![]() Senator who is African-American should be identified with the horrific image of both Anti-Christ and Muslim terrorist–that this was published in our own Malone Telegram–this greatly alarms me.Ĭonnie, my friend, this was not appropriate for the Malone Telegram. That a United States Senator is dragged into the madness of this vortex–that a U.S. Which I shall define as the twisted logic and poisonous language of collective hatred. Whether Paquin’s letter flirts with hate crimes, it is manifestly racist and carries the venom of what C.S. Could one call it propaganda for a hate crime? Or possibly inciting of hate crimes? Maybe. Would Paquin’s letter qualify as a hate crime? No. I realize, Connie, you didn’t write this letter. I suspect you’re made of the kind of grit that would compel you, too, to sew that Muslim patch on your lapel. If the Muslim males of America are ordered to wear a distinguishing patch–would I, too? I believe I would. It’s letters like Paquin’s which keep me awake at night. ![]() Impossible, you say? Never again, you say? I hope not. I have decided, in my late night brooding, that if the time should come round again when my grandson must wear a Yellow Star–I’ll wear one too. ![]() So, when do we pass laws requiring Muslim males (Paquin’s insidious chant) to wear a patch with crescent moon and star? I must confess I sometimes lie awake at night wondering about such as this. Not theoretical or abstract, but as real as a 7-year-old named Benjamin Rubin.) His mom, my beloved daughter Lindsey, would have been stigmatized for marrying a Jew and bearing his child. Ben would have had to wear a Yellow Star. All Jews had to sew this on their clothing. The Nazis used the Yellow Star to identify and isolate their (fabricated) enemy. Second, set up the drumbeat of innuendo and accusation and hysteria. Namely, find the racial, religious enemy in your midst. You can understand my unease, being a professor of history and having to teach about the Nazi mentality. The Nazi cant: racial/ethnic/religious profiling.ĭangerous territory, Connie. I believe I spot, as well, a squad of men in brown shirts with swastikas on their arm patches. Am I mistaken, but is that not a contingent of the Klan I see there? The Klan about to burn a cross in the front yard of the “male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal senator in Congress (in other words an extremist) and in his 40s”? United States Senator Barack Obama, right? I sit here dumbfounded, watching Paquin’s parade. The 40ish man of Muslim descent. Paquin has yanked the Bible, God, Jesus Christ–the whole Christian kit and kaboodle–aboard his vicious bandwagon. Notice, what started as the goose-stepping throb of Muslim male extremism has swelled into a screaming biblical banshee. “According to the Book of Revelations the Anti-Christ will be a man in his 40s of Muslim descent.” (I’ll let the local clergy correct Paquin’s biblical scholarship, wherever he picked up this nonsense.) He calls down the Book of Revelation upon us cowering sinners. ![]() There’s of course lots of stuff you can read. Pull out your Faulkner and re-read Go Down Moses. (I believe you told me you were an English Lit. I know where ethnic, gender, and religious profiling winds up. Yes, slave-holders, going back to the mid-17th century. My ancestors were Maryland and Virginia planters. I have, as well, a personal reason for fearing Paquin’s drumbeat. Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (I was a professor of American history at Rutgers for decades.) I’ve heard this chant before. By the third column we’ve got a facetious acknowdgement of a “pattern,” and a backhanded approval of ethnic, gender and religious “profiling.”īy now the historian in me has become mighty uneasy. Kind of hypnotic, whipping up passions–extremely dangerous passions. It begins with a dozen or so (actually, thirteen) references to “Muslim male extremists.” Notice the drumbeat quality. Starting at the beginning, let’s parse it. What trend? The trend of Paquin’s letter. Borrowing from the title you conferred on Paquin’s letter, I am indeed uneasy about this trend. My quarrel, rather, is with you as editor–that you actually printed this letter. My guess is he stitched together two or three texts to create this Frankenstein you titled “Uneasy About This Trend.”) I’ll leave it to others to refute him. Paquin didn’t write this diatribe I’ll betcha he lifted it verbatim from some loony site on the Intenet. A few times I even told myself I really should send you a note of congratulation on a particularly well-stated editorial. I’ve admired your insistence on ferreting out the truth. This may surprise you, but it’s the truth. Corporal Khan, US Army (Photo courtesy of Tom Gugiluzza-Smith)
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