| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Finding Negro (A Cartoonish Notion)
"I think Muslims have become the new Negroes in America.
They are being mistreated at airports, by the Immigration,
everywhere." --- Jermaine Jackson, less talented brother of
Michael and a convert to Islam himself.
If by "new Negroes" he facetiously means a new, unfairly
treated victim group, then race hustlers Jesse Jackson and Al
Sharpton aren't likely to be amused because nobody horns in
on their territory without a fight. But forget about Muslims for
a moment. If you're looking for "new Negroes," about starting
with the 3,000 dead in the 9/11 attacks? Surely Jermaine
remembers them. They weren't just mistreated, they were
crashed, burned, incinerated and/or buried under tons of
rubble.
But those 3,000 were merely a tiny portion of a much larger
group of new Negroes known as . . . "Americans." And a regular
rainbow coalition of new Negroes it is, too, in that no one is
excluded on account of race, color, creed or what have you.
The downside is it reflects the fact that every last one of us is a
potential target for the Islamo-nutzoids who, if we stood
around and did nothing for fear of offending Muslims, Arabs or
"Arab-looking" people, would obliterate us all.
Come on, Jermaine. Do you really believe Muslims are the
"new Negroes" in America? According to 9/11 commissioner
John Lehman "it was the policy (before 9/11) and I believe
remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than
two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's
discriminatory." In other words, anything even approaching
an inordinate amount of scrutiny of them is expressly
forbidden. Does that sound like mistreatment of Muslims to
you?
Jermaine's less than realistic comments about the
tribulations of Muslims in America were actually made in the
Gulf Arab state of Bahrain where he was touring about,
speaking at Koranic centers and universities. Ostensibly, he
was there to promote understanding between Muslims and his
fellow Americans, but it's hard to figure how that's going to
happen when he says things like the following: "I do not agree
with the U.S. government. What they are saying about Muslims
and Arabs is all propaganda and brainwashing."
Huh? The official line of the U.S. government, from
President Bush on down, has not wavered since 9/11 and it has
been to repeatedly state, ad nauseam, that Islam is one of the
world's great religions, that Islam is a religion of peace, that
our quarrel is with terrorism not Islam, blah, blah, blah, etc.,
etc., ad infinitum.
But Jermaine, whose musical fortunes have not been so kind
of late, and have never even come close to those of his "Bad"
brother Michael, has apparently embarked on his very own
"Bad" tour (as in, America is the "bad" guy), minus the songs
and dance moves. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth
Fleet, has long been a pro-Western, pro-American kingdom,
but one has to wonder if that will still be the case after
Jermaine is finished bad-mouthing his own country.
If Jermaine really wants to promote understanding between
Muslims and Americans, then rather than running around the
Gulf telling tall tales about America's mistreatment of
Muslims, he might work on convincing the Muslim world to
adopt a little more tolerance than is reflected in their current
belief system, which is basically that anyone who isn't Muslim
is a contemptible infidel deserving of violent death.
What in the world was Jermaine Jackson thinking, anyway,
when he decided to become a Muslim? Has he ever taken a
good long look at what the Islamic world is like, by and large?
Forget about "new Negroes." We're talking about old, surly and
embittered "Negroes," and who could blame them since so
many of them languish in some of the most backward, squalid,
intolerant and/or undemocratic countries this planet has to
offer. If this is what the faith has done for its adherents after
fourteen centuries, a brother might just as well go atheist.
Did Jermaine become a Muslim because a lot of black guys
do it and therefore it's cool? Was it because a lot of people in
Africa are Muslim and therefore it's a "Roots" kind of a thing?
Was it because once upon a time (and I emphasize "once upon
a time") Islam was the world's premier civilization and part of
that civilization encompassed parts of Africa, and since he's an
"African-American," ascribing historical greatness to Africa
and becoming a part of that is a self-esteem booster? Or was it
simply to reject Christianity because it's the white man's
religion?
My guess is some combination of all of the above.
Whatever the reason, Jermaine Jackson has about as much
business being Muslim as a fish has need of a bicycle. Or
something like that.
