Round-up

1. An excellent letter to a Virginia publication about the hypocrisy of Jeremiah Wright.

2. An awful piece at the Harvard International Review: "The Evolution of Racism".

There is lots of stuff about Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, none of which constitutes racism - and in fact, the Iraq venture, as misguided as it was, was designed to help Muslims, not hinder or endanger them. The author chest-thumps over Rudi Guiliani's admonition that "we are not afraid to call Nazis by their true names - so why are we afraid about speaking of 'Islamic terrorism?' In another speech, he made Nazi/terrorist references six times." The author goes on: "Violent acts of terrorism are despicable and our security is a number one priority, but equating Nazism with Islam is unacceptable and ludicrous, painting a horrific picture of Islam to the general public." Zehra Hirji apparently has trouble reading English. To talk about Islamic terrorism and compare this ideology with the Nazis does NOT paint Islam itself in a negative light any more than talking about Italian fascism puts all of Italy in a bad light, or talking about ghastly wallpaper puts all wallpaper in a bad light. Hirji is reading what he/she wants to read and nothing more. Hirji opines that "I have been told at university that, 'Arabs are less than human' and they deserve their fate." For one thing, I rather suspect that this is a totally inaccurate paraphrasing of whatever Hirji was really told, but if someone did say this as it was described, then I of course utterly condemn such language.

And finally Hirji makes some general remarks about how the US now hates Muslims more than any other group in America. So perhaps he/she can explain why Muslims suffered the least number of hate crimes last year than any other group in America, including whites and Jews. I won't be holding my breath.