What year is this again?
In The State Within, following an incident in which a British Muslim detonates a bomb on a plane leaving Dulles Airport, the fictional Governor of Virginia orders all British Muslims in the state rounded up and put in a detention camp. Attempting to get them freed, the ambassador, Sir Mark Brydon--played by Jason Isaacs--talks to Madelaine Cohen, one of the senators on the Homeland Security Committee. In an interesting bit of meta, Sir Mark points out that the governor's response is eerily similar to the German government's response to the Reichstag Fire in 1933.
Think that's an exaggeration of the current climate? Think again:
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.
The saddest thing about this, for me, is that once again, I am not surprised in the least.
Think that's an exaggeration of the current climate? Think again:
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.
The saddest thing about this, for me, is that once again, I am not surprised in the least.