Hey, ALL the cool kids are Islamophobes now, so you should be, too!
Not satisfied with kicking all the Roma out of the country, yesterday the French Senate overwhelmingly voted to ban the wearing of full-facial veils, as is the custom of some Muslim women. The so-called “burqa ban” has been a political hot potato since the lower house of Parliament passed the bill a couple of months ago. Proponents, including President Nicholas Sarkozy, have portrayed the ban as a “human rights” effort, but it is estimated that there are only a couple of thousand Muslim women in France to whom the ban applies and critics decry the effort as pandering to the resurgent right wing in France and singling out Muslims over other religious groups.
The Germans, in the meanwhile, have had a whole ‘nother ballgame going on as Thilo Sarrazin, a board member of Germany’s central bank and former finance senator for Berlin, resigned under pressure from the Merkel government after making a number of anti-Muslim remarks in his latest book. Unlike Sarkozy, who uses the cover of secularism to justify his policies, Sarrazin is a straight-up racist and all-around troll who sounds suspiciously like some FOX News personalities talking about little Muslim girls in headscarves having lots of Muslim babies.
And guess who else thinks there are too many Muslims in Europe…that’s right, the Roman Catholic Church. Quelle suprise! Sounding like someone who watches a little too much Glenn Beck, senior Vatican official Fr. Piero Gheddo urged Italian Catholics to start fucking like bunnies to counteract the evil upswing in Muslim births that imperil Christendom. Not to mention the need for future generations of altar boys, I presume.
Back here in the good ol’ United States of Jesus, last week New Republic editor Martin Peretz wrote the New York Times that American Muslims don’t deserve First Amendment rights. That’s caused some appropriately outraged reaction in other quarters, but didn’t stop Harvard University’s plans to name a research fund after him, complete with a big celebration for Peretz planned for next week, though they did call his remarks “distressing”. Peretz has issued an apology of sorts, but it’s one of those “I’m sorry you took offense at what I said” sort of dealies that doesn’t really apologize for anything.
Gosh that’s an awful lot of fuckwittedness.
