and polish, a dearth of civility that we see in so many of our University students and the accepted social discourse they have so regrettably sponsored.
But, if you DO, someday, want to be more civilized… we’re here for ya friend. And I trust that no Islamofascist has chopped off your head before you wake up.
… though we won’t hold our collective breath.
As the old saying goes: “don’t go away mad…. just go away.”
December 21st, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Yeah, and next time someone cuts me off on the freeway, I’m gonna floor it, run neck and neck, roll down my window, and point the big black barrel of of 0.357 right at ‘em. After he rolls over into the embankment, I’ll pull over, get out, and show him how foolish he’s been because the gun–get this–is made out of licorice. Then him n me will just laugh and laugh as we share gold chocolate bullets and candy pearl grips, reminiscing about the ugly days when American xenophobes actually demanded that Muslim women show their faces when taking driver’s license and passport photos.