Yes, Idiots Mistake Sikhs for Muslims

Something that irked me about commenters on some right wing blogs (not owners or official posters) has been the immediate rejection of the idea that the temple shooter in Wisconsin might have confused the Sikhs with Muslims. While I despise the use of the word “reactionary,” this seems to fit the situation. It is not an illogical motive for the murders and certainly not out of the realm of speculation.

Depending on whether the neo-Nazi left any letters behind, we will possibly find out what his real motivation. It probably was pure racism, rather than against a specific religion, but I have found white supremacist types to be ignorant middle grade morons so getting two very different beliefs confused would be easy. Time may tell.

Actually, many educated people have no clue who the Sikhs are for that matter. About the only portrayal in mass media I can remember would have been Bend It Like Beckham ten years ago. With the growth in immigrants from India in the past twenty years or so, people would be wise to get a little more familiar with the various cultures and religion from that large nation.

My father just returned from a two week stay with my sister and on the way down on Amtrak he had a conversation with a Sikh gentleman. The topic of being mistaken for being a Muslim came up and the man said that he had experienced that kind of hostility. He also said the people responsible for that reaction were idiots. The conversation took place well before the shootings.

Odds and Ends 4-10-2012

Since I have not done this in awhile, I will throw some links up to what has caught my attention lately.

Locally, the apple orchards that are such a part of the region are under threat thanks to the cold snap this week. The combination of unusually warm temperatures followed by unusually cold ones is lethal to apple buds. Not much can be done but hope there will be Honeycrisp’s this year.

Ah, those wacky Japanese using high tech to better humanity. Oh wait…

At least they are diverting resources from making robot women. Don’t get me started there.

Having watched the dot com bubble of the late nineties, I have been getting the feeling of déjà vu again. It turns out I am not alone in worrying over how the latest Internet startups are over priced. I suspect we are headed for a dot com bubble 2.0.

The media in all its forms is increasingly dishonest as things crank up for the elections this year. Race baiting is one of the more evil ways to stir things up and it is being employed fully as a rallying tactic for the left. Outright fabrications are being spread around to inflame tensions. The ends justifying the means rarely leads to anything good, but people never seem to learn that.

The mainstream media cannot be trusted to be guardians of the truth or public good and I wonder if they ever were worthy of it. Given how partisan they have become, they resemble the state controlled media of totalitarian states more and more. Maybe the idea that yellow journalism died out was an illusion in the first place.

One thing that has bothered me for a very long time is how humanity lost its willingness to take risks by the end of the 20th Century. We need to go to space, take chances, colonize, and build. Yes, people will die in the endeavor, but there are far worse things than death. One of them is stagnation. So it is sad to see plans from the 1950s aimed at going to Mars and realizing there is little chance that will happen this century.

I am probably not alone in that. An anime adaptation of Space Brothers has started airing in Japan and streaming worldwide at Crunchyroll. It is a rare thing these days to see an anime featuring characters that are all adults and dealing with adult problems. Set in the near future, it is about a pair of brothers hoping to make it to the Moon and beyond as astronauts. Warm and sentimental, it also catches some of the current cultural malaise in Japan. Man, it makes me wish we had real space programs and not the token jokes we have today.

Another Tim McVeigh but in Norway

With the body count soaring in Oslo to 92 at the latest count, it appears that nationalism has finally reared its ugly head in Europe. Not that it has been hiding, but the neo Nazi types haven’t been blowing things up or shooting people in this manner. Unfortunately, nationalism is always just under the surface in xenophobic Europe – especially in the North.

The media is wanting to make it out to be a Christian fundamentalist motivation for Anders Behring Breivik, but I think they’ll find it more to be a reaction to Muslim immigrants. I’ve known Norwegian Americans who are extremely racist and view the Northern European stock to be superior to all other races. So I might be a bit biased there.

