We’re All Fundamentalists Now

Some Muslims consider illustrations of Mohammed offensive . The U.S. has now crossed that rubicon in that whether or not we realize it, we’ve fetishized 9/11.

The opposition to the proposed Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero has now trumped the First Amendment, property rights, and the rights of the local community to determine zoning issues. The A-list of the community center opposition is pretty much the usual suspects – vapid attention whores (the former half-term governor of Alaska), prospective, hypocritical presidential candidates (Newt), and the usual idiots who consume large amounts of Fox News.

Ironically, this is what Osama bin Laden has been striving for – a holy war. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush made it a point (other than a poorly worded reference to the Crusades) to make this not about Islam. He visited a mosque and let imams know that his quarrel wasn’t with them, but rather with those who had “hijacked the Islamic faith.” So while Bush probably kept a lid on islamophobia during his presidency, Republican party opportunists (no, I’m not being redundant) have now allowed islamophobia to become a major theme of the 2010 (and probably 2012) elections. You can see a handful of Republicans take a stand for religious freedom (here and here), but you’re more likely to see a Democrat capitulate to this new form of ecclesiastic bullying.

Do a Google search. As of today, August 24, 2010, ‘mosque’ will net you 27,500 news hits. A search for ‘U.S. jobs’ nets about 45,000 hits. The fact that the building of a community center in Manhattan gets about 60% of the coverage as the dearth of jobs in the largest economy in the world should give anyone pause, particularly as the U.S. economy is in its worst downturn since the Great Depression.

We are now, officially, a nation of victims. 9/11 dictates our domestic policy. It dominates our national discourse, with its own set of rules – don’t have the mainstream newsmedia cover the latest TSA trampling of individual rights (specifically enumerated in the Constitution), fetishize ground zero (it’s now considered hallowed ground), and demonize any political candidate who dares to question our foreign policy prior to 9/11. Welcome to our new theocracy. It’s not Christianity, it’s 9/11.

Maybe the next generation of Muslims will see past this.