Do you remember Mike Huckabee? He is the Baptist minister who became the governor of Arkansas. When Rick Mercer did Talking To Americans he got Governor Huckabee to do a shout-out for the preservation of "Canada's National Igloo." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHw0FqD3RFw Obviously a well-informed politician, his international statesmanship led him to run for leadership of the Republican party. Imagine Huckabee as president. Now shudder. He has moved on to a higher calling as a Fox News host. A few days ago Huckabee marked the end of Ramadan by referring to Muslims as "uncorked animals," among other things. What a lovely attempt at interfaith dialogue. Later he back-tracked, sort of, saying that his comments weren't meant to characterize all Muslims.
An American Muslim named Qasim Rashid responded to Huckabee's diatribe:
What would Huckabee think of a nation in which a person is murdered every 17 minutes? A nation with cities that have higher murder rates than war torn Iraq? Or a nation in which a rape occurs every 6 minutes? A nation in which 1 in 4 women will be raped before graduating college and 97% of rapists will never spend a day in jail? A nation in which a violent crime occurs every 26.2 seconds and a property crime occurs every 3.5 seconds? A nation that comprises 5% of the world’s population but a world-leading 25% of the world’s prison population?That nation is the United States, which is majority Christian, Rashid noted, arguing that under Huckabee's reasoning, he should blame Christianity for those statistics. Rashid also pointed to a recent study showing Christmas to be the deadliest day of the year. Rashid wasn't arguing that Christian teachings are to blame for any of these statistics, however, he was simply urging people not to learn about Islam from Huckabee.
Well played! As I have offered before, if we take the worst of any religion and pit it against the best of another we know what the useless outcome will be. This does not bring about peace, compassion, mutual understanding, a better world. Ever.
Any comments, or are you speechless?
Good for Rashid - I love his response.
ReplyDeleteAs for Huckabee....thank goodness this guy isn't President. I have a feeling he'd make George W. look like Gandhi.
People who look at the world in terms of unthinking generalities and black & white stereotypes need to be encouraged to never (a) run for public office and (b) accept offers to host their own TV and/or radio shows.
ReplyDeleteRight, Rob Ford?
I agree with both Roger and Ian ... am I allowed to say here "There seems to be no cure for "stupid"???? But this attitude is also very blind and non - compassionate .. most bigotry is just that.
ReplyDeleteJust returning from a few days Stateside and happened upon a few Huckabee broadcasts.....jaw dropping to say the least. The black and white of US politics, and patriotism, is always startling....and so often without compassion,as Ian and Judy said. Good to be home.
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