The American Muslim (TAM)

Bigotry, the gift that keeps on giving

Sheila Musaji

Posted Aug 12, 2011 •Permalink • Printer-Friendly Version

Bigotry, the gift that keeps on giving

by Sheila Musaji

Joplin, Missouri which was very hard hit by a tornado needs a lot of help. The local Muslim community here in St. Louis has sent two groups out to help with clean up and to offer help with food and other supplies. Many local churches and synagogues have done the same. That is a good thing. When disasters strike we all try to do what we can to help each other.

This week, the United Arab Emirates gave the Joplin public schools a gift of $500,000 to be used to purchase a computer for every high school student, and pledged to match any other donations given to help the schools.

And, this received some very surprising responses. As Randy Turner reports in his article Anti-Muslim Sentiment Clouds $1M gift to Joplin Schools:

At least $500,000 and probably $1.5 million being used for the benefit of students whose lives have been forever changed by the cataclysmic forces of nature.

Who could argue with such an outpouring of humanity? Who could argue with the evidence of the effect Joplin has had on the world?

Sadly, some of those who are arguing come from within Joplin. They lurk on the comment sections of blogs, including mine, and the local newspaper.

Deep torrents of bigotry are unleashed in these comments, almost always by people who hide behind the cloak of anonymity.

The first reaction on my blog, The Turner Report, was what I expected when I printed the school district’s news release on the gift: “The same country that brought us the 9-11 hijackers!”

Another one wrote: “Did Joplin Schools sell their souls?”

Those are the ones that I allowed to remain on my blog. I do not intend to become a surrogate for the type of hatred that runs rampant among certain elements in our society. Other comments, which contained profanity and anti-Muslim slurs were removed immediately.

The Joplin Globe apparently took a different approach. Its story on the gift, on the homepage of its website, has been scrubbed of all comments.

I don’t pretend to speak for the Joplin School District, Joplin High School or this city. As an educator, my job is to make sure that students get past blind hatred and prejudice and learn to reason. There are times when I wonder if I am swimming against an overwhelming tide.

It is difficult to promote reason when our culture is dominated by conversations in which those who can shout the loudest and have the catchiest soundbites are prized more than those with the ability to discuss an issue using the force of reason.

Our culture is a recipe designed to pull us apart, not bring us together.

But I have watched over these past two-and-a-half months as the most horrific event in Joplin’s history has brought together not only the people of Joplin, but the people of the world.

The basic tenets of love, decency, and generosity are not limited to one country, one religion or one color.

When someone reaches out with a helping hand, we should never respond with slurs and undisguised hatred.

The correct response to the gift of the United Arab Emirates, the one which has been overwhelmingly provided by those in Joplin who do not hide their venom behind fake names or “Anonymous” is “thank you.”

I thought I’d check a few other articles about the UAE donation just to see what kind of comments my fellow Americans had about this.

The first comment on the first article I went to was “Why? Seriously. Why? Oh, I know Joplin needs help, but why are the Arabs being all generous and buddy-buddy? Is there oil in MO?”

And, after having to deal with so many incidents of bigotry in the past few weeks, I decided that I would just stop reading any more responses. It is very disheartening to see such bigotry.

UPDATE 8/13/2011

Debbie Schlussel has of course infused even more hatred into this simple offer of aid. She posted a truly disgusting article.