[ Outline ] · Standard · Linear+ In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep, story from reuters

[Deepone]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)- When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.

"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."

Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification.

Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

"The level of knowledge is very, very low," said Mohamed Esa, a U.S. Muslim of Arab descent who teaches a course on Islam at McDaniel College in Maryland. "There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and some people think they are all terrorists."

And optimists saw signs of change in the November 4 election of the first Muslim to the U.S. House of Representatives, which has 435 members.

full story:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews....C1-ArticlePage1

[Deepone]

Personally, I feel diplomacy - which is promoting neutrality, co-operation and GRAY AREA on topics instead of you vs us - is a lot better way than saying we rule, you follow. If you do not care about others, they sure are not going to care so much about your problems. Personally I was totally offended by US saying Finland is terrorist state because we did not say "attack by all means" and instead said that it should first be investigated and so on. Promoting PEACE instead of WAR that is.
I almost agree with the research that showed Osama being most fearest "evil" person on the world. Only that in my opinion the second and first should have been reversed - Bush is the world's worst person instead of only being second. other than that, I agree with it. The obvious reason is TOTAL disregard of others and the massive firepower he controls.
If you think more about it, about all problems would be solved if people only would think of themselves on the other side's position, thinking of others more than themselves. If Osama would have been thinking more of what he will cause to others (not only the immediate victims but also the side-effects, for example heavily troubled air traffic and so on), I think he wouldn't really have gone that far. If Bush would have stopped and thought about the situation he would have not done everything he has (mainly attacking other countries without real reason - greed for oil doesn't count!). And before there is someone complaining, I do NOT mean that he shouldn't have investigated the matter THOROUGHLY, I mean he SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED ESTABLISHED PROCEDURES instead of starting the war on terror (and by doing so, causing a lot of distress against themselves too! Just using myself as an example, I actually do not anymore feel so bad about the attack. Sure, for the people sufferinng, but as a nation.. it feels almost deserved).

Okay that was some hard text and was not intended as flamebait but as to promote some discussion about the topics mentioned. Moreover, just so you know, Osama should be punished. The same goes for Bush too thought, for war-crimes and for promoting the war and well you get the point :)