The campaign for President in 08 is the ugliest ever,  because of the war on Islam.  People cynically chant “Barack Hussein Obama”  ,  leaving the obvious implications hanging,  then cynically deny that it has any purpose (raising the obvious question of what the purpose was in the first place).  But beyond the name,  there are the insinuations aloowed to hang out there that Obam is a muslim,  again preying on a cultural prejudice and stereotype of Muslim = terrorist.  One only need look a 3 or 4  of decades back to the KKK to be able to ask the question,  does this warrant equating Christianity with the KKK?  The KKK carried out targeted campaigns of murder, violence and intimidation with “Scriptural warrant” and a firm devotion to a God who will “protect our race”. 

The present Muslim = terrorist makes this leap with Muslims.  Take the percent of Muslims training in camps on terror tactics and apply this to the percentage of Christians in America in the late 19th century and beyond the first half of the 20th century who joined the Klan in their violent repression of the black citizenry (or in keeping them from the rights of citizenry).  Factor in the inevitable Muslim grievances and deep resentment of Western powers coming in to their lands to pillage and dominate oil trade,  and then the United States orchestrating the overthrow of the most democratic regime Iran has ever had and replacing it with a tyrannical dictator who also happened to promise support for letting American and British oil companies restored to the level of pillage that they had enjoyed before Mosaddeq had nationalized the Oil industries so that the people who lived on the land that produced the oil might have the lion’s share of the benefits of their own resources. Factor in these things, and it is obvious that Muslims have been ripped off by the West for over a hundred years,  and America,  through her own greed,  has led the way.

None of this justifies terrorism. But millions of Muslims who want to see America humbled ,  but reject violence and terrorism (most of them; a great majority of them) are not without merit in their deep resentment.  It seems that given the behavior and justifications given by America for orchestrating coups and pre-emptively striking,  more Muslims show more restraint and rejection of violence than this “Christian nation” of ours. 

So,  this notion of Muslim = terrorist only furthers the parallel logic that Christian = greedy militarist purveyors of violence.