Ever since I became aware of the lack of assimilation by foreign immigrants of Muslim descent in Europe, I’ve been concerned. Europeans, despite their vaunted championing of human rights, have not been socially welcoming to the hired help. Instead of using the “melting pot” concept of integration, the newcomers where essentially confined to ghettos. That’s never worked out well anywhere for increasing tolerance, understanding, or more importantly -- upward mobility in a society.

Culture clashes are always fraught with friction, but in Europe it has always involved violence on a large scale at some point. Pogroms against Jews, the Nazi extermination of minority groups, and the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia are recent examples of an old story there. My fear is that one day we will see ethnic clashes in the old countries that end up bringing back fascist governments.

Right now I’m hoping this butcher was a sole actor and that it wasn’t an organized conspiracy. Governments in the West have their hands full enough with Islamist extremists.

Once again, I find myself only being able to pray for people that have gone through something horrible.

UPDATED

It looks like Breivek hated a lot of people, not just Muslims. He also hated Nazis and Marxists, lumping them all together while having neo-Nazi connections. It is starting to look more like Jarod Loughner rather than McVeigh, but not as obviously crazy. Definitely some serious cognitive dissonance though.

There is also a question of whether his Facebook account was changed after his name was released to include Christian and Conservative on his profile. Lulzsec or Anonymous involved? Hard to tell the way “ends justify the means” has gotten to be a standard in our world.

Interpol will be setting up a task force on non-Islamic terror and some are getting paranoid over it. If they haven’t been tracking the white supremacists and nationalists already, what in the world is wrong with them? While it may be used as a political weapon (what isn’t these days?), there has been a clear need for this for years if not decades. At least we keep an eye on ours over here, despite them being a fading threat since the Oklahoma City bombing.

Nobody Knows (2009)

The Untold Story of Black Mormons

I ran across mention of this documentary on the Net and and tracked down the website dedicated to it.   After seeing the trailer, I knew I had to own the DVD.

The documentary by Margaret B. Young and Darius A. Gray is utterly fascinating and often deeply moving as it follows the history of African American’s in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Much has been made of the Church’s past prohibition against men of color holding the priesthood and this film does not flinch from the hard questions around this.  Being a lover of the truth, the absolute candor of Nobody Knows impressed me no end.

Highlights include accounts of Elijah Able and Jane Manning James.  Able was a member of the LDS Church from the early days and a priesthood holder.  Ordained an Elder and a Seventy, he even served as a missionary when that wasn’t that common. Jane Manning is better known in Church history as she was taken in by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois.  Her faith and trials showed what an amazing person she was in holding on to her faith.

Also standing out are all the interviews with members and nonmembers alike.  For me, Darius Gray and Paul Gill’s conversation at the end is simply wonderful and the best. That’s not to short change the others, they are all interesting and inspirational.

Topics covered are the beliefs of the Latter-day Saints, the restriction on the priesthood, the “seed of Cain” theory, the “fence sitters” theory, efforts to seek revelation to remove the restriction, Genesis Group, lifting of the restriction in 1978, and what it is like to be black in a predominantly white church.

Rather than go into detail about the documentary, I encourage you to buy or borrow the DVD.  I think it is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever watched and highly recommend it.  The extensive extras are all worth watching.  If you don’t feel your heart touched after watching it, you need to see a cardiac specialist to see if you have a heart.

 Nobody Knows should be seen by everyone in the Church, but especially those who still hold on to prejudice. Sadly, there are still racists in this modern age but if they watch this I think they will be forced to face the truth – that we are all children of a Heavenly Father Who loves us.

Personally,

I want to thank everyone who made this beautiful documentary for they have done us all a great service.

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Quote of the Day (or month as often as I've posted)

Two weeks ago, town hallers were supposed to be members of the Brooks Brothers brigade, Astroturf division. Now they’re well-armed anti-government militias. At this rate, they’ll soon be android ninjas with laser vision. Wait, strike that. They’ll be really racist android ninjas with laser vision.

Read the rest of Jonah Goldberg's piece on the administration playing the race card repeatedly.