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What would Martin Luther King Say? Mosques and the New Jim Crow in America

Tue, 08/24/2010 - 11:58 — Dave Culver
Section(s): 
Race & Ethnicity

  • Muslim Americans are Americans. There can be no government Establishment of Judeo-Christian traditions, and no prohibition on how and where Muslim Americans worship. We are seeing attempts to foment a new Jim Crow, centered on mosques, which involves all the same fear-mongering, segregation, and special pleading for the majority that characterized the old (Jim Crow).
  • The Community Center at Park 51

Juan Cole, Informed Comment

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Thomas Sklarski

The demonstration held on Sunday (Aug 22) against the Park 51 Muslim community center in lower Manhattan was an attempt by the right wing to strike at first amendment freedoms, but at the same time, it was simply a revival of urban policies of discrimination that were routine in the last century.

That the demonstration had racist overtones is clear from this video of the event at YouTube, which caught the crowd’s harassment of and near attack on an African-American carpenter the rightwingers perceived as a Park 51 supporter. He is caught on audio pointing out that the mob actually did not have the slightest idea what he thought about anything.

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Related:

The Community Center at Park 51, Park 51
Park51 will be dedicated to pluralism, service, arts and culture, education and empowerment, appreciation for our city and a deep respect for our planet.  Park51 will join New York to the world, offering a welcoming community center with multiple points of entry.

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