Gov. Phil Bredesen issued a statement this week urging tolerance and respect for religious freedom in the wake of arson at an Islamic center under construction in Murfreesboro. That should be a welcome reminder to Tennesseans of our core constitutional rights and values. The governor’s words would have been more timely, however, if he had delivered them earlier this summer, when 600 Murfreesboro residents turned out at a planning meeting to protest the proposed construction of the center, igniting what has become a continuing movement.
Anti-Muslim sentiment in the town has been rising since then. What began with vandals defacing a sign that announced construction of the Islamic center – which will house a mosque, school and a swimming pool for women – rose to protests and then became a political football for a congressional candidate. Murfreesboro’s Lou Ann Zelenik, a 6th Congressional District candidate in the Republican primary, termed the center “an Islamic training center” in her campaigning. Fortunately, she lost.
Demagogues lead the gang
Given the way Fox News’ demagogic talking heads and political reactionaries like Newt Gingrich have been lambasting plans for a proposed mosque two blocks from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, however, Zelenik’s rhetoric is no longer surprising. It just confirms the contagion of bigotry.
Inflammatory words matter. Hatred of others apart from the majority is contagious once it is unleashed by political demagogues and hyped by media and mass communication. In the age of the Internet, its viral nature has become even more pervasive.
Such baseless and hateful demagoguery is abhorrent in any case. But it’s especially reckless and incendiary in current circumstances. American troops are bogged down in two predominantly Muslim countries in wars that hinge on the fear of extremists and terrorists, who themselves distort the tenets of Islam to recruit new terrorist cohorts.
The way American politicians are willing to play tag-team hatred with terrorists abroad who misrepresent Islam and American military goals is nothing short of appalling. That it has taken hold with so many rank-and-file Americans makes matters that much worse.
There are rays of hope in what is happening in Murfreesboro, however. Federal agents are vigorously investigating the apparent arson of construction equipment, and more than 160 residents have banded together in a group called Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom, or MT4RF. The group, formed earlier this year to support religious freedom and construction of the Islamic center, held a candlelight march Monday in a symbolic protest of the fire.
One of the group, John Green, an attorney and fifth-generation resident of Murfreesboro, said he has been appalled by the protests, the vandalism and the fire, all of which have drawn national media attention. “Our community is unfortunately being subjected to not only local, but regional and national negative press for the actions apparently of just a few. That’s not who we are, and that’s not what we stand for, and that’s not how we choose to live here.”
A courageous stand
In the face of unthinking hatred, it takes courage to make such a stand. It’s also an ongoing challenge. An opponent of the Murfreesboro Islamic Center, Kevin Fisher, has announced that opponents will hold a protest rally before a Sept. 16 meeting of the Rutherford County Commission at the county courthouse. He said he would give the commission a petition against construction of the center signed by 20,000 people.
Though such numbers would magnify the challenge of confronting blind religious bigotry in Murfreesboro, the core of the matter is crystal clear. First, our Constitution guarantees religious freedom. Secondly, it is manifestly wrong, irrational and illogical – a matter of blind prejudice and uninformed minds – to think that all terrorists are Muslims, and all Muslims are terrorists.
Christians’ terrorist taint
Christians produce terrorists, too. Think Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber; Eric Robert Rudolph, one of many abortion clinic bombers; and a range of radical white supremacy groups. In India, China and Sri Lanka, fringe extremists of other cultures’ religious roots – Hindu and Buddhist – are at work, often against their own cultures. Similarly, al Qaida and related terrorist cells routinely slaughter ordinary Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan for rejecting terrorism and refusing to aid terrorists.
All provide ample proof that terrorism may not be conflated with authentic, mainstream religious beliefs.
The world’s 1.57 billion Muslims constitute nearly one out of four people around the globe. Of this vast number, only a minute fraction become terrorists. As with extremists of other faiths, they do so not because of their religion, but despite its peaceful tenets. Aiming bigotry at innocent Muslims – in Murfreesboro, New York or any other American city – only compounds the damage, and diminishes us all. It’s not supposed to be the American way.