"I think Muslims have become the new Negroes in America.
They are being mistreated at airports, by the Immigration,
everywhere." --- Jermaine Jackson, less talented brother of
Michael and a convert to Islam himself.
If by "new Negroes" he facetiously means a new, unfairly
treated victim group, then race hustlers Jesse Jackson and Al
Sharpton aren't likely to be amused because nobody horns in
on their territory without a fight. But forget about Muslims for
a moment. If you're looking for "new Negroes," about starting
with the 3,000 dead in the 9/11 attacks? Surely Jermaine
remembers them. They weren't just mistreated, they were
crashed, burned, incinerated and/or buried under tons of
rubble.
But those 3,000 were merely a tiny portion of a much larger
group of new Negroes known as . . . "Americans." And a regular
rainbow coalition of new Negroes it is, too, in that no one is
excluded on account of race, color, creed or what have you.
The downside is it reflects the fact that every last one of us is a
potential target for the Islamo-nutzoids who, if we stood
around and did nothing for fear of offending Muslims, Arabs or
"Arab-looking" people, would obliterate us all.
Come on, Jermaine. Do you really believe Muslims are the
"new Negroes" in America? According to 9/11 commissioner
John Lehman "it was the policy (before 9/11) and I believe
remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than
two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's
discriminatory." In other words, anything even approaching
an inordinate amount of scrutiny of them is expressly
forbidden. Does that sound like mistreatment of Muslims to
you?
Jermaine's less than realistic comments about the
tribulations of Muslims in America were actually made in the
Gulf Arab state of Bahrain where he was touring about,
speaking at Koranic centers and universities. Ostensibly, he
was there to promote understanding between Muslims and his
fellow Americans, but it's hard to figure how that's going to
happen when he says things like the following: "I do not agree
with the U.S. government. What they are saying about Muslims
and Arabs is all propaganda and brainwashing."
Huh? The official line of the U.S. government, from
President Bush on down, has not wavered since 9/11 and it has
been to repeatedly state, ad nauseam, that Islam is one of the
world's great religions, that Islam is a religion of peace, that
our quarrel is with terrorism not Islam, blah, blah, blah, etc.,
etc., ad infinitum.
But Jermaine, whose musical fortunes have not been so kind
of late, and have never even come close to those of his "Bad"
brother Michael, has apparently embarked on his very own
"Bad" tour (as in, America is the "bad" guy), minus the songs
and dance moves. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth
Fleet, has long been a pro-Western, pro-American kingdom,
but one has to wonder if that will still be the case after
Jermaine is finished bad-mouthing his own country.
If Jermaine really wants to promote understanding between
Muslims and Americans, then rather than running around the
Gulf telling tall tales about America's mistreatment of
Muslims, he might work on convincing the Muslim world to
adopt a little more tolerance than is reflected in their current
belief system, which is basically that anyone who isn't Muslim
is a contemptible infidel deserving of violent death.
What in the world was Jermaine Jackson thinking, anyway,
when he decided to become a Muslim? Has he ever taken a
good long look at what the Islamic world is like, by and large?
Forget about "new Negroes." We're talking about old, surly and
embittered "Negroes," and who could blame them since so
many of them languish in some of the most backward, squalid,
intolerant and/or undemocratic countries this planet has to
offer. If this is what the faith has done for its adherents after
fourteen centuries, a brother might just as well go atheist.
Did Jermaine become a Muslim because a lot of black guys
do it and therefore it's cool? Was it because a lot of people in
Africa are Muslim and therefore it's a "Roots" kind of a thing?
Was it because once upon a time (and I emphasize "once upon
a time") Islam was the world's premier civilization and part of
that civilization encompassed parts of Africa, and since he's an
"African-American," ascribing historical greatness to Africa
and becoming a part of that is a self-esteem booster? Or was it
simply to reject Christianity because it's the white man's
religion?
My guess is some combination of all of the above.
Whatever the reason, Jermaine Jackson has about as much
business being Muslim as a fish has need of a bicycle. Or
something like that.