Brace Yourselves...

Wingnut-think at Townhall.com

"The base commander at Fort Hood says soldiers who witnessed a shooting rampage that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire at the Texas post."

I guess that personnel file where Hasan stated no preference on religion is now a little redundant. More grist for the wingnut hate mill. Trust Fox PAC to get the ball rolling:

""The name tells us a lot, does it not, senator?" Fox News's Shep Smith said while interviewing Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas senator."

But even the MSM are not immune to the anti-Muslim reflex. In a report on the backlash following the Fort Hood massacre, CBS say:

"The Arab-American Institute said it received one threatening call from an unidentified male shortly after Hasan's name was released. The group, which condemned the massacre, said it expected more."

CBS news wants us to know that the Arab-American Institute 'condemned the massacre' - just in case we wondered if they had a pro-massacre stance.

It's mind-blowing to think that mainstream news still indulges bigotry by using this variation of the 'when did you stop beating your wife?' principle. Would CBS, for example, have asked the Lutheran church to clarify whether they approved or disapproved of the BTK Killer? Was it considered necessary to point out that the Vatican did not approve of the Oklahoma City bombing even though Timothy McVeigh was raised Catholic?

I like to think I'm living in a civilized society. Even though there are a loud minority who hate pluralism, every rational person accepts there are Americans of different religions and ethnicities who have just as much a stake in our country as the white Christian majority.

But since 9-11, even the most moderate American Muslim groups are obliged to stand up and condemn every crime committed by other Muslims just in case we think they're not on-side. This is discriminatory, insults everybody's intelligence and makes the lunatic nativists feel validated. If we really are civilized, can we quit doing this?