Bigotry has plagued this country for quite some time. As years have gone by, bigotry has dwindled and tolerance has spread across this great nation. But one must beg the question if bigotry can only apply to race, gender or ethnicity. Can it be applied to religion as well?
A couple of weeks ago, that question was apparently answered when Juan Williams of National Public Radio and part-time contributor for Fox News, stated, “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot, you know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan wrote that Williams’ statement about fearing Muslims on planes is an example of bigotry. “What if someone said that they saw a black man walking down the street in classic thug get-up,” he wrote. “Would a white person be a bigot if he assumed he was going to mug him?”
Islamic community calls out NPR for contributor’s comment
The Council for American-Islamic Relations sent out a press release calling on NPR to address the matter. Nihad Awad, the organization’s national executive director, called the comments “irresponsible and inflammatory” and said NPR needed to take action in response to the remarks. And they did. NPR released a statement saying, “His remarks on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ this past Monday were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
According to Stanley Crouch of The New York Daily News, Williams’ statement was taken out of context. Williams had gone on to say that such paranoia regarding Muslims was irresponsible if it influenced public policy. “We don’t want, in America, people to have their rights violated, to be attacked on the street because they heard rhetoric from Bill O’Reilly.” Though according to Crouch NPR either did not hear the entirety of the interview or did hear it and still made a decision to fire him.
Fox supports William after the firing
Williams was reportedly given a $2 million, three-year contract deal with Fox News, and according to Crouch it was “an award for adhering to truth, honesty and the American way.” Crouch went on to say that Fox News made a big deal about billionaire left wing philanthropist George Soros donating $1.8 to NPR, implying that NPR was not fully behind the firing of Williams. Crouch questioned whether Soros financial influence was behind the firing.
Though we may never know who was behind William’s departure of NPR, one thing is certain, there has been a shift in American culture when it comes to tolerating Muslims. The question is if this shift in political correctness is a good thing or is it merely people being too sensitive.
Muslims an uncertain factor in political correctness
It seems fairly common sense that if the people who committed the atrocities on Sept. 11 were dressed in Muslim garb, that other more peaceful Muslims would be careful not to offend anyone else or be unnecessarily targeted by refraining from dressing in Muslim attire when they travel by airplane. Personally, being half-Mexican ethnically, I would not fly a Mexican flag and speak Spanish in front of a border patrol officer or a police officer in Arizona. It just would make me standout unnecessarily when I am a legal resident of the U.S.
There also seems to be a growing double standard between Islam and other religions. It seems more acceptable that it is horrible to attack Islam or its followers but acceptable to bash other religions or its people. Sometime after Sept. 11 Rosie O’Donnell likened Christians to terrorists or Muslim extremists. Conservatives were outraged but it seemed that most others were deaf to her statement.
Consistency should be applied
And recently this year, the KKK held an event on Sept. 11 and Georgia NAACP president, Edward DuBose, called it “an act of terrorism from an organization that is no stranger to terrorist attacks as demonstrated throughout its history.” I am not saying that I agree with the KKK’s beliefs but if it is perfectly acceptable for this group to be called terrorists, then for consistency, people calling out Muslims should not be criticized either.
In conclusion, I do not think that Juan Williams should have been fired. I do believe that people should be tolerant but not overly sensitive when it comes to Muslims and that there should be no double standard when it comes to how religious groups are treated — either bash all of them equally or do not bash them at all.
