Photo Courtesy of Flickr.com/FLAG Program, Gerd Altmann
We don’t want to make this a political editorial, or even a religious one. Politics and religion are both divisive subjects, and division is the very opposite of what we wanted to try to espouse this week.
Whatever side of the aisle you’re on – whether you’d like our state painted blue or red – can we agree that the diversity that is Queens and our country should be celebrated, not repressed or denied? We are just as angry about recent terrorist events as any patriots would be, but – without bringing up specific comments by specific presidential candidates – how on earth could anyone, let alone in 2015, long after the McCarthy era bestowed upon us much-needed hindsight, fathom to deny an entire religious group entry to the United States? As Dean Obeidallah wrote in his CNN editorial this week, to enforce the law proposed this week (by said unnamed candidate) to stop allowing Muslims into this country altogether, how would it be determined if a person is Muslim? Would everyone attempting to gain entry be forced to eat a bacon cheeseburger? Here’s another question: when sexual abuse allegations arose against members of the Roman Catholic Church in the late 80s, did anyone propose disallowing the religion here or preventing new Catholics from immigrating into the country? And if identifying nefarious motives were as easy as checking what church one attends, wouldn’t we have pretty much nipped evil in the bud by now?
Last week The Forum reported on the recent burning of Hindu flags on a Woodhaven property, an act described as “religious persecution” by Councilman Eric Ulrich and being logically investigated as a hate crime. Right here in south Queens, someone, somehow, thinks he is justified in attacking people simply because of their religious beliefs.
Religious prejudice is as dangerous as any other. Remember at the turn of the century, when Italians working to build cities like Boston and New York, literally from the ground up, suffered ethnic discrimination, maltreatment, and even violence? Here in Howard Beach and Ozone Park, how many of us are immigrants, or the sons or daughters of immigrants? If we had denied Italians entry to the United States, would our skyscrapers be as tall, our bridges as beautiful? Who, then, would have been – if anyone – our Frank Sinatra? Joe DiMaggio? Geraldine Ferraro?
And Muslims have represented or are representing our nation with distinction, too, by the way. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim American in Congress, has served his constituents in Minnesota since 2007. Muhammed Ali. Malcolm X. Heck, one of YouTube’s co-founders, Jawed Karim, is also a Muslim. Where’d we be without that gem of an invention?
Or perhaps you disagree about the merits of YouTube, or you think, in fact, that Karim, Ali, DiMaggio, and Sinatra didn’t deserve to be Americans. If that’s the case, we’re sorry to have brought up such a divisive subject. Peace be with you.
