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Opinion

The word of the day is ignorance

Adil Saleem
Opinion Columnist

It's funny how people paint you as a conservative Republican, or a flaming liberal Democrat, while ignoring the gray area in between. I guess we label people because it makes it easier to know whether you like them or not. It seems that if someone criticizes the president or any other Republican lawmaker, they are "un-American" and are undermining America while at war. You're seen as a threat. 

This political climate is unfortunate. All we do is attack the other side, sometimes with facts, sometimes with rhetoric, and the American people end up confused. We have a president whom half the country does not support, and the other half fervently rallies to his corner. But we're divided on trivial issues.

Recently I saw an episode of The O'Reilly Factor, and I found him very convincing. I finally got that Stephen Colbert is trying to be the fake version of O'Reilly, and well, I'd rather hear Colbert any day than sit through O'Reilly's version of the news. It's not "fair and balanced" like he and Fox claims, but has an undeniably far right slant. 

If you turn on the news, and you had anchors with staunch Republican views, who counted down the days until President Bush got re-elected, who said "shut up" to their liberal commentators and had hostility towards anything left of their view, I would call that bias.

On to the United Arab Emirates ports situation. Once you say "Arab," you're certain to get more attention than if you say "British" or "Icelandic," but usually "Arab" is the most inflammatory. What I don't understand is why no senator was up in arms knowing that a British company was controlling some ports. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey both said they would not like any foreign company running port operations in the United States. Is it me or did I just hear "hire the non-Arab" echo throughout the land?

The fact is that it's blatant racial discrimination on the part of the senators objecting to the deal. If it's a British company then it's OK, but throw in UAE and suddenly they're not so sure. What makes this a fun subject is that Bush is threatening to veto any legislation that attempts to block the deal, dividing Republicans and Democrats alike. It's not like Dubai Ports World would hire thousands of Arabs and ship them over to the U.S. to work the ports; they would use the people who already work here.

I know I've touched upon various topics, but it's because my mind is on many different levels. I've read many pages of inflammatory rhetoric on the Web. Most of it was geared toward liberals, and some was geared toward Arab and Muslim hatred. 

People still equate 9/11 and Iraq as if they were related. Arabs are talked about like they are the enemy, and Islam is some weird religion that orders its followers to kill. Ignorance prevails, but it's unacceptable ignorance. I was deeply saddened by it all, and it leaves an ugly stain in my mind. It's not like hate is in our blood; it's more of a cultural disease, a disease that has to be wiped out. 

We have to have a "War on Ignorance" to reach out to all people, whether they are Muslim fanatics who are ignorant of their own religion, or everyday Americans who hold hatred in their hearts toward people they don't know. If a Paul Mooney-inspired "Ask a Muslim dude" helps to answer any questions, my e-mail is at the bottom.

Saleem, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at aild@hotmail.com.