So is the protest really about Farmersville? Or is it about
Islamophobia of the sort that has beset American towns for years? Are
these the same angry people we see in towns across America, scared of
cemeteries, scared of mosques, scared of Muslims?
The people in this rural part of Texas are not the first to fear the unfamiliar.
In his book “American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why,”
Mark Stein examines the history of American bigotry. He quotes a
19th-century politician charging that Catholicism will rob Americans of
our rights, and writes about a New York-based business owner who viewed
Chinese immigrants as “ready and anxious” to step over Americans “to
possess the land.”
At the town hall meeting, a woman faced Abdur-Rashid.
“Everywhere you have been you’ve caused some kind of problem,” she said. “It’s not going to happen in Farmersville.”
“With all this opposition, why do you want to stay here?” asked
another. It was a very serious question, a question that ignores the
basic right of American Muslims to live their lives freely.
That’s what Islamophobia is really about: You don’t belong here. This is our land, our water, our beliefs, our country.
How a proposed Muslim cemetery became a battleground for America's soul (COMMENTARY) - Religion News Service
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