Making Muslims justify their Americanness

Being asked just because you’re Muslim to prove you don’t support Hezbollah is as hopeless as being asked just because you wear sleeveless t-shirts to prove you don’t beat your wife. The Muslim bit is more offense and tragic because it’s no joke. On the contrary, it’s become a routine part of our national security political discussion, as a recent discussion on the proposed mosque near Ground Zero on Denver’s Caplis and Silverman talk radio show made clear. At least one of the guests on that show is at it again concerning a proposed mosque in Staten Island.

But Adam Serwer does a great job of defending the Muslim American Society, which is being attacked by Islamophobes in the right-wing blogosphere on baseless charges of support for terrorist groups. Those attacks led to community anxiety in Staten Island since that’s what pops up with a quick Google search of the words “Muslim American Society.” The shame is that the MAS is now compelled to tell Adam stuff like this:

“The organization we’re part of is not in any way, shape or form linked to, subordinate to, or operating under any alliance with anyone doing anything illegal, we’re a 501(c)(3) organization,” says Ramey. “MAS is not a wing or confederate of Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, we have a legitimate interest in U.S. policy as it relates to Palestine and the Middle East, and we don’t embrace terrorists or people who do.”

Ultimately, the issue is that Ramey is a Muslim. That’s the actual evidence that people like Jihad Watch founder and Caplis and Silverman guest Robert Spencer marshal against the group, because Spencer doesn’t mind making the offensive conflation between “Muslim” and “terrorist.”

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