You know what scares me?

I shouldn't listen to the radio in the morning. I don't read the paper, except on weekends, and I generally do my best to keep the flood of panic and ridiculous fear out of my home...certainly try not to start my day with it. But I was blindsided this morning. I heard a report about a certain senior segment of the U.S. voting demographic that Obama was having difficulty reaching. Well, I'll be honest, it was the large Jewish community in Florida/Miami Beach. I heard one woman quoted as saying (re: Obama) "He was raised with Muslims, he went to a Muslim School. Adolph Hitler himself said Give me your children for the first three to five years and I'll have them for life. As a Jew, he scares me."
And that kind of thinking scares me. I understand how a Jew might have a different sensitivity to Muslims than the rest of us. But Barack Obama & Adolph Hitler? This is blinkard, rabid fear. It's also something that is born out of and unique to any community that has become too insular. You see it in any 'tightly knit', exclusive group. Fear is like fungus, it grows in the dark. Read a book...get out and meet some Muslims. The majority of Islamic people are no more members of the Mujahadeen or Taliban than most Jews are Zionists or Haredim. Most of us just want to love, be loved and worship our God in peace. Please don't equate a man of remarkable intelligence, vision, compassion and learning with Adolph Hitler. This serves no one. Think with the brains God gave you folks and feel with the heart he gave you.
In love and friendship.
Neil

Comments

[Laurence Cutner]

The idiot person even got the quote wrong. Adolph Hitler indeed...I understand it was a phrase from the Jesuits.

[Bruce Fredericksen]

What the Jewish woman probably meant was "he's a Muslim... not that there's anything wrong with that?" (Colin Powell on Meet the Press, basically said, "He's not a Muslim, not that there's anything wrong with that, if he were.") Being a US voter, I continue to marvel at the intelligence level of the US electorate- people in my state have actually voted Michelle Bachmann into office. Amazing.