As most of you know, my listening post is a mosque. I am slowly becoming very acquainted with the muslim community of Miami Gardens and I totally understand why William's comments would hurt the feelings of a Muslim. It definitely hurt my feelings a little bit.
It just seems to me that people in this country still haven't learned how to differentiate the terms terrorist and Muslim. My mother had been working in the World Trade Center for many years when the awful 9/11 attack occurred and she lost a big part of her life that day. However, she has never blamed Muslims or made reference to Muslims as being terrorists, and neither have I.
So honestly, I just don't understand William's mentality, even though I know a lot of people share it. When I read his quotes, my first reaction was to feel instantly offended. But I realized that most people seem to almost agree with him on some levels and defend him. So maybe there is something going on that I just can't see.
Some people argue that it was just his honest opinion and firing him from NPR was violation of his constitutional right of freedom of speech. Others argue that it was unfair and our society has gone too far in an effort to be politically correct. And others argue that it was just an honest opinion and it is a sentiment shared by many people throughout America.
But I also feel that had it been white man/woman expressing a similar fear about a black men (which we all know is a sentiment shared by many people), the backlash would've been 20 times worse, and 99% of the population would have agreed with NPR's decision in that case.
So what makes it ACCEPTABLE for Muslims to be publicly discriminated against and not others?
I don't know if I agree with him getting fired either. But I do believe that if we don't have to be politically correct when it comes to Muslims, then we shouldn't be politically correct when it comes to other ethnicities or religions either. It's only fair.
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