"The Muslims Are Coming! The Muslims Are Coming!"

The pic that launched a thousand protests

I generally don’t enjoy receiving chain emails. Particularly when I consider their content: usually some insipid joke, unsubstantiated urban legend, ‘pass-it-on-or-else’ banality or fruitless attempt to get me to smile for no apparent reason. At best, they’re tedious and annoying. At worst, they reflect – intentionally or inadvertently – the bigotry of the sender. Consider the shittily-reasoned composition that found its way into my inbox most recently. Bluntly entitled, “Can Muslims Be Good Americans?” it makes the case that (hold your breath!) no, Muslims cannot, in fact, be good Americans.

First, a bit about the dupe who sent it: white, male, unmarried, poorly-educated, locked into a job with no hope of upward-mobility, decidedly right-leaning and angry. Let’s call him Ed. Now you’re probably thinking, ‘I would be angry too if I weren’t educated and I worked a dead-end job.’ But those aren’t the reasons Ed is angry. Ed’s angry because he’s convinced that this country’s values and mores are under constant assault from Muslims, terrorists, liberals, flag-burners, feminists, atheists, Hollywood, homosexuals, Democrats, environmentalists, the ACLU, PETA, Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore, high taxes, teachers’ unions, leftist college professors, etc. Ironically, it NEVER occurs to him that none of these perceived threats has had any remarkable impact on HIS life whatsoever. He’s one of the millions of people in the world who exerts considerable mental, emotional and political energy defending a system that grinds him, and folks just like him, into dust.

Now let’s move on to the email. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that someone who’s not even particularly clever could change a few lines and transform it into an anti-Christian screed. For example, in response to the question, “Can A Devout Muslim Be a Good American?”

• Anti-Muslim Email: Spiritually, no, because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as our heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in the Quran's 99 excellent names.
• Anti-Christian Version: Spiritually, no, because when we declare “one nation under God,” Allah has 99 excellent names and the Christian God’s name is jealous. "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Exodus 34:14)

So when red-blooded Americans like Ed engage in brainless proselytizing by-way-of Islam-bashing like this, it always makes me wonder if those people who trash the Quran have ever read the Bible.