Have we sunk this low?

Although this is not the mosque in the article, "As Houston Islamic Center burns, firefighter posts "Let it burn - Block the fire hydrant" , it illustrates what is on much of conservative America's mind - blind hatred to others who are not like them.  It's not just Islam - Sikhs are being caught up in the hatred of the ignorant, as noted in this article.  Even my father lumps Sikhs in with Muslims, calling them all "Towel Heads", without the slightest understanding that Sikhs are often at odds with Muslims because of their religion and practice of it.

This is the kind of event that disgusts me.  There is nothing wrong with fearing the unknown. I fear the potential of having an unassimilated ethnic group demanding rights they have in other countries that no ethnic group should have in ours. But giving into that fear is something else.  The quickest way to radicalize the Muslims in the United States is to treat them as third class citizens.

There are legitimate fears - Americans do not want to see the United States become like Europe.  We successfully absorbed millions of people from around the world in simpler times - and virtually every major group has been successfully brought into the mainstream. People coming here wanted to become Americans and leave the old world behind.  Current European immigrants want to bring the old country (and culture) with them - and this poses a dilemma for today's Americans:  Will newcomers (in any large number) from truly foreign cultures assimilate successfully?

I'm concerned with the growth of Islam in the United States.  It's because I see Saudi Arabia funding many of the prison chaplains, spreading the most conservative practice of Islam in the world.  I'm afraid that their barbaric culture (vs. the barbaric culture we're already familiar with) will cause us problems if its members grow too large in our society.  

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However, I also fear radical Christianity.  We've identified the San Bernardino shootings as terrorist activity. But what about the bombing of Abortion Clinics, as well as the assassination of doctors who have practiced there.  Many of the same people who say abortion is wrong often try to impose their moral values on the rest of us by also getting in the way of women having a full range of safe and legal contraception options.  (The "Hobby Lobby" case comes to mind here.)  So I am concerned for the women who do not have convenient access to safe and legal medical procedures to keep a baby healthy while it's in the womb, as well as access to safe and legal medical procedures for those women (for whatever reasons) need to abort the fetuses inside them.

Once a woman's right to control her own body is taken away by social conservatives, what is next?  We've already seen legislators pander to the religious right by saying that church attendance should be made mandatory.  How would Atheists fare?  Then, I'd bet that religious purity zealots would go after "social undesirables" such as Homosexuals, Bisexuals, and Transgender people.  And then, who would be next to suffer in the potential religious purges?

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If you don't think anything like this could happen here, you haven't been paying attention to history.  Politicians will lie to the people.  But sometimes, they get caught up in their lies, and have to act in disgusting ways.  For example, we've seen Japanese Americans herded up into prison camps -  only because of their ancestry.  Was this done to people of either German or Italian ancestry?  No.  But we feared the Japanese, and "needed" to control the "Japanese" in our midst in the most brutal and inhumane way possible.  (And Donald Trump) is using this as a model of what we should do to Muslims living in America.

After seeing pictures of Jews wearing Yellow Stars in Germany, it sickens me to see this crap being proposed here.  And I feel very sorry that the most "conservative" of Christians are making the same mistake Germany made in the 1930's. Instead, I'd like to see America address the problems brought up in this video clip from the HBO series, The Newsroom.  Only then, can America be great again (no help from Trump.)