On CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Senator John Kerry had this to say:
“And I believe the obligation of the United States government, of the president is to rapidly internationalize the effort in Iraq, get the target off of American troops, bring other people, particularly Muslim-speaking and Arabic-speaking Muslim troops, into the region, help us diffuse the sense of American occupation, and rapidly transfer power to the Iraqis.”
Do you speak Muslim? I don’t.
May be we should give the task of finding some Muslim-speaking troops to Senator Kerry. If he succeeds, we give him the Presidency!
Via Al-Muhajabah and Muslim Wakeup.
LOL!
I actually did read an article once about Muslim English and it’s true that I don’t speak Arabic, though I can say Islamic phrases in Arabic so I probably come fairly close to “speaking Muslim”. But I don’t think that’s what Kerry meant. It would be amusing if he tried to spin it that way, though!
Talk about ‘Ignorant-speaking’ on national television!
human ignorance knows no bounds. this idea of a muslim language is pretty bizarro and off the deep end-but it doesn’t address the more relevant question, what about the idea of a muslim “race.” anti-muslim hatred is being classed under anti-racist legislation in much of europe, and i have frequently heard people express surprise that there are white muslims and chinese muslims, as if muslims can only be brown or black.
the problem is that islam is not viewed as a confession like any other by non-muslims, a profession among many in a pluralistic society, but some amorphous alien entity. the non-muslims bring their ignorance to the table, but some muslims also aid & abet by not clearing up confusions and accepting them to further short term ends (using anti-racism legislation as cover for claims of defamation rather than arguing for inclusion in anti-blasphemy laws like they have in england, or as some arab american groups do, playing fast & lose with definitions to the point of confusion non-muslim third party observers about whethe all muslims are arab, all arabs are muslim, or what not).
Hey, I know everyone’s having fun with this, but my hunch is that Kerry (and bear in mind I have no strong feelings about him one way or the other) just misspoke. He probably meant to say “Muslim, Arab-speaking troops” but omitted Arab the first time.
I doubt Kerry actually thinks Muslim is a language, in other words.
I think I agree with Bill that Kerry just misspoke, but it’s fun to make fun of politicians.
razib: The reason the anti-racism rhetoric is adopted by Muslim organizations is because it’s effective especially in the US.
BTW, Muslims in Yugoslavia were an ethnic group rather than a religious group. Now, to remove some confusion, they are referred to a Bosniak (sp?).
well, to some extent, chinese-speaking muslims are viewed in china (the hui) as an “ethnic group.” but the anti-racism rhetoric is more prominent in europe from what i know, because there are anti-racism laws on the books in much of europe, so anti-islamic literature can be classified as hate literature.
Razib, The race-religion confusion can be used by all sides.
In the US, targetting of Muslims is often called “racial profiling” by its proponents and opponents. Probably becuase its fits into the pre-existing dialogue in America on real racial-profiling (of African-Americans). Conservatives can pull out all the old arguments for, and liberals can oppose with the usual arguments.
Of course, the targeting of Muslims, done properly, is not racial profiling but rather religious profiling.
Done improperly, by pulling all dark skinned hairy men from a line, it is race-based. But then it is totally ineffective, as Muslims differ greatly in appearance, particularly in the USA with its broad mix of immigrants from all places and native converts.
I think if the term ‘religious profiling’ were used, some White American Christians would be uncomfortable with the concept. There is less of a tradition of religion-based gvt discrimination than race-based discrimination. And the precedent set could easily be used in the future against certain Christian sects.
Most importantly, the group that could be targetted in future religious profiling would be exactly the groups that are most strongly supportive of GWB.
So my crackpot theory — Americans (and American conservative pundits) purposely use the incorrect term “racial profiling” to describe targeted discrimination against Muslims (or rather, people with Muslim sounding names) because it will not ruffle the feathers of any key Republican constituency.
I just wanted to say it makes me content to know that their in the islamic community that are willing to state their opinions in the way you have just demonstrated.
Thank you
silly crazy
but i realy love korea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to all tell dont speak korea they stupid