should i be worried?


WASHINGTON (Reuters)- When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland

"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.

"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."

The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an interview afterwards he had been surprised by the response.

"The switchboard went from empty to totally jammed within minutes," said Klein. "There were plenty of callers angry with me, but there were plenty who agreed."

POLLS SHOW WIDESPREAD ANTI-MUSLIM SENTIMENT

Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification.

Roughly a quarter of those polled said they would not want to live next door to a Muslim and a third thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized with al Qaeda, the extremist group behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

A poll carried out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, found that for one in three Americans, the word Islam triggers negative connotations such as "war," "hatred" and "terrorist." The war in Iraq has contributed to such perceptions.

Klein's show followed a week of heated discussions on talk radio, including his own, and online forums over an incident on November 22 involving six Muslim clerics. They were handcuffed and taken off a US Airways flight after passengers reported "suspicious behavior" that included praying in the departure gate area.

The clerics, on their way to a meeting of the North American Imams Federation, were detained in a holding cell, questioned by police and FBI agents, and released. Muslim community leaders saw the incident as yet more evidence of anti-Muslim prejudice.


http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene ... ticlePage2

This sounds like The Onion. I know it isn't though. I'm not really shocked by this. People seem to have become nothing more than a body of knee jerk emotion where sense and reason hold no ground.

I wonder too how much of a "hoax" this was or if Jerry Klein noticed he said something that went too far and tried to back peddle, (but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.)

It's not shocking to me. We have this thing in America called ugly American Syndrome. Lots of people have it, and it's not helping our cause.

This really disgusts me.

sadly its not just an american thing, i've met plenty of europeans that feel the same way.

i've also seen it in islamic countries... against other religions.

which is why we should do it to them

It isn't just in our country as some would like to suggest, but that doesn't make it right anywhere.

tsk tsk, you're racist.

Islam is a race since when?

I have no problem with this whatsoever, as long as Christians have to be tattooed and carry special identification also.

Can it be a Pearl Jam tatoo?

just muslims and christians?

Well, as soon as I hear a Jew suggest such a thing, then they can join in the party also, but I have a feeling that Jews aren't going to be too big on this kind of system, whaddya think?

I think you may be on to something. I believe something occurred in the past that may cause them to shy away from calling a system such as that into action.

Isn't this what the Denver airport was designed for?


http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Denver_Airport.html

Holy shit that's weird. It's like a Pink Floyd video. I still think the denver airport is cool